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Commentary: Frank Robinson the best Reds player ever

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By Marc Katz, Staff Writer Updated 12:08 AM Friday, November 4, 2011

Eliminate the Charlie Hustle aspect, and what’s left? A whole bunch of hits, and a couple of all-time World Series victories.

Let’s not demean any of that.

But I’m going with Frank Robinson as the greatest of all the Cincinnati Reds.

Not Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan — or going way back, Edd Roush.

Frank Robinson hasn’t played with the Reds for 46 years, wasn’t on the Big Red Machine and was traded away after just one decade with the team.

Yet his name remains all over the Reds’ record book. A Hall of Famer, he hit, hit with power and played with a passion that some thought was invented by Rose. Actually, Robinson was a mentor of the Hit King.

Robinson, just 20 when he was elevated to the Reds in 1956, batted .303 in his decade, hit 324 home runs (well before steroids) and knocked in 1,009.

If you take Bench’s 10 best homer years (they’re not consecutive), he hit 302.

If you discount the first two years Tony Perez was with the team, then add up his RBIs over the next 10, he knocked in 1,028, but he was already 25 starting that streak, so experience and full body maturity had already kicked in.

Robinson’s my guy, and if you want to meet him, you can, Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Marriott. Hall of Fame sports writer Hal McCoy will have a Schear Family Heart in Sports Community Conversation with him.

Tickets are $10, and well worth it.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews. com.

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