The Bizarro Hall of Fame Loses One of Its Own

Since I started working on the Bizarro Hall of Fame earlier this year, I have come across the occasional player who is no longer with us - Darrell Porter, for instance, the 1982 World Series MVP who died five years ago next week. As far as I could recall, however, no member of the BizHOF had passed away after the list was begun. That changed on Sunday, when Baseball Musings ran a short item on the death of Bill Robinson, Class of 1989. He had been working with the Los Angeles Dodgers as their minor league hitting coordinator and had also been a part of championship teams as a coach with the Mets and Marlins.

Most of my information about BizHOF players comes from Baseball-Reference.com and is therefore tinged with a statistical flavor. As such, it can be difficult to pick up much personal information regarding a specific player. Not impossible, but not easy. With Robinson, however, his personal character was evident in his career path - how else to explain a guy who played in the majors for four years, fell off the map for two full seasons, then reappeared with another organization and went on to play for twelve more years?

Baseball Musings' David Pinto worked with Robinson at ESPN for two years and wrote kindly of the former Yankee, Brave, Phillie and Pirate:

"Bill was a great guy, always a gentleman, always appreciative of any help you sent his way. I once reminded him of a catch I saw him make when he was playing for the Yankees in 1969, falling into the stands to steal a home run. He remembered the catch, but felt old when I offered that I was only nine when that happened. I'll always remember him fondly."

It's a shame when good men leave us, especially at the age relatively young age of 64. Robinson wasn't the most well-known figure to the average baseball fan (myself included), but his contributions to the game will certainly be missed.