LAST CALL: A Sad Day For Baseball
Schulz, Max
W LAST CALL Max Sehuiz A Sad,, Day Baseball. -'• HERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL, at least if Tom Hanks is to be believed, but this year Washington Nationals manager Frank Robinson broke the...
...Later he would serve a stint as Major League Baseball's enforcer for on-field conduct and discipline, in addition to managing several big league teams...
...It was time to say goodbye, to Washington's fans and players, and perhaps to baseball itself...
...As LeCroy's incompetence erased the Nats' big lead, Robinson was forced to commit the almost unthinkable act of benching him in the middle of the inning, replacing him with someone who had not caught a pitch all year...
...Lou Gehrig in 1939 and Babe Ruth in 1948--with death nigh in each case--said their goodbyes to adoring crowds at Yankee Stadium, producing images that have endured for decades...
...Going into that game, meaningless in terms of the standings, Robinson had to know it represented not just the end of the season, but probably his career...
...He compounded the disaster with several errors...
...In Robinson's case, baseball should pay attention...
...Max Schulz lives in Washington, D.C...
...In a half century in the game, especiallyhis two legendary decades as a player, Frank Robinson established himself as a hardnosed practitioner of old school ball...
...By the seventh inning, they had stolen seven straight bases on LeCroy, who clearly was unable to throw anyone out...
...This time it was not just Robinson with tears in his eyes, but players, coaches, reporters, and fans as well...
...82 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 2006...
...They took advantage of them today...
...I've never done anything harder than what I have to do right now, and that's to say goodbye...
...With tears streaming down his cheeks, he added, "I wasn't trying to embarrass him in anyway...
...At several junctures, he choked up...
...Back in May, an injury to the starting catcher and a freak injury to his backup forced Robinson to start the seldom-used Matt LeCroy...
...The reason was not his squad's mediocre on-field performance, but rather the class and dignity Robinson brought to a pastime increasingly lacking those qualities...
...This time it was not a player being pulled, but Robinson himself...
...It's not LeCroy's fault," said Robinson...
...In a sweetly delivered address before the first pitch, the elegant Robinson made clear that, like Matt LeCroy, he was not bitter about being taken out of the game...
...The waterworks turned on once more on the final day of the season...
...Removing a defensive player mid-inning is an extraordinary move, seemingly violating nostrums about the "right way" to do things...
...Perhaps more extraordinary-and more "right'-was Robinson's reaction afterward, which demonstrated a level of empathy and consideration not often seen in the hardened world of baseball...
...We know his shortcomings...
...When the opposing team realized the limitations of LeCroy's meager skills, their base runners took off and ran with impunity...
...Yet an odd fact about a sport that cherishes its special memories is that in more than a century of organized play, the game has produced few truly memorable farewells...
...Days before, the Nationals' owners let him know his contract would not be renewed...
...The Nationals ended up winning the game, but afterward Robinson was distraught over having had to pull LeCroy, exacerbating the player's already wellearned humiliation...
...HERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL, at least if Tom Hanks is to be believed, but this year Washington Nationals manager Frank Robinson broke the rules and turned in a memorably lachrymose season...
...It was just a move at the time, at that moment, I just felt like I had to do...
...Sometimes there is crying in baseball, and the game is better for it...
...Robinson has been known for many things, but tearing up has never been one of them...
...That attitude helped him hit 586 career home runs (fourth all-time when he retired), win Most Valuable Player awards in both leagues (the only player to do so), and take his teams to five pennants and two World Series victories...
...Making everything tougher for Robinson was LeCroy's stoic demeanor: He harbored no resentments, saying his skipper "absolutely" did the right thing...
...But for the most part, baseball lore seldom focuses on how the game's icons say farewell...
...At age 71, he is unlikelyto be offered another managing job...
...F EW AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS have greater r e v e r - e n c e for their pasts than baseball...
...There are a handful of exceptions...
...All I asked for was a chance, and I got that chance," he said graciously...
Vol. 39 • November 2006 • No. 9
