Major League Baseball legend and civil rights trailblazer Frank Robinson died Thursday at the age of 83.
Robinson played for the Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Dodgers, California Angels and Cleveland Indians over the course of a 21-year playing career. He is the only player to win the Most Valuable Player award in both the National League and American League, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982.
He became the first African-American manager in MLB history when he took the job with the Cleveland Indians in 1975. Robinson went on to manage the San Francisco Giants, Baltimore Orioles and Montreal Expos.
{mosads}He became the first manager of the Washington Nationals when the team moved to Washington, D.C., in 2005.
Off the field, Robinson was active in the civil rights movement, with a focus on the issue of segregated housing. Former President George W. Bush awarded Robinson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.
Several lawmakers weighed in on social media on Thursday to pay tribute to Robinson’s legacy on and off the baseball diamond.
“He was a true cvil rights pioneer on & off the field. He’ll be greatly missed,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) tweeted.
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) lauded Robinson as a “true legend who changed the game.”
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) remembered Robinson as “a trailblazer” who “was outspoken on issues of racism in baseball and segregated housing.”