This was one of the most impressive displays of power in MLB history.
https://www.mlb.com/cut4/frank-robinson-hits-541-foot-home-run-out-of-memorial-stadium-against-luis-tiant/c-228480878
@edpc That was the blast Brooks Robinson once said
really pulled the 1966 Orioles together, even though when Frank Robinson first arrived at that first Oriole spring training it was Brooks Robinson who greeted him saying, "Frank, you're exactly what we need." I'm pretty sure that, considering the way Robinson shook out as an Oriole, the Reds had nothing but regrets about unloading him. (He's the best position player in the history of the Reds.)
Especially considering what happened to the pieces the Reds got in return for Robinson:
* Milt Pappas---The Reds had eyes for him as a possible rotation mate for ace Jim Maloney, after the team's overall pitching had the second-worst ERA in the National League in 1965 and led the league in walks, while Pappas had a 2.80 ERA that year. The problem was, Pappas came to the Reds feeling embittered because he'd been promised by the Orioles that he wouldn't be traded---a promise made the day before the Robinson deal was done. He proved serviceable for the Reds but not quite the pitcher they hoped they were getting. They unloaded him to the Braves after fifteen starts in 1968, partly because he was off to a slow start and partly because he objected when the team elected to play on a day most teams chose not to play in honour of the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy.
* Jack Baldschun---Once a premier relief pitcher for the Phillies, Baldschun inexplicably got doghoused by manager Gene Mauch in 1964 when the team acquired veteran Ed Roebuck for the bullpen. The bone of contention: Mauch decided he didn't like the screwball, which happened to be Baldschun's money pitch. Though Baldschun continued getting regular relief work the high-leverage spots began going to other lesser arms. After Baldschun and Mauch feuded in 1965 over whether Baldschun should save the screwball strictly as an out pitch when it was Baldschun's bread and butter pitch, Baldschun became expendable.
Weirdly enough, after the Phillies traded him to the Orioles after 1965, Baldschun never threw a pitch for the Orioles. Cincinnati's Bill DeWitt wanted Baldschun in his bullpen as badly as he wanted Pappas in the rotation, so Baldschun became part of the Robinson deal and went to the Reds---the team who drafted him before the Phillies acquired him as a minor leaguer in the first place. But Baldschun inexplicably began his decline in 1966 and in 1967 developed arm trouble. The Reds no longer wanted him but were embarrassed by the Robinson deal. Baldschun eventually went to the A's, who sent him on to the Padres where he had one final small taste of his former success before retiring.
* Dick Simpson---A journeyman outfielder, Simpson like Baldschun would never play a single inning for the Orioles after he was traded there by the Angels in 1965. Sort of a throw-in in the Robinson deal though the Reds needed some outfield help, Simpson never became more than a journeyman in an eight-year major league career, which included a spell with the 1969 Seattle Pilots of
Ball Four fame. Tragically, Simpson is also the father of one of southern California's most notorious criminals: Colton Simpson, the Crip who's serving a 126-year sentence under California's three-strikes law for robbery and who wrote the insider account of life as a Crip,
Inside the Crips: Life Inside L.A.'s Most Notorious Gang.