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Robin Roberts (born 1926)
In 1974, novelist James Michener took it upon himself to call attention in the New York Times to a grave baseball injustice: Robin Roberts-for many years the Philadelphia Phillies’ best pitcher and the winner of 286 games-had not yet made it into the Hall of Fame, while others with less impressive records had. Making Roberts’s unheralded accomplishment greater yet, Michener noted, was the fact that he pitched for a persistently lackluster team, and more than a few of his victories were won with little backup from his teammates. Finally, however, justice was done in 1979, when Roberts was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
When Time sent Henry Koerner to paint this likeness for a cover story in 1956, Roberts was in his ninth season at Philadelphia. Having won twenty or more games six years in a row, he was widely regarded as baseball’s best pitcher. Watching Roberts prepare to send a ball across home plate, Koerner found him a bundle of "squirms, writhes, fusses, and tugs." But just before the throw, Roberts froze, gazing "with sheer disdain" at the batter. That was the moment that Koerner sought to record in his portrait.
Henry Koerner (1915-1991)
Oil on canvas
Time cover, May 28, 1956
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine
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