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The game went into extra innings and finally ended when I hit a game-winning home run off of Frank Sullivan in the bottom of the twelfth.

I know that he started and pitched the first three innings of the 1955 All-Star Game in Milwaukee. Robin did not just pitch his three innings and head for the airport. I was always impressed by how much Robin enjoyed the All-Star experience and being with the other top players in the league-as did I. It seemed that every year he was the starting pitcher for the National League, no matter how recently he had pitched for the Phillies. I first got to know Robin as my frequent National League All-Star teammate in the fifties. Robin was a natural in those red Phillies’ pinstripes and I never could imagine myself playing without a couple of birds on my uniform top. I never asked Robin how he felt about the deal but I made it known that I wanted to finish my career in St. Along about 1956 Frank Lane, the Cardinals’ general manager at the time, proposed to trade me to the Phillies for Roberts, even up. As a result, when my Cardinals played the Phillies we knew that Roberts would be coming after us and that we had better be up to the challenge because he certainly would be.Īs much as I batted against Robin, our careers were even more intertwined than you would think.

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As his club’s ace, he generally threw the first game of a series against the opposition’s best pitcher. He took the ball in his regular turn for the Phillies for more than a decade. Robin was the Phillies’ ace and was extremely durable. I probably faced Robin more times than I did any other pitcher, save perhaps Warren Spahn.

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He focused on the job at hand and with him you knew that he was going to be out there the full nine innings-or longer if the job required it.

He didn’t waste a lot of motion or argue with umpires he just stood out on the mound and tried to get you out with his best stuff. Roberts was also as competitive a pitcher as I ever faced. Or, put another way, I never saw another control pitcher who could throw so hard. I never saw another fastball pitcher with such good control. He was going to come after you with that fastball of his that rose, hopped, or slid. With Robin there was no pretense, no trickery. I of course remember our battles in the fifties when he was the top pitcher in the National League and I suppose many would say I was the top hitter. When I think of him, several images come to mind. The Off-Seasons: Barnstorming and Working for a Living For Mary, a better coach than even Cy Perkins ContentsĨ.