Apparently Bob Friend died last week also, same era as Frank Robinson. As someone who saw them both play it certainly is a reminder of that era in baseball before long term deals, free agency and 32 teams.
Robinson was not only an incredibly talented RFer in an era that might have seen the greatest group of RFers in baseball history...Aaron, Robinson, Clemente, Callison, Williams, Maris, Kaline, Alou, Colavito just to name a few.
Oh, and it was Frank Robinson who was at the plate when Chico Ruiz stole home to win a 1-0 game and start the 1964 Phil's infamous 10 game losing streak. There were two outs at the time and Robinson had an 0-1 count. Interesting that Robinson grounded out on the next pitch, had Ruiz not stolen home he likely never would have scored.
Covington started the bottom of the 9th with a double and Mauch probably would have bunted him to 3rd if the score was 0-0. Instead he let his players hit away...pop up, ground out,walk, strikeout....and the nightmare started.
Friend was a very good starting pitcher for the late 50's and early 60's Pirates and faced the Phillies almost every time they met during that period and Phils had good success against him even though he was quite talented.
RIP both players.
