Kerry Robinson still looks like he could start in the St. Louis Cardinals outfield. In fact, when he sees Skip Schumaker roaming the Redbirds’ outfield, he wonders what would have occurred if manager Tony La Russa had given him a similar chance.
“But Tony didn’t play young guys,” Robinson, 35, told me recently.
I asked him if he still longed to play in the Majors and with a smile he said, “I’m too banged up.”
“All those years of throwing my body around. Remember, I was a base stealer. I’m just too beat up.”
A standout baseball and hockey player in high school, Robinson played a couple of seasons at Southeast Missouri State University before he was drafted by the Cardinals in the 34th round of the 1995 amateur draft.
This definitely qualified him as “a long shot.”
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays snagged him in the 1997 expansion draft and he made his debut in September 1998.
His next stop was the Seattle Mariners’ organization where he led the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in triples in 1999 and finished third in steals while playing just 79 games.
Robinson kept bouncing like a ground ball. He was with the Cincinnati Reds organization; then, he spent the 2000 season at Triple-A Columbus.
A minor-league free agent in December 2000, Robinson returned to the Cardinals organization and played in 114 games in 2001. He hit a respectable .285 with one home run and 15 RBIs. He scored 34 runs and stole 11 bases. The next year, he played in 124 games and followed with 116 games in 2002.
But La Russa refused to play Robinson regularly, and he and the skipper never saw eye to eye.
Robinson doesn’t hold a grudge, but does wonder “what if?”
“If I had played more, I would have done more,” he said.
Robinson was with the San Diego Padres in 2005, missed a season because of injury in 2005 before ending his career with the Kansas City Royals in 2006.
So Robinson has embarked on a new career.
He is a financial representative for New England Financial, a MetLife company, with the Cornerstone Financial Group at 4 City Place Drive, Suite 150.
“It’s great,” he said of his business endeavor. “I enjoy helping my clients, and helping them plan futures.”
Robinson, who still plays hockey in an adult league in Chesterfield, also has his own money to watch over.
The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) has Robinson listed as making $1.02 million during his career – and this does not count the 2006 season with the Royals.
That isn’t chicken feed, and neither is Robinson’s investment expertise.
A registered representative of New England Securities, Robinson said he really enjoys helping young professional athletes create plans that will take care of them in the future.
“They don’t realize it now, but they do later,” he said.
Kerry Robinson can be reached at (314) 567-8360 and krobinson@stlouis.nef.com.
