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BASTROP, Texas – Eddie Robinson, the longest-serving major league player with more than six decades in professional baseball, most notably as general manager of two teams, has passed away. He was 100 years old.
The Texas Rangers, the team for which Robinson was general manager from 1976 to 1982, said he died Monday night at his ranch in Bastrop, Texas.
Robinson was the last surviving player of the 1948 World Series champions, the Cleveland Indians. The championship was one of the first baseman’s 13 seasons in the big leagues, in which he played for seven of the eight active American League teams in his career and was four times All-Star.
After finishing playing, Robinson coached for Baltimore before moving on to player development and scouting for the Orioles and several other teams. He was general manager of the Atlanta Braves from 1972 to 1976 and then played that role with the Rangers. He worked as a scout and consultant for former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in the early 1980s, and his final year in baseball was as a scout for the Boston Red Sox in 2004.
Robinson made his major league debut with Cleveland at the age of 21 in 1942, then served in the military during World War II before returning to the Indians from 1946 to 1948. He also played for the Indians. Washington Senators (1949-1950), Chicago White Sox (1950-1952), Philadelphia Athletics (1953), New York Yankees (1954-1956), Detroit Tigers (1957) and Baltimore (1957). The only AL team in this period that he did not play for was Boston.
He’s hit .268 with 172 homers and 723 RBIs in 1,315 career games. He had three consecutive 100 RBI seasons, with at least 22 homers in each of them, for the White Sox in 1951-52 and the A in 1953.
“The Texas Rangers are incredibly saddened by the passing of legendary Eddie Robinson, who spent nearly 70 years in professional baseball as a star player and respected executive,” the team said in a statement. “For Eddie Robinson it was truly a life well lived.”
The Rangers helped Robinson celebrate his 100th birthday last December and said he made a final spring training visit to Arizona last February. The Texas native was a regular visitor to Rangers home games in his later years.
Robinson is survived by his second wife, Bette, and four sons, Robby, Marc, Paul and Drew.
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