For one night, Robinson was close to perfection

You may have heard the phrase “flirted with perfection” in reference to a pitcher making it through six or seven innings with a perfect game intact, only to see it disappear. For Reds pitcher Ron Robinson, he didn’t just flirt with perfection, he watched it walk down the aisle only to see it run off at the last second.

The year 1988 brings smiles to the faces of Reds fans as it remains the only season in history that saw a Reds pitcher throw a perfect game. Tom Browning famously accomplished this on Sept. 16 of that season. What many fans forget, or may not even know, is that just over four months earlier, Robinson was one strike away from joining one of baseball’s most distinguished fraternities.

On May 2, 1988, Robinson took the mound at Riverfront Stadium to face the Montreal Expos. Just seven months removed from arthroscopic elbow surgery, Robinson was still on a pitch count as he worked to regain his full form.

“I was supposed to stay under 70 pitches that night,” Robinson said. “Our manager at the time was Pete [Rose]. He was at home after having knee surgery earlier that day and had just been suspended, so Tommy Helms was making his managing debut. The benches cleared at one point. I think it was also Kid Glove night. There was a lot going on.”

That includes Robinson who had everything going on from the mound. Robinson had all of his pitches working, retiring batter after batter for the Expos. He was locating and efficient with his pitches, retiring hitters early in counts. He also had some help from his defense, including a terrific play by second baseman Jeff Treadway early in the game when he snagged a bouncing ball up the middle after it skipped off the mound, and he somehow threw out the runner at first.

“There was great defense, and Bo Diaz was my catcher,” Robinson recalled. “If you look at the game footage, I never shook him off. So that’s how good a game it was. He called a great game, and I thought I hit my spots.”

As Robinson continued to retire the side in order each inning, the reality of the moment started to present itself. His teammates didn’t sit by him or talk to him in the dugout in keeping with one of baseball’s superstitious traditions. The fans got behind him with every pitch he threw, clapping and screaming with every strike he delivered. He received a standing ovation each time he struck a batter out.

Then came the top of the ninth, with Robinson having thrown just 81 pitches and set to face the bottom of the order. He induced a groundout to shortstop from Mike Fitzgerald, then coaxed a fly-ball out from Tom Foley. With one out to go, the Expos brought in Wallace Johnson to pinch-hit.

The crowd of over 35,000 was going nuts and reached a fever pitch when Robinson got Wallace to swing through a 2-1 pitch, which put the Reds starter one strike away from making history. With the count full later in the at-bat, Wallace slapped a soft liner into left field for a base hit.

Robinson was visibly and understandably disappointed. The next hitter lined a home run to right field to pull Montreal within one run. But closer John Franco came on to seal the Reds' victory and cap off an unbelievable performance and gutsy effort from Robinson.

Thirty-five years later, Robinson knows what that one final out could have done for his career and legacy. He is still asked about it whenever he returns to Reds Fantasy Camp or when a certain writer for reds.com decides to give him a call near the anniversary.

“I think about it when people like you bring it up,” Robinson said with a laugh. “It definitely would have made me richer, more famous, the first in Reds history -- there were a lot of firsts it would have made me, but it didn’t. But it was great to pitch that game, it was a special occasion. Just to pitch that far into the game after going through my arm surgeries, I was happy.”

As it was, Browning would go one to take the mound that Friday night in September and solidify his place in Reds lore. But there was no bitterness of any kind when one of his favorite teammates pitched his perfect game.

“It was great that Tom got a perfect game,” Robinson said. “He was a great person, a great competitor and a great teammate. I was actually supposed to pitch the next day, but we had a rain delay the night of Tom’s perfect game, so I took off. And then once I saw what was happening, I didn’t go back to the ballpark so I wouldn’t jinx him. So he got his perfect game and unfortunately I wasn’t there to celebrate it with him, but the next day I was. That’s how superstitious baseball players are.”

These days, Robinson spends his time out in California with his family. For the last 20 years, he has conducted private pitching lessons, trying to help kids that want to learn the game of baseball and play it the right way. He still follows the Reds and comes back to Cincinnati once a year.

He is also a regular at Fantasy Camp in Arizona each winter, where he looks forward to hanging out and reminiscing with fellow big leaguers every year -- and of course gets asked to talk about that memorable May night.