Sherry Robertson

Sherry Robertson
Utility player
Born: (1919-01-01)January 1, 1919
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died: October 23, 1970(1970-10-23) (aged 51)
Houghton, South Dakota
Batted: Left Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 8, 1940, for the Washington Senators
Last MLB appearance
September 21, 1952, for the Philadelphia Athletics
MLB statistics
Batting average .230
Home runs 26
Runs batted in 151
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Sherrard Alexander Robertson (January 1, 1919 – October 23, 1970) was a Canadian-American utility player, front office executive, and coach in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the Washington Senators and Philadelphia Athletics.

Member of Griffith baseball dynasty

The nephew of Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher, manager and club owner Clark Griffith, Robertson was part of an extended family that operated the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins franchise of the American League for almost 65 years. Robertson was a native of Montreal, Quebec, the son of a minor league player; his father was Griffith's brother-in-law. Robertson moved to the Washington, D.C., area with his widowed mother and six siblings when he was a child. He attended the University of Maryland.

Robertson's brother Calvin was adopted by Clark Griffith, took his uncle's last name and succeeded him as the Senators' president. Calvin Griffith controlled 52 percent of the team's stock (evenly split with sister Thelma Griffith Haynes' 26 percent) and operated the Senators as majority owner from 1955–60. He then moved the club to Minneapolis–St. Paul after the 1960 season, and led the renamed Twins until he sold them in August 1984.

Sherry Robertson was the longtime director of the team's farm system,[1] and two other brothers, Jimmy and Billy Robertson, were also club executives. In addition, brother-in-law Joe Haynes, a former Washington pitcher, was an executive vice president of the Senators and Twins; another brother-in-law, Joe Cronin, was a Hall of Fame shortstop who was player-manager of the Senators in 1933–34 (leading them to the 1933 AL pennant), manager and then general manager of the Boston Red Sox (1935–58), and president of the American League (1959–73); and at least two nephews, Clark Griffith II and Bruce Haynes, took active roles in managing the Twins' affairs.

On-field career

Robertson batted left-handed, threw right-handed, and was listed as 6 feet (1.8 m) tall 180 pounds (82 kg). His nplaying career extended from 1939–52, with time out for service in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II.[2] He played for his brother Calvin with the Class B Charlotte Hornets in both 1939 and 1940 during Griffith's apprenticeship as a minor league manager.

Robertson saw MLB action with the Senators (1940–41, 1943 and 1946–52) and Philadelphia Athletics (1952). In ten seasons he played in 597 games and had 1,507 at bats, scored 200 runs, and compiled 346 hits, 55 doubles, 18 triples, 26 home runs, 151 runs batted in, 32 stolen bases, 202 walks, with a .230 batting average, .323 on-base percentage, .342 slugging percentage, 515 total bases and 14 sacrifice hits.

After succeeding Ossie Bluege as the Senators' farm system director in 1958, then moving to Minnesota along with the franchise after the 1960 season, Robertson returned to uniform as a bench coach with the Twins in 1970. After that season, he died from injuries suffered in an automobile accident in Houghton, South Dakota, at the age of 51.[3] He was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.

References

  1. ↑ Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame
  2. ↑ "Those Who Served A–Z", Baseball in Wartime.com
  3. ↑ Snyder, John, Twins Journal: Year-by-Year and Day-by-Day With the Minnesota Twins Since 1961. Clerisy Press, 2010, page 89
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