Robin Roberts

Played For
Philadelphia Phillies (1948-1961)
Baltimore Orioles (1962-1965)
Houston Astros (1965-1966)
Chicago Cubs (1966)

All-Time Rankings
Robin Roberts ranks #27 among the Top 50 all-time at SP. Rankings ⇒

Best Season: 1953
From 1952-1955, Roberts led the NL wins every season. He won 28 games in 1952, but his 1953 season was a shade better. Posting a 23-16 record, Roberts pitched in bad luck. His 2.75 ERA was second in the league as he led the loop in K's (narrowly missing the Triple Crown). In a career-high 346 2/3 innings, he walked just 66 batters.

Factoids
Robin Roberts holds the major league record for most consecutive Opening Day starts for the same team (12). He started every season opener for the Phillies from 1950 to 1961.

Robin Roberts' 28 wins in 1952 are the most in the National League since 1935 (when Dizzy Dean also won 28).

On May 13, 1954, Bobby Adams of the Reds hit a lead-off homer off Robin Roberts. Roberts then retired the next 27 batters in a row to win 8-1 on a one-hitter.

Fast-Working Pitcher
Robin Roberts was one pitcher who found a way to interrupt the batters rhythm, without altering his own. He did this by devising an elaborate choreography for his mound routine. Early on in his career, Roberts was enthusiastic and nervous, with a powerful fastball, but a rushed delivery that ruined his control and prevented him from establishing any rhythm. He'd fire a strike or two, and then lose his release point and toss four straight balls. A pitching coach recommended that he adopt a pre-pitch routine to help him control his energies, and if you look at his pitching record, you can see the advice take hold. He went 7-9 in his rookie year (1948), the next year he evened it to 15-15, and then he was off on a string of six straight twenty-win seasons that wasn't broken until 1956.

Over the years, Roberts added layers to the routine so that, by his prime, it was a piece of choreography as intricate as a cobra's mating dance. Before throwing a pitch he'd take a breath and adjust his belt back and forth, like a man preparing to unburden himself of some really bad news. Then he'd bend at the waist, and fool with his left pant-leg, and look towards the plate. Then he'd finally adjust his cap, rock into a slow motion wind-up, and fire home. He'd repeat the whole thing, unabridged, before each and every pitch he threw. Roberts had an outstanding fastball, and all this slow, absent-minded motion preceding his pitches made them seem even faster than they were. Roberts gave up more home runs than any pitcher in history, which tells us that his stuff wasn't completely overpowering. But, he's a Hall of Famer; a fact that serves notice of his pitching wit and creativity. Roberts came up with something that worked.

From Kirk Robinson's May 30, 2002, column