Frank Robinson Quotes

Managers don’t have as much leverage as they used to have. We can’t really be the boss.

As a black, you find you have to be two or three times better than a white even to play. And when it comes to front-office jobs, management believes you’ll never be as good.

I haven‘t seen a player in this game, as long as I’ve been in it, that can’t be pitched to… Barry is an outstanding ballplayer. I respect him an awful lot. I also have confidence in my pitchers that they can pitch to Barry Bonds and get him out.

No, I don’t think my presence will cause an increase in black attendance at Cleveland.

It was a breaking period for black people coming into baseball, and how many followed depended on Jackie‘s conduct. But that’s not the case now. What and how I do doesn’t mean nearly as much as what and how Jackie did.

Pitchers did me a favor when they knocked me down. It made me more determined. I wouldn’t let that pitcher get me out. They say you can’t hit if you’re on your back, but I didn’t hit on my back. I got up.

You have to have a short memory as a closer.

The way we’re going… if I called up another pitcher, he‘d just hang up the phone on me.

I always tried to do the best. I knew I couldn’t always be the best, but I tried to be.

All in all, I wouldn’t call it a bad outing. It was a short outing.

I’ve never seen baseball advertise for a job, and I’ve never heard of whites applying for a job. I mean, there’s an old boy network, and it’s lily white.

It’s nice to come into a town and be referred to as the manager of the Cleveland Indians instead of as the first black manager.

I wanted to show Baltimore that they were getting a good ballplayer.

The fan is the one who suffers. He cheers a guy to a .350 season then watches that player sign with another team. When you destroy fan loyalties, you destroy everything.

But I’m not going to walk Barry Bonds, like some teams do, in the first inning with nobody on.