Frank Robinson stepped into the Baltimore Orioles' spring training camp in February for his first full year as manager armed with a new approach and a lot of new players. It was a combination that wound up two games shy of a division title.
What happened in between was so unexpected - a team that finished 54-107 one year battling for a division crown the next - that Robinson was named the American League's Manager of the Year on Wednesday for presiding over the phenomenon."It ranks right up there with the MVP awards, as far as managers are concerned, because it's the highest honor that you can achieve," Robinson said by telephone from his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. "It says you did the best job with the team you had, and
that your team played well."
Robinson, the only player to be named Most Valuable Player in both leagues, was rewarded for the patience with which he presided over the group of unproven players who assembled at the Orioles' training facility in Sarasota, Fla.
"The players deserve the credit. The coaching staff deserves a large part of the credit, as does the entire organization," Robinson said. "What I think I gave this ballclub was a direction, a sense of what we wanted to do. I think I kept it in the right direction through the season."
Robinson, 54, guided the Orioles to the second-best turnaround in American League history. The Orioles finished with an 87-75 record and were in the American League East title chase until the last week of the season.
The Orioles spent 116 days in first place, including 98 consecutive days from May through August, despite opening the season with baseball's youngest roster. Robinson cajoled his team through the highs and lows of the season with a temperament he didn't display during managerial stops at Cleveland and San Francisco.
"I knew that was the approach that I would have to take for the team to be successsful in the 1989 season," Robinson said. "But, also, from the time I was let go at San Francisco until the time I came back to manage in 1988, I had taken a step back and looked at myself and thought about the approach I would like to take if and when I came back as a manager in the major leagues. This was part of it, but the makeup of the team had a lot to do with it."
Robinson, who planned to celebrate with a quiet dinner with his family, said the award was not unexpected. "Everybody had kind of told me that I was going to win."
Had he not, Robinson said he "would not have been upset, but I would have been disappointed."
"You're always a little apprehensive until it's official," he said.
Robinson, who had already been named The Associated Press Manager of the Year, got 23 of 28 first-place votes and 125 points on a 5-3-1 basis from a panel chosen by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Cito Gaston, who managed the Toronto Blue Jays to the AL East title, finished second with three first-place votes and 62 points.
Tony La Russa, who guided Oakland to the AL pennant and World Series title, was third with two first-place votes and 51 points.
California's Doug Rader finished fourth with 13 points and Kansas City's John Wathan got one point.
The Orioles' record equaled that of the 1982 San Francisco Giants as the best for a team managed by Robinson.