Robinson hitless as 1956 All-Star

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Fifty years ago today, Frank Robinson made his first professional visit to Washington with unhappy results.

The occasion was baseball's 23rd All-Star Game at Griffith Stadium. Robinson, a 20-year-old rookie slugger for the Cincinnati Redlegs, struck out twice against Chicago White Sox left-hander Billy Pierce before manager Walter Alston took him out in the fifth inning.

A half-century later, the Washington Nationals manager ruefully remembers.

"You don't have to be diplomatic about it," Robinson said recently. "You know how many pitches he threw me? Six -- one, two, three, one, two, three [and out]. No respect there."

And what did Pierce, a notably crafty lefty, throw Robinson?

"I don't know. He threw me something I couldn't hit."

Robinson survived that day to become National League rookie of the year and enjoy a Hall of Fame career with Cincinnati, Baltimore and other teams before becoming baseball's first black manager in 1975 with the Cleveland Indians. But the 1956 All-Star Game -- the first of three in the nation's capital over a 14-year span -- was strictly a downer.

In those days before interleague play and cable television, the All-Star Game was a much bigger deal than now. A great deal of league pride was involved, and the National League was entitled to do some preening after a 7-3 victory here, its sixth in seven outings. The American League had won 12 of the first 16 games, but the momentum shifted completely in the 1950s because the NL had many more black stars like Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Ernie Banks, Roberto Clemente and, yes, Frank Robinson.

All-Star starters were chosen entirely by fan vote then, and an extremely aggressive campaign by a Cincinnati radio station resulted in the election to the starting lineup of five Redlegs -- so called because some felt the team's traditional nickname of "Reds" summoned up communist connotations. (The following year, all eight Cincinnati position players were voted in before commissioner Ford Frick decreed that superstars Mays of the New York Giants and Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals start the game.)

As Robinson finished taking batting practice at Griffith Stadium, a Cincinnati writer asked, "Nervous, Frank?" Replied Robinson, who earned his spot by batting .313 with 18 home runs and 39 RBI during the season's first half: "You don't know just how nervous."