Frank Robinson, a trailblazer who forged his own path from the playgrounds of West Oakland to baseball immortality, died Thursday after a long battle with bone cancer, according to several reports. He was 83.
The Hall of Fame outfielder had been in hospice care for the past few months and passed away in Los Angeles, almost 45 years after he made baseball history by becoming its first African-American manager with the Cleveland Indians.
Robinson is mostly remembered in the Bay Area for managing the Giants from 1981-84, when he was the first African-American to manage in the National League.