Robins (Brooklyn baseball team)
The baseball team that would be known as the Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers) was called the Brooklyn Robins from 1914 to 1931, in honor of its manager, Wilbert Robinson.
Wikipedia: Wilbert Robinson
Wilbert Robinson (June 29, 1863 - August 8, 1934), nicknamed “Uncle Robbie”, was an American player, coach and manager in Major League Baseball. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945.
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Robinson served as player-manager of the AL Orioles in 1902, after his friend and former teammate John McGraw had departed to the New York Giants. Afterward, McGraw enticed Robinson to be his pitching coach from 1903 to 1913, during which time the Giants won five NL pennants. Robinson would not don the manager’s cap again in the majors until 1914, when he took over the Brooklyn, New York franchise in the National League. The team was known by various nicknames, including Bridegrooms, Superbas, and Dodgers, but during Robinson’s managerial tenure, which lasted until 1931, the club was as often referred to as the “Robins” in honor of their manager, who had acquired the nickname “Uncle Robbie”.
http://www.acmewebpages.com/dodgers/thename.htm
Wilbert Robinson became manager in 1914, a year after the team moved into Ebbets Field. He saw the team through some if its more colorful, if not always successful, years. While he was manager (1914 - 1931) the team was sometimes called the Robins or the Flock. Just as often, though, they were called the Daffy Dodgers or Uncle Robbie’s Daffiness Boys.
In 1926 Uncle Robbie phoned the Brooklyn Sun to complain about a sports cartoon that compared two players’ salaries. The sports editor was so upset he ordered his writers to use the name Dodgers and never again refer to the team as the Robins. When Robbie was replaced as manager in 1932, the other newspapers followed suit.
http://baseball-almanac.com/teammenu.shtml
Los Angeles Dodgers
1958 - present
Brooklyn Dodgers
1932 - 1957
Brooklyn Robins
1914 - 1931
Brooklyn Dodgers
1911 - 1913
Brooklyn Superbas
1899 - 1910
Brooklyn Bridegrooms
1890 - 1898
Brooklyn Bridegrooms (AA)
1889 - 1889
Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers (AA)
1884 - 1888
(The datings of some of these nicknames appear to be incorrect—ed.)
9 April 1914, Boston Daily Globe, pg. 7:
CHAMPS LOSE
TO THE ROBINS
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BROOKLYN, April 8—Two smashing singles in the ninth inning during a heavy downpour of rain this afternoon at Ebbets Field gave Wilbert Robinson’s Brooklyn Robins a clean-cut victory over Connie Mack’s World’s Champions.