Frank Robinson, Now and Forever

Frank Robinson was not one of the players I set out to collect when I initially set out to collect players. He never played for my team, he just happened to manage the Giants during a few of my peak early years as a baseball fan. We weren't very good then, and that was OK. Most people didn't blame Frank - it was just the natural state of affairs with the early 80s San Francisco Giants.

A few months ago I came across some Robinson cards of him looking like a badass superstar in his Reds uniform, and I reckoned that maybe Robinson would be a good guy to collect. He's one of those players who has several tribute cards made for him every year, as you'll see as you scroll down this post. Of course, those recent cards are the easiest and least expensive to collect, and some of them look magnificent. I picked up a big boatload of them via CardBarrel and SportLots recently, and thought you might want to take a look-see.

Before we do that, a few credentials for Frank Robinson the player. Two-time MVP, once in each league. Hall of Famer. NL Rookie of the Year in 1956. Player/Manager for a Cleveland Indians in the 1970s. 1972 member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, which is something I'd completely forgotten (!). I'm working on grabbing his "regular" Topps and Bowman cards next - yeah, the pricey ones from the 50s and 60s (Good/Poor OK!). Great, on to some more recent Robinson cards: