Just Looking For An Excuse To Post This Picture Of Yank Robinson

(Yank) Robinson, born in Philadelpia, had made his major-league debut in 1882, playing eleven games for the Detroit Wolverines of the National League. In 1884 he joined the Baltimore Monumentals of the Union Association. Robinson had displayed so many skills that the Post-Dispatch praised him as "the best all-around player in the Union Association." He participated in 102 games for the Monumentals-catching eleven games, pitching another eleven, and also seeing action seventy-one times at third base, on fourteen occasions as a shortstop, and in three appearances at second base. Robinson won three games and lost three as a pitcher, hit .267, and led Union Association third basemen in fielding average...

...Robinson had not played in either the National League or the American Association during 1883, and thus was not subject to the blacklisting provisions of the Day Resolution. In a lively bidding war for Robinson's services, Von der Ahe triumphed over the Baltimore Orioles and other Association teams as well as three National League clubs-the Chicago White Stockings, Providence Grays, and Philadelphia Quakers. Von der Ahe promised St. Louis baseball fans that his newest recruit was "one of the best players in the country."

-From Before They Were Cardinals