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Frank Robinson

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Frank Robinson was born on Saturday, August 31, 1935, in Beaumont, Texas. Robinson was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 17, 1956, with the Cincinnati Redlegs. Robinson came out of nowhere in 1956 to win the Reds' left-field job. Crowding the plate, challenging pitchers, and sliding hard, he tied Wally Berger's rookie record of 38 homers, made the National League, NL, All-Star team, led the league with 122 runs scored, and was hit by pitches a rookie-record 20 times. The Reds as a team hit a NL-record 221 homers that season, improving 16 games in the standings to finish just two games out of first place.

In 1961 Robinson led the Reds to their first pennant since 1940 with his first MVP, Most Valuable Season, season, hitting .323 with 37 HR, Home Runs, 124 RBI, Runs Batted In, and 117 runs. His .611 slugging percentage led the NL, and he stole 22 bases in 25 attempts to lead in stolen base percentage. He was especially torrid in the stretch run. So dangerous was Robinson after being brushed back that Phillies manager Gene Mauch began fining any of his pitchers who worked Robinson inside.

On June 26, 1970 Robinson hit grand slams in consecutive innings. He finished the year with 25 HR, 78 RBI, and a .306 batting average, his last .300 average. After 28 HR, 99 RBI, and a .281 BA, Batting Average, in 1971, Robinson was sent to the Dodgers in a six-man deal. He hit only .251 for Los Angeles, with 19 homers in 103 games, before moving on to the Angels in a seven-man trade the next winter. Robinson rebounded to .266 with 30 HR and 97 RBI.

He was a powerful striker of the ball with a lethal shot who back-checked responsibly and played the game cleanly. He, with all his dedication and devotion in his play, has achieved many goals in his overall baseball career. He had the ability of defeating the opponent easily by giving some extra hard work and efforts.

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