Oldest living World Series player can’t bring Indians luck

CLEVELAND, USA – Eddie Robinson, the last living member of the Cleveland Indians’ 1948 World Series championship team, watched Tuesday, November 1 (Wednesday in Manila) as the Tribe missed a chance to win its first crown since he made it happen.

At 95, Robinson is the oldest living World Series player. The former Indians first baseman drove in the title-clinching run 68 years ago in the eighth inning of game 6 off Boston Braves pitcher Warren Spahn.

He had been hoping to see the Indians reclaim the crown for the first time since then, but the Chicago Cubs drubbed Cleveland 9-3 Tuesday to even Major League Baseball’s best-of-7 final at 3-3 and force a seventh game Wednesday.

“It has been so darn long,” Robinson said. “I’ve been pulling for them all year.”

Robinson’s squad sent 5 players to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but this year’s Indians rely more on grit and teamwork without flash and star power.

“We had great pitching like this team, but this team is comprised of a bunch of players that are kind of no-name players,” Robinson said.

Robinson recalled how he and his teammates didn’t have locker room champagne showers like modern clubs enjoy.

“It was a great day,” Robinson said. “After we won, we went in and got changed and got on a train. But once we got on the train, we had a dining car and a club car. That’s when the party started.

“The next day, the champagne was dripping from the ceiling. I think (then team owner) Bill Veeck, that cost him a few thousand dollars to put those cars back in shape.

“Then we arrived here the next morning and they had a parade arranged. Every player got in a convertible and we went down Euclid Avenue and it was marvelous. Looked like everybody in Cleveland had turned out to celebrate our championship.”

Robinson, who played for 13 seasons, was a four-time All-Star from Paris, Texas, who went on to become general manager of the Texas Rangers from 1978 to 1982.

Some of the biggest changes Robinson has seen in the game include new ballparks with shorter home run distances and bigger gloves that allow for more amazing catches.

“It’s exciting. A lot of home runs. They build these parks with short fences. I would have liked that,” Robinson said.

“With the bigger gloves they make spectacular catches. We played with smaller gloves and couldn’t afford to dive for those balls. We had to knock them down and make sure they didn’t go for extra bases.”

And then of course, there were salaries. Aside from inflation, there were no television broadcast rights riches. TV was in its embryonic stages, 1948 marking only the second World Series telecast and even that was only to regional US markets near Boston and Cleveland.

“Money. That’s the biggest perk,” Robinson said. “They fly from place to place and we took trains.” – Jim Slater, Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com