Jim Kern was there in 1975 when MLB history was made in Cleveland, Ohio.
“That was an unusual Opening Day,” Kern, a former Cleveland Indians’ pitcher, told The Epoch Times about the atmosphere at Municipal Stadium on April 8, 1975. “We (Indians) didn’t normally draw well back in the 1970s but for that historic game, there was a huge turnout.” There were 56,715 people in attendance.
The specialness felt in and around the ballpark on the banks of Lake Erie that spring afternoon centered around newly appointed Indians’ manager Frank Robinson. Coming over to Cleveland late in the 1974 season in a trade with the California Angels, after three weeks playing for the Indians, it was announced on Oct. 2, 1974, that Robinson would be the club’s manager the following season. By replacing Ken Aspromonte as Cleveland’s skipper, Robinson would be the first black major league manager. Robinson would also be among the then 25-man roster. As a player-manager, the designated hitter’s role served Robinson well. At 39, Robinson inserted himself into 49 games in 1975.
“Frank was a no-nonsense manager. As a player, you always knew where you stood with him,” explains Kern who made his MLB debut as a September call-up in 1974, after winning 17 games for the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City that season. “It was no secret that when Frank came over from California that he was projected to be our manager in the spring.”
Frank Robinson’s leadership in the dugout made headlines coast to coast 28 years after Jackie Robinson (no relation) broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers as a player.
With all the accolades that followed Frank Robinson with the American League club, there was one “bump” internally that the rookie manager was forced to address. Indians’ pitching ace Gaylord Perry, like his new manager, was well on his way to a hall of fame career heading into the 1975 season. Having been with the club for the previous three seasons, for still no official reason given, he and Robinson butted heads early on in the young regular season.
“Gaylord had a speaking engagement and said something to the effect that he wanted to be paid $1 more than Robinson. Well, the next day, the two of them had a huge shouting match in the clubhouse,” Kern said of his new manager and fellow pitcher.
Whatever the real reasons were that kept the two all-stars at odds, Indians’ management took control of the matter. Striving to have a harmonious atmosphere in the clubhouse and on the field, particularly with increased media coverage of the history-making season, Indians general manager Phil Seghi traded Perry to the Texas Rangers in mid-June.
It was particularly important that the Indians created a welcoming atmosphere for their fans. In 1974, Cleveland finished seventh among the 12 American League clubs in attendance, by drawing 1,114,262 fans to Municipal Stadium. Unfortunately for the Indians, even with the hoopla surrounding the club with the game’s first black manager, attendance dipped significantly by the end of the 1975 season. Pulling in less than one million fans, the Indians finished 10th among the dozen clubs in attendance.
“The Indians brought me and Dennis Eckersley north with the club, when spring training concluded in Arizona. Dennis made the jump from playing the previous season at Double-A San Antonio in the Texas League. He had a 14-3 record in 1974. Frank put his faith in us, and I like to think that we didn’t let him down,” Kern tells.
Robinson, who played in his last game with the Indians in September 1976, ended a celebrated 21 seasons in the major leagues. Among awards collected by Robinson, who hit a home run during his first at-bat as player-manager for the Indians on Opening Day against New York Yankees’ starting pitcher Doc Medich, the American and National Leagues’ MVP 14-times an all-star—clubbing 586 home runs and being a member of two winning World Series championship clubs (Baltimore Orioles 1966 and 1970)—finished 57 hits shy of 3,000.
After two full seasons calling the shots from the Indians’ bench, the club was showing little signs of improvement in 1977 from when Robinson took over in 1975. With Cleveland off to a dismal start in 1977, when putting up a 26–31 record, Robinson was fired on June 19, 1977. Before retiring from the game completely, Robinson would be hired and fired to manage the San Francisco Giants, Baltimore Orioles, Montreal Expos and Washington Nationals.
In the summer of 1982, Robinson was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. The Class of 1982 also included Hank Aaron, Travis Jackson, and Happy Chandler. Robinson garnered 89.2 percent of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote.
