Robinson Is Elusive After Meeting

Barbara Robinson said her husband might have difficulty adjusting to not going to the ballpark every day. "I'm not going to lie: It's not going to be easy," she said. "All the players he's been with and the teams he's had, it's like your baby, your child."

Though players have been aware that a change could be made for much of the latter part of the season, some were reluctant to discuss their feelings until a formal announcement has been made.

From time to time, Robinson's old-school ways have grated on his players. Yesterday, however, players spoke respectfully of their manager's methods and accomplishments.

"He gives you respect, and obviously, you give him respect right back," said catcher Brian Schneider, whose first full major league season was in 2002, which was also Robinson's first year as the manager of the Montreal Expos, the Nationals' predecessors. "There's so many different ways that he's helped me develop my game, and I know he's helped and touched a lot of guys in this clubhouse."

Privately, the Nationals are hopeful they can maintain a relationship with Robinson, who recently has said that he would consider a meaningful position in the organization.

"It's up to the organization," Robinson said. "If they feel like that they want me to be a part of the organization beyond, say, managing the ballclub or whatever, it's up to them."

Though Bowden hasn't always agreed with his on-field decision making, the general manager has respect for Robinson's wealth of baseball knowledge, honed over a playing career that made him the only player to win the most valuable player award in both the National and American leagues.

Quietly, though, Robinson prepared for a post-playing career by going to Mexico in the offseasons to manage in winter ball. In 1975, he was hired as manager of the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first black manager in the history of the game.

In 2002, 11 years after his previous managing stint with the Baltimore Orioles, Robinson was hired by Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig to manage the Expos, who had just been purchased by Major League Baseball. He expected it to be a one-year assignment because the Expos were preparing to be eliminated from the league.

That plan -- referred to at the time as "contraction" -- never came to fruition, and Robinson surprised himself, drawing energy from the underdog Expos, who finished with winning records in 2002 and '03. Last season, he was the manager when baseball returned to Washington after a 34-year absence, an experience he said yesterday was among the most cherished of his career.

"It was a very unique and special situation here," he said.

So, apparently, he will go out in a rather unique way -- managing the final games of the season without having announced his retirement, but knowing his career is over anyway. He was asked if the discussions with Kasten and Bowden were difficult.

"Not as hard as hitting the slider," he said. "Not as hard as managing a baseball team. Different scenarios."

Before last night, he had managed or played in 4,996 major league games, including the postseason. Yet he knew the final few would be unlike any he had known.

"Different," he said. "Strange."