Frank Robinson Quotations

Close don't count in baseball. Close only counts in horseshoes and grenades.

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

I just didn't have anything to say, so I said nothing.

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

If the guys on the bench were as good as the guys you have out there, they'd be out there in first place.

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.

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

I know a lot of people on the field - players, coaches, managers - are glad that I'm gone.

If he can hit, he can hit. I don't care if he came from Class Z league.

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.

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

You have to have a short memory as a closer.

People come out to see the players. When do you see a manager anyway? When he's out on the field arguing with the umpires, making a fool of himself and you know you can't win, and when he brings out the line-up card.

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.

At least when it's in French, I won't know what the heck they're saying.

No, I don't think my presence will cause an increase in black attendance at Cleveland. People come out to see the players. When do you see a manager anyway? When he's out on the field arguing with the umpires, making a fool of himself and you know you can't win, and when he brings out the line-up card.

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

No. 1, these guys out here on this field. They keep my energy level up. They try hard, they don't complain about things - and I'd just like to be with them when things are good, and hopefully we can win a pennant together.

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.

We struggled tonight and it never comes easy. The pitching did a good job for us tonight.

We struggled through it, ... Tomorrow, I'm back in the bullpen.

We struggled through it, and nothing ever comes easy for us.

We started making subtle changes during the course of that (1988) season and got prepared for '89,

We felt like he's capable of doing it when he walks up to home plate on any given at-bat. He gave us a big one tonight.

We felt like every time he took the ball he was going to go nine innings, no matter what. I really admire him for that.

Unless he takes longer than five to seven days, or is still there, then that's when there's some concern and will have some type of effect on the team. Other than that, he's got plenty of time to get ready for the season.

Usually in a game like this you're hopeful for one good shot at a pitcher like Pedro. And we got that in the sixth inning. We couldn't ask for any better chance than we had there, with the people we had coming to the plate. We got nothing out of it.

Usually in a game like this you hope for one good shot at a pitcher like Pedro. It wasn't whether they had good at-bats, they just weren't productive even if they hit the ball hard. We had the people you wanted at the plate in the order you wanted and expected to be productive, but we didn't get it.

Usually in a game like that you hope for one good shot against a guy like that and we got it. With the bases loaded and nobody out you expect to get something out of it. We couldn't have asked for anything better with our heart of the order coming up. We had the people we wanted coming to the plate.

We're doing it for the season. We didn't ask him to do it for today, that's not the answer we wanted.

Yes I do. This is a great game. This is America's game. And we have to get Afro-American people involved in that again,

With us right now, you can give us 20 walks and it'll still be a 2-1 or 3-2 game.

We know why we came up short today and hopefully we can take advantage of 12 hits and score more runs the next time we get 12 hits. I hope it's not August.

Would it be fair to put him out there ahead of these other guys who have played those positions for quite some time?

We're still not going to be a juggernaut. We're not going to be where we feel like we can outscore teams on a daily basis.

We have to get people on base. That's what we have to do. We have to get people on base and we have to get the big base hit. We're not doing any of that right now. We also have to start driving the ball to the gaps -- doubles. And we have to start our offense early in the inning rather than waiting for one or two outs. Those are the things we have to do and then things will fall into place. We will score runs. We will have the opportunity to score runs. We will have the opportunity to drive runs in.

We'll see what Church can bring to us. He is not swinging the bat very well down there but you never know from down there to up here. We feel like these two moves might help us get going.

We did nothing offensively to win that ballgame. You can't gain ground on anyone by losing.

We did have it, ... for a short while.

The only way you have success over the course of the season is if you can go through your rotation and get quality starts, at least from four of them, three times in a row.

Let's see what has kept this guy where he's been, ... Is he a usable part for next year?

Second pitch. Line drive off the center-field fence. Missed hitting a home run by a couple of feet. Double.

Mechanically, he looked OK out there on the mound. All in all it was a good outing.

My game plan is to sit down and talk with him when he gets here, and we'll make a decision which way to go.

Of course it matters, ... I'm going to put a kid at a position he hasn't played when I have other people, other options? I wouldn't do it to him, number one.

My decision was that he was in complete control of that ballgame, ... He's a battler. I wasn't going to take him out and interrupt things on that field.

No one was like him. No one is going to be like him after this.

No, I'm not concerned. If you're concerned, then you're worried about something, and I'm not worried about anything.

One thing he has to start doing, he has to start being productive. He has to, because you can't keep going 0-for-3, 0-for-4, 0-for-4, 1-for-4, that type of thing, from the top of the lineup.

Nobody is going to win a job today, tomorrow or the first week of Spring Training. So everybody settle down and do what you are capable of doing. Get yourself ready for the long haul. Mostly everybody in that room doesn't have a real good chance to make that club. There are just too many people in there.

I was surprised that we had that type of success against him because he's been tough. He didn't seem to have the answer today.

I was surprised and taken aback that he was using steroids, because I never thought about him being a person that might be a steroids user. I always admired him for the way he went about his work, the way he performed on the field and the way he conducted himself off the field.

I would have liked for him to be a little better out there, a little sharper, and gotten the hitters out a little easier. But things weren't there.

If they can get through their normal-type games, going deep into the game, we'll be able to handle the weekend with the people we have right here.

If we can do that more often, we're going to win our share of games.

If they were still here, they wouldn't have done the job. But to lose the guys to replace them, that hurts.

I don't get the same feel. I don't get the same electricity, the same energy about the situation now that I did at the beginning of the year. That is missing out of the clubhouse.

I'd like to see them play sharper, more alert, and for the defense to play good, clean baseball.

I don't believe in walking anybody in the first inning with the bases loaded or whatever. I don't think they've made that guy yet. But he does deserve attention and respect in situations.

I'd certainly prefer to finish fourth than finish fifth. There's a stigma to that: last. 'You finished last, last year.' And after the start we had, ... that just kind of throws cold water completely on the whole season right there.

Catching the ball? That's not a fundamental. It's what you do when you wake up and put a glove on your hand and you say I am going to play baseball.

Brutal, ... I thought it would be a little more balanced. That's tough.

I felt like I had to take a shot early,

I can't do desperation things, because those guys will lose confidence in me. You have to be very careful this early in the season -- what you do and how you do it.

I can't explain how badly we needed this.

I can't remember a game called because of lights. It just wouldn't have been right to have those guys sitting around for 40 minutes, 50 minutes, an hour.

From the word I got from the athletic trainers this morning ... he wouldn't be of use to me until we get home.

I don't want him to carry that into the season with a tender arm, and you probably saw some throws yesterday that weren't quality throws. That was an alarm to me to get him out of there and try to get this thing right.

He was around the plate, which I liked. He hung a couple of pitches but I don't mind that. I liked what I saw.

He was all right, but the Tigers can make it rough, because they put the bat on the ball. It's no big deal.

He was decent in a couple of spots. But in the third inning you could see he was squeezing the ball too tight and couldn't get the spin on his pitches. I wouldn't call it a bad outing, but a short one.

He was what I call a very good general manager,

He was very sharp today with his pitches,

He won't be able to do much the rest of the year,

He will start playing as soon as he gets here.

He will get five starts instead of six. It's just to make sure, give him plenty of time. He is still on schedule to start opening day.

He had brain cramps. He was a spectator. It didn't hurt us tonight, but it will hurt you another time you do it. The Mets are struggling and they didn't take advantage of things.

He had brain cramps, ... He was a spectator. It didn't hurt us tonight, but it will hurt you another time you do it. The Mets are struggling and they didn't take advantage of things.

He has not tested positive for anything yet,

He has been our offensive weapon the last month. Another big game from him. At least he is a threat up there at the plate now, which makes a big difference down in the bottom of the lineup.

He has a track record with the Cardinals, and I know he didn't hit for them, but you have to give the hitting coach some credit, because he takes the blame when they don't hit.

He has a nice, easy motion and there's no real strain on his arm. He doesn't want to come out of games. He has no ill effects. He throws easy and he works a lot of innings.

He is doing the things that we've asked him to do last year and tried to get him to do and he is doing them now and you have to say, it's two games but it's two games in a row he did those things. If he continues to do that, that's what we want from him and that's what we have to have from him if he is going to make this ball club.

He is doing the things that he did in Spring Training and during batting practice. Now he's taking it into the game. Has he gotten it completely down? No, but he has gotten it down to the point where he could be a tough out.

He is a warrior, and I am not going to take him out there and interrupt things out there on that field.

He hit the ball so far that I lost sight of it. Everybody is saying that the ball is still going. It was very impressive.

He is just out there throwing. He's just not pitching. He thinks throwing harder is better. It's not. He has to get back to pitching and locating his pitches. You just can't just stand out there throw fastballs by people.

He has the green light when he's up there leading off an inning. He's a good fastball pitcher. It's up to him if he wants to take a pitch.

He has that mentality, ... You have to have a short memory as a closer.

He had a live arm, but he couldn't find the strike zone. You expect him to be a little sharper, but he'll throw better the next time out.

He doesn't seem to be as smooth as he was in past years,

He felt like every time he took the ball, he was going to go nine innings, no matter what. The good ones, they perform even though they're not 100 percent -- they find a way to get the job done.

He does not carry himself as a prima donna-type superstar. But to me he is one of the top players in baseball if he's healthy.

He looks very comfortable at the plate, ... It doesn't look like he's overmatched.

He looked fine. When I look at him, the question is, is the knee holding up? So far, so good. He gets the day off tomorrow and we'll look and see if he wants to play another three games.

He may have one more of these backup-type things of coming into a game after a starter. Then he should be in line to start a game.

He may come back from this and be able to compete. But if they go in there and operate, he's done for the season. If it does work, we'll lose him for a month or so, and that's about it. Maybe two months at the most, but you would have him for the rest of the season if he holds up, which is another gamble. It's worth the gamble to try this first.

He'll listen to anything I tell him. But I don't know how someone will react in the heat of the battle. All I can do is reason with him and tell him what I think.

He'll listen to anything I tell him, but I don't know how he'll react. I can't guarantee he won't react to something on the field.

We took a huge step backward when it looked like we would gain ground.