Robin Roberts

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Robin Roberts, the Hall of Fame pitcher who led the Philadelphia Phillies to the 1950 National League pennant as part of the famed "Whiz Kids," has died. He was 83.

Roberts died Thursday morning at his Temple Terrace, Fla., home of natural causes, the Phillies announced, citing Roberts' son Jim.

The right-hander was the most productive pitcher in the National League in the first half of the 1950s, topping the league in wins from 1952 to 1955, innings pitched from '51 to '55 and complete games from '52 to '56.

He won 286 games and put together six consecutive 20-win seasons. Roberts had 45 career shutouts, 2,357 strikeouts and a lifetime ERA of 3.41. He pitched 305 complete games, but also holds the dubious distinction of giving up more home runs than any other Major League pitcher.

"Workhorse is a weak description," Philadelphia Daily News writer Stan Hochman wrote about Roberts in 2003. "He was a mule, stubborn, ca ntankerous and willing to toil from sunup to sundown."

Phillies fans will remember Roberts as the leading pitcher on the 1950 squad that won the franchise's first pennant in 35 years. Roberts put together a 20-11 season with a 3.02 ERA and five shutouts.

The team, with several 25-and-younger stars such as Roberts, Richie Ashburn and Del Ennis, was dubbed the "Whiz Kids." It marked the end a three-decade span in which the Phillies were mostly awful.

The Phillies held a 7½ game lead with 11 games to go, but struggled to hang on as injuries - especially to the pitching staff - took their toll. On the final day of the season and just after his 24th birthday, Roberts made his third start in five days and pitched the Phillies to a 4-1 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers to clinch the pennant.

Roberts started Game 2 of the World Series against the Yankees and held New York to one run on nine hits through nine innings. With the game tied 1-1 in the top the 10th, Joe DiMaggio led off with a solo home run to left field, giving New York a 2-1 win.

The Yankees would go on to sweep Philadelphia. Roberts, who pitched in relief in Game 4, finished the series with a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings.

Roberts spent 14 of his 19 seasons in Philadelphia and was the stalwart of their rotation from 1948 to 1961. His 234 wins as a Phillie are even more impressive considering the team was lost more games than it won in that stretch. His best statistical season came in 1952, when he went 28-7 with a 2.59 ERA.

He signed as a free agent with the Baltimore Orioles and spent 1962-64 there before winding down his career with the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs.

Roberts had a reputation as a control pitcher who relied heavily on his fastball and who threw strikes, sometimes to his detriment. He gave up only 1.3 walks per game over his career, but also gave up at least 40 home runs in three straight seasons.

"I had a high fastball and I eit her overpowered them or they overpowered me," he once said.

Roberts started five All-Star games and was named to the team seven times. His best years came before the Cy Young Award, but Roberts twice was chosen pitcher of the year by The Sporting News. He also was the publication's player of the year in 1952.

The Phillies retired his jersey, No. 36, in 1962. He remains the franchise's career leader in games pitched, complete games and innings pitched. He was the leader in wins and strikeouts until Steve Carlton eclipsed those marks.

Long after his career ended, Roberts followed the Phillies closely and was still popular in Philadelphia, drawing boisterous applause from fans each time he came back. A statue of him sits outside the first base gate at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.

Robin Evan Roberts was born Sept. 30, 1926, in Springfield, Ill. His parents, Tom and Sarah, had moved to centra l Illinois from Wales in 1921. His father was a coal miner and Roberts grew up listening to the Chicago Cubs games on the radio.

Roberts played baseball, basketball and football at Lanphier High School in Springfield and later went to Michigan State, where he was a star on both the basketball and baseball teams.

During the summers of 1946 and 1947, Roberts pitched in the semi-professional Northern League for Montpelier, Vt. He signed with the Phillies for $25,000 following graduation from Michigan State in 1947. He spent little time in the Phillies' farm system before being called up.

After retiring from baseball, Roberts was a stockbroker and served as baseball coach at the University of South Florida.

Best-selling author James A. Michener, who lived outside Philadelphia, once summed up Roberts' career in The New York Times.

"For two generations of fans, he symbolized the best in athletic competition," Michener wrote. "Day after day he went out there and threw that high, hard one down the middle, a marvelously coordinated man doing his job. If he had pitched for the Yankees he might have won 350 games."

Roberts is survived by four sons, one brother, seven grandchildren and one great-grandson, the Phillies said. His wife, Mary, died five years ago, the team said.


Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press