Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} My Life in Baseball by Roberts recalls Jackie's 'remarkable' gesture. Jackie Robinson quietly entered the visitors’ clubhouse at Ebbets Field on Oct. 1, 1950. He came to shake hands and congratulate the players that just ended his season. Robinson moved from locker to locker. He acknowledged everybody before he left. Robinson’s graciousness struck Phillies ace Robin Roberts. “A remarkable display of sportsmanship from a fierce competitor,” Roberts wrote in his memoir, “My Life in Baseball.” The Brooklyn Dodgers needed a win over Philadelphia on the final day of the 1950 season to force a one-game tiebreaker for the pennant. But the Phillies (aka, the Whiz Kids) spoiled Brooklyn’s shot and clinched their second pennant in franchise history instead. Dick Sisler hit a three-run home run in the 10th inning and Roberts pitched a complete game to beat the Dodgers, 4-1. Robinson went 0-for-3 against Roberts, who intentionally walked him to load the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning. Roberts worked out of the jam to keep the game tied. celebrates Jackie Robinson Day every April 15, the day Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947. It is important to remember how Robinson changed the game, but also what he endured and overcame along the way. Philadelphia was a particularly brutal place for Robinson when he broke into the big leagues in 1947. Phillies manager Ben Chapman and others taunted Robinson with racial slurs and more. Phillies Curt Simmons grew up in Allentown, Pa. He made his big league debut late in 1947. “It was a rude awakening,” Simmons said in an interview in 2008. But by the time Roberts joined the Phillies as a rookie in 1948, he said Chapman instructed his players to stop. “Let him sleep,” Chapman said. “Anybody gets on him, I’m going to fine you.” “Jackie had beaten their brains in so much that by ’48 they were convinced it wasn’t bothering him,” Roberts said in a 2008 interview. “[Chapman] learned his lesson about Robinson,” Simmons said. Robinson, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962, faced Roberts, who was inducted into the Hall in 1976, more than any other pitcher in his career. He hit .281 with five doubles, nine home runs, 21 RBIs and an .815 OPS in 176 plate appearances against him. The two became friendly from their time together on NL All-Star teams. They even golfed together. “I consider it a privilege to have competed against Jackie Robinson, a man I very much admired,” Roberts wrote in his book. “We battled toe-to- toe many times, and I learned that sometimes the media misinterprets good hard competition. Years after I retired, I attended a banquet and Howard Cosell was at the head table. When Cosell saw me, he said to the head table, ‘Well, here is Robin Roberts, the man who disliked Jackie Robinson so much.’ Of course, Howard could not have been more wrong, but he somehow assumed that because I had competed so hard against Jackie that I had negative feelings about him. To the contrary, I had more respect for Jackie than virtually anyone I played against. He was a helluva ballplayer and an even better man.” Robinson’s walk through the visitors’ clubhouse in 1950 convinced him of that. “Think about that,” Roberts once told writer Joe Posnanski. “Think about how much class that took. I couldn't have done it. I’ll tell you that.” Robin Roberts. Robin Roberts played 19 years in the big leagues, primarily with the , winning 286 games. One of baseball's great of the 1950s, he was a workhorse who eight times had over 20 complete games in a season and averaged over 300 during a nine year period. He won 20 or more games in six seasons, and at least ten games in 16 ML seasons. . During Roberts' 14 seasons with the Phillies (1948-61), the team finished over .500 only four times, limiting his wins. In 1951 he had 21 victories for a team which went 73-81, while in 1954 he led the league in victories while pitching for a team which went 75-79. The son of a Welsh immigrant coal miner, Roberts was born in Springfield, and attended Lanphier High School, where he was a three sport star. After graduation, he earned a basketball scholarship to Michigan State University but instead served in the Army during World War II. After the war, he did attend Michigan State, where in addition to basketball, he also played baseball. He became a star on the diamond, throwing a pair of no-hitters during his collegiate career, including one against the school's rival, the University of Michigan. He graduated with a degree in physical education in 1947. After graduation, Roberts was sought after by several major league clubs, eventually signing with the Philadelphia Phillies for a $25,000 bonus. He began his pro career with the Wilmington Blue Rocks of the Interstate League in 1948. His stay in the minors was brief: after winning 9 of 10 decisions and posting a 2.06 ERA, he was called up to the majors, where he would spend the next eighteen-plus years. Roberts was 7-9 in his rookie campaign of 1948 and posted a .500 record the following summer. He enjoyed a breakout season in 1950 Phillies, winning 20 games (the first Phillie to accomplish that feat since 1917) while leading the National League with 39 games started and 5 shutouts. He teamed with Curt Simmons to form a one-two punch on the mound for the "Whiz Kids" club that went on to capture the NL pennant. In that fall's versus the , he started Game Two, allowing just one run through nine innings before giving up a game-winning home run to Joe DiMaggio in the tenth. The Phillies were swept by the Yankees, and Roberts would never play in the postseason again after that year. Despite the fact that his club fell to fifth place and below .500, Roberts won 21 contests in 1951 and again paced the NL with 39 games started. The following summer, he won 28, the highest total in the NL since 1935, and earned The Pitcher of the Year Award. He won 23 games in both 1953 and 1954 while leading the NL in both years. He was again named Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News in 1955, when he put up a 23-14 mark for a fourth place team. In 1956, Roberts won 19 games, the first time in seven seasons he failed to reach the 20-win plateau, and his ERA ballooned to 4.45, but he was selected a National League All-Star for the seventh straight year. The next year, he went 10-22, leading the NL in losses. After hovering around the .500 mark the next three summers, he went 1-10 with a 5.85 ERA in 1961. Following that season, his contract was sold to the New York Yankees, who released him before he had made an appearance for the team. Signed by the in 1962, Roberts put up 42 wins in three and a half seasons with the club. After being let go by the O's, he spent about a year with the and part of a season with the . Fourteen games shy of 300 wins, he tried to stay in the game in 1967, pitching at age 40 for the minor league Reading Phillies (where one of his teammates was 21-year-old Larry Bowa). He was 5-3 with a 2.48 ERA for the club, but arm trouble ended his comeback attempt. Roberts ended his career with 286 wins and a 3.41 ERA while striking out 2,357. He threw 305 complete games and had 45 career shutouts, and for a long time held a major league record with 505 home runs allowed; he was passed by Jamie Moyer in 2010. He retired as the Phillies career leader in wins and strikeouts (both later broken by ) and still holds the club mark for games pitched, complete games, and innings pitched. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on January 22, 1976 by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Following his playing days, Roberts was the head coach the the University of South Florida from 1977 to 1985. He later spent time as a minor league instructor in the Phillies organization. A statue of him was erected outside in 2004. Roberts died at home in 2010, aged 83. His son Dan Roberts coached the Army baseball team and in the Phillies minor league system. "For two generations of fans, he symbolized the best in athletic competition. Day after day he went out there and threw that high, hard one down the middle, a marvelously coordinated man doing his job. If he had pitched for the Yankees he might have won 350 games." - Author James A. Michener. Mike Goliat Stats. Mike Goliat was born on Saturday, November 5, 1921, in Yatesboro, Pennsylvania. Goliat was 27 years old when he broke into the big leagues on August 3, 1949, with the Philadelphia Phillies. His biographical data, year-by-year hitting stats, fielding stats, pitching stats (where applicable), career totals, uniform numbers, salary data and miscellaneous items-of-interest are presented by Baseball Almanac on this comprehensive Mike Goliat baseball stats page. "He (Mike Goliat) was really a third baseman, but he played second for us to fill a need. He really had a strong arm. He was a battler who gave everything he had and he had a lot of big hits off [Brooklyn Dodgers ace] Don Newcombe the year we won the pennant." - Hall of Famer / Teammate Robin Roberts in My Life in Baseball (Triumph Books, 04/01/2003) Mike Goliat. Mike Goliat Autograph on a 1951 Bowman Reprint (#77) Mike Goliat. Mike Goliat. Mike Goliat. Mike Goliat. Mike Goliat. Michael Mitchell Goliat was a Major League Baseball player with the Philadelphia Phillies (1949-1951) and St. Louis Browns (1951-1952). Mike was one-of-nine children and followed his dad into the coal mines when he was a teenager. When World War II broke out, Mike joined the United States Army and while stationed in Japan, developed the baseball skills needed to take him to the minors, and eventually into the majors. You can follow the team links in the chart above to locate common statistics (singles), advanced statistics (WHIP Ratio & Isolated Power), and unique statistics (plate appearances & times on bases) not found on any other website. If you find this type of "free" data useful please consider making a donation to Baseball Almanac : a privately run / non-commercial site in need of financial assistance. Kobo Rakuten. Por el momento no hay artículos en tu carrito de compra. *No commitment, cancel anytime. Disponible el: Disponible el: 1 audiobook monthly. + FREE 30-day trial. Get 1 credit every month to exchange for an audiobook of your choice. *No commitment, cancel anytime. *No commitment, cancel anytime. Disponible el: Disponible el: 1 audiobook monthly. + FREE 30-day trial. Get 1 credit every month to exchange for an audiobook of your choice. *No commitment, cancel anytime. Inicio eBooks No ficción My Life in Baseball De regreso No ficción. My Life in Baseball. Comprar eBook. Estás en la librería de Estados Unidos. ¿No estás en Estados Unidos ? Elige la librería de tu país para ver los libros que están disponibles. Ver si tienes suficientes puntos para este artículo. Iniciar sesión. Sinopsis. Hall of Famer Robin Roberts was baseball's most dominant pitcher from 1950 to 1955. He was the ace of the Whiz Kids rotation that led the Phillies to the NL pennant in 1950. In 1966 Roberts introduced Marvin Miller to the players' union, a major chapter in baseball history. Muestra ahora Muestra guardada Guardar muestra Ver sinopsis. #160 en No ficción , Deportes , Béisbol , Ensayos y escritos #1747 en Biografías y memorias , Deportes. Comprar eBook. Estás en la librería de Estados Unidos. ¿No estás en Estados Unidos ? Elige la librería de tu país para ver los libros que están disponibles. Ver si tienes suficientes puntos para este artículo. Iniciar sesión. Libros relacionados con My Life in Baseball. Valoraciones y reseñas del libro ( 0 0 calificaciones de estrellas 0 opiniones ) Calificación general. ¡Sé el primero el calificar y dar tu reseña de este libro! Ya compartiste tu reseña para este artículo. ¡Gracias! Estamos revisando tu presentación. ¡Gracias! Completa tu reseña. My Life in Baseball. por Robin Roberts,Paul C. Rogers. Comparte tus pensamientos. Completa tu reseña. Cuéntales a los lectores qué opinas al calificar y reseñar este libro. Lo calificaste * Asegúrate de elegir una calificación. Añadir una reseña. Qué hacer. Di qué fue lo que más te gustó, qué fue lo que menos te gustó Describe el estilo del autor Explica la calificación que diste. Qué no hacer. Utilizar lenguaje agresivo o vulgar Incluir información personal Mencionar adelantos del libro o el precio del libro Recapitular la trama. ( 0 ) Mínimo de 50 caracteres. La reseña debe contener al menos 50 caracteres. El título debe contar al menos con 4 caracteres. Tu nombre en pantalla debe contener por lo menos 2 caracteres. Cómo reportar la reseña. En Kobo, intentamos asegurarnos de que las reseñas publicadas no contengan lenguaje agresivo o vulgar, avances de los libros o información personal de quien hizo la reseña. ¿Quieres que revisemos esta reseña otra vez? No, cancelar Sí, reportar. ¡Gracias! Has reportado esta reseña. Gracias por tus comentarios. De acuerdo, cerrar. My Life in Baseball. por Robin Roberts,Paul C. Rogers. ¡Gracias por compartir! Has enviado la siguiente calificación y reseña. Lo publicaremos en nuestro sitio después de haberla revisado. Russ Meyer. Hennery Peck, more popularly known as Peck’s Bad Boy, was a fictional character created by George W. Peck, a newspaperman, in the 19th century. Hennery was a mischievous child whose doings became a popular term for any incorrigible rule-breaker. Hennery had a real-life counterpart in Russ Meyer, a right-handed pitcher for six major-league teams from 1946 to 1959, and known alternately as the Mad Monk, Russ the Red, and Rowdy Russ. Russell Charles Meyer was born on October 25, 1923, in Peru, a small city of around 9,000 inhabitants in north central Illinois about 100 miles from Chicago. All four of his grandparents were natives of Germany; his mother, Frieda (Neff) Meyer, and father, Henry, were both born in Illinois, At the time of the 1930 census, Frieda worked as a saleswoman in a retail bakery and Henry was a foreman in a plow factory, presumably the Peru Plow and Wheel Works, where a large number of their neighbors also worked. Russ got the “Mad Monk” nickname when he and four other teammates on his high-school basketball team shaved their heads before a championship game. The “Rowdy Russ” and “Russ the Red” monikers were a result of his antics on and off the diamond, which sometimes outshone his pitching capabilities. Meyer, a product of an excellent youth baseball program in his hometown, pitched Peru to the finals of the 1941 National Baseball Congress tournament, and drew attention from scouts for the Chicago Cubs, the , and the New York Yankees. The White Sox won out, signing Meyer in 1942, and he spent that year at their Superior (Wisconsin) Blues farm club in the Class-C Northern League, where he won seven and lost eight, hurling 184 innings mostly as a starter. Drafted into the Army after that season, he was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and pitched for the camp team. Pitching in an exhibition game against the St. Louis Browns, he collapsed on the mound with a burst appendix. He contracted peritonitis and a heart murmur. Meyer spent 13 weeks in the hospital and lost 35 pounds. Because of the heart murmur, Meyer was given a medical discharge, and Army physicians told him he shouldn’t play baseball for at least two years.1. But Russ was not about to give up the game just yet. After gaining back a good measure of his weight, he was eager to get back in the game. Because of the wartime demise of the Northern League, he became a free agent, and signed with his favorite boyhood team, the Cubs. They sent him to Nashville of the Southern Association, and there he learned the screwball from Hy Vandenberg, a former Cubs pitcher. Meyer pitched at Nashville for three years, and made the Cubs as a reliever in 1947, pitching well with a 3-2 record until a broken ankle ended his season.2. In 1948 Meyer was moved into the starting rotation. He won 10 games and lost 10. In his second start of the season, on April 25, he pitched a one-hitter against the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field; Whitey Kurowski got the hit in the second inning. After the season the Cubs sold Meyer to the Philadelphia Phillies for $20,000.3. Meyer seemed to attract trouble and get involved in weird situations. Pitcher Robin Roberts wrote in his autobiography that once, after a game in New York, Meyer was walking to the team hotel. On his way he met a man who sold him a “hot” diamond for $50. In the hotel lobby, he showed it off to some of his teammates. Bill Nicholson rubbed the diamond against the floor. The diamond immediately disintegrated, to Meyer’s chagrin. On the Phillies’ next trip to New York, Roberts wrote, Meyer spotted the “diamond” seller on 42nd Street, grabbed him, and demanded his money back. The man’s yelling attracted a policeman who, after Meyer told him what had happened, made the swindler give Meyer his $50 back plus another $25 for the embarrassment it caused Monk.4. Roberts in his autobiography recalled an incident in 1953, after the Phillies traded Meyer to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Pitching against the Phillies in Connie Mack Stadium, Meyer walked Richie Ashburn with the bases loaded, forcing in the go-ahead run. Meyer charged off the mound to protest to umpire Augie Donatelli. Meyer’s language got him ejected by Donatelli. But he returned to the mound and just refused to leave until manager Charlie Dressen came out to get him. Finally Russ stomped off the mound. As he did, he flipped the rosin bag into the air with disgust. The rosin bag flew 30 feet in the air and came down directly on Meyer’s head. White powder flew everywhere, and even Monk had to laugh a little, Roberts said. Monk wasn’t through, however. When he got to the dugout, Roberts said, he yelled at Donatelli and grabbed his crotch. The game was the TV Game of the Week, and a camera in the dugout caught the whole episode and displayed it to the nation. The network switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree. For about the next 10 years baseball had a “Meyer” Rule that forbade cameras in the dugout. And Meyer was fined and suspended for three days, one of at least three suspensions he served during his career.5. Once during the Phillies’ pennant-winning 1950 season, Meyer was getting knocked around in the first inning in Cincinnati. After the Reds batted around, manager Eddie Sawyer walked to the mound to take Meyer out of the game. Before Sawyer could reach the mound, Monk took the ball and bounced it so hard off the pitching rubber that it went all the way to first base. Then he stormed off the mound and in the dugout gave the water bucket a hard kick and fell to the ground rolling around in great pain. He was taken to a hospital where an X-ray showed a break, and a cast was put on. Despite his apparently injured leg, Meyer continued on the road trip with the Phillies, and in Pittsburgh he told teammate Bill Nicholson that his leg did not hurt anymore. Nicholson said that maybe an old break from earlier in his career showed up on the X-ray. So once back in Philadelphia, Meyer had another X-ray, which showed that, sure enough, the earlier X-ray had showed an old break.6. Still, Meyer couldn’t stay out of trouble. Two days before the final game of the 1950 season, he was involved in another fracas. On an offday in New York, he and several teammates went to Ebbets Field to see the Dodgers play the Braves. Russ took a swing at a pesky photographer. That night the photographer and a policeman went to Meyer’s hotel room. Russ was taken to the police station. There, he called Eddie Sawyer and finally everything was settled. The photographer apologized and Meyer apologized. Peck’s Bad Boy had dodged another bullet.7. In the 1950 World Series, Meyer pitched in relief in Games One and Three as the Yankees swept the Phillies. He was the loser in Game Three, giving up the winning run on three straight singles in the ninth inning. The one incident Meyer himself regarded as the worst was the affair with Jackie Robinson, which occurred early in his tenure with the Phillies. Robin Roberts quoted Meyer in his biography: “Jackie was on third base one night when I was pitching against the Dodgers in Ebbets Field, going up and down like he did, threatening to steal home. So I yelled over to him, ‘Go ahead you nigger, try to steal.’ Bad judgment on my part but I said it and I’m not going to deny it. Well, he did try to steal on the next pitch and Frank Dascoli called him safe. I made a real good throw, down, and he slid on the first base side and never did get the plate but Dascoli called him safe.” Meyer said he took off after Dascoli and had him pinned against the screen, calling him every name he could think of. Meanwhile Jackie Robinson on the Dodger bench was laughing his head off. Meyer saw Robinson laughing, went to the Dodgers dugout and said to Robinson, “C’mon … let’s go underneath, so he said, “Let’s go.” Bill Nicholson talked Meyer out of it.8. After a couple of so-so seasons with the Phillies, Meyer was traded to the Dodgers before the 1953 season as part of a four-team deal also involving the Boston Braves (just before they moved to Milwaukee) and the Cincinnati Reds. Jackie Robinson told him, “Monk we’ve been fighting one another, now let’s fight ’em together.” “What class,” Monk said.9. Maje McDonnell, the Phillies’ batting-practice pitcher, was Meyer’s road roommate. Meyer, he said, was big on nightlife, except for the night before he was going to pitch; he was always in then. But for all his antics on the diamond, McDonnell said, “He wasn’t that way off the field. He was a generous, kind, and warm-hearted guy.”10. The trade to the Dodgers rejuvenated Meyer. In his first season he won 15 games and lost 5 as the Dodgers won the pennant. In his only appearance in the World Series, he pitched 4⅓ innings in relief of Johnny Podres in Game Five, giving up four runs. In 1954 he won 11 games and in 1955, pitching mostly in relief, he won six. In the ’55 World Series, against the Yankees, Meyer relieved Karl Spooner in Game Six and pitched 5⅔ innings of scoreless relief. After the 1955 season Meyer was traded to the Cubs, where he went 1-6 in 1956 and was sent on waivers to Cincinnati in September. Just before the start of the 1957 season the Redlegs sent him to the on waivers. He pitched in only two games for the Red Sox and spent the rest of the season with Nashville and Seattle. He was out of baseball in 1958 but signed with the Kansas City Athletics in April 1959 and pitched in 18 games (one victory in relief) before being released in July. His career numbers for 13 seasons in the majors were 319 games played, 219 games started, 94 wins, 73 losses and a 3.99 earned-run average. Not a bad journeyman’s journey. During the 1953 and 1954 seasons Meyer became one of only three pitchers who went at least 24 road starts without a loss. The others are Allie Reynolds, who holds the record at 25, and , who also started 24 road games without a loss. Meyer’s travails, antics, and explosive temper put him in the same league as other characters like Bobo Newsom, Al Schacht, and Willie “Puddin’ Head” Jones. He may have been a knockoff of Peck’s Bad Boy, but he was honest and warm-hearted, and saw life as something you fully live and take the consequences. He may have been crude at times but he was never malevolent. Meyer died on November 16, 1998, in Oglesby, Illinois. He was 74 years old. He was survived by his wife, Dorothy, and three children. This biography appears in “The Whiz Kids Take the Pennant: The 1950 Philadelphia Phillies” (SABR, 2018), edited by C. Paul Rogers III and Bill Nowlin. Sources. In addition to the sources cited in the notes, the author also consulted: Brown, Hugh. “The Terrible Tempered Russ Meyer,” Sport Magazine, December 1952. Paxton, Harry T. The Whiz Kids — The Story of the Fightin’ Phillies (New York: David McKay Company, 1950). Ryan, Jack. “From Redneck to Blueblood by Way of Poise and Avoirdupois — That’s the ‘Inside’ on Cubs’ Russ Meyer, Baseball Digest , September 1948. Notes. 1 Robin Roberts and C. Paul Rogers III, The Whiz Kids and the 1950 Pennant (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), 158. 2 Roberts and Rogers, Whiz Kids, 158. 3 Roberts and Rogers, Whiz Kids, 152, 158. 4 Robin Roberts and C. Paul Rogers III, My Life in Baseball (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2003), 112; Roberts and Rogers, Whiz Kids, 152-54. 5 Roberts and Rogers, My Life , 133; Roberts and Rogers, Whiz Kids , 156-57.