Bob was looked upon as "another Ralph Kiner", coming up in the Pirates organization. Those comparisons were valid, with Robertson leading the minor leagues in home runs for three seasons. He made his MLB debut for the Pirates in September 1967, but lost the entire 1968 season from a kidney obstruction.
In 1970, Bob came back to the Pirates and played alongside Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell. He would have career highs in average, homers and RBI. In 1971, Robertson became a World Series hero, hitting a home run in Game Three by missing a bunt sign. After the World Series, Bob went into a slump. Knee surgery in 1974, reduced his role to a part-time player.
On March 31, 1977, Robertson was released by the Pirates. He missed the entire 1977 season, but was eventually signed by the Seattle Mariners on November 11, 1977.
Topps has one example of Bob on the Seattle Mariners, in the 1979 set. This would be Robertson's final Topps card. There was no card from 1978, so I made one. Interestingly enough, the 1979 O-Pee-Chee card shows the same picture as the Topps counterpart, but places him on the Royals with a note of signing a Free Agent on March 1, 1979. There is no record of that on the baseball reference site, but he did sign with the Blue Jays on April 23, 1979 and was released two months later.
I wasn't familiar with Bob. Thanks for sharing and stories like hitting a homerun due to a missed bunt sign are great.
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