Robin Roberts

Chris Roberts, a Germantown Academy senior and a grandson of Robin Roberts, the Phillies Hall of Famer, traded his bat and glove for a lacrosse stick four years ago and has never regretted it. The 5-foot-11, 180-pound athlete says lacrosse is exhilarating and baseball dull. Baseball fans may find this surprising, because it seems only natural that a grandson of a pitching icon would be playing the grand old game, just as his father, Robin Roberts Jr., and three uncles did. Lacrosse fans, on the other hand, don't find this startling at all, because they regard their sport as more exciting than baseball.

Hall-of-Fame pitcher Robin Roberts, the former Phillies star, will sign his autobiography, My Life in Baseball, at the Greenhouse Restaurant in Margate, N.J., next Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. Roberts will also be promoting the second annual Margate Little League Golf Tournament. It will be held at noon Sept. 25 at the Linwood Country Club. Roberts will participate in the tournament, in which all proceeds will benefit the Little League program. Roberts became connected with the Margate Little League through Tom Hiltner, the Margate city clerk.

COLE HAMELS grew up in San Diego, which is about as far away from Philadelphia as you can get and still have one foot in the continental United States. He was born in 1983, more than 20 years after Robin Roberts threw his last pitch for the Phillies. Yet the two men, despite an age difference of almost a half-century, shared a bond that crossed all generational lines. It wasn't just Hamels, either. That's the way it was whenever Roberts, who passed away yesterday morning at age 83, visited the clubhouse.

Robin Roberts, the Phillies' Hall of Fame righthander, still clearly remembers the 1953 afternoon when Russ "The Mad Monk" Meyer pitched against his former teammates at Connie Mack Stadium shortly after being traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was an early "Game of the Week" on national television. Meyer got into a heated argument with plate umpire Augie Donatelli over a walk to Richie Ashburn. Finally, Donatelli threw Meyer out of the game, but he refused to leave the mound. "He was hollering at the umpire," Roberts recalled yesterday from his home in the Tampa, Fla., area.

At his death last May at age 83, Phillies Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts left behind a treasure trove of memorabilia that he had collected during the course of his 19-season career in the major leagues. He also left behind four sons, who found themselves faced with a vexing question: Who gets what? Who gets the signed Babe Ruth ball? Who gets the 1950 National League championship ring? Who gets the collection of hand-painted game-used baseballs from more than 100 of his 286 career victories?

Until Joe Carter came along and introduced his Louisville Slugger to Mitch Williams' tired fastball on the night of Oct. 23, 1993, the most crushing home run hit against the Phillies in World Series play was Joe DiMaggio's game-winner in Game 2 of the 1950 World Series. DiMaggio, who died yesterday at age 84, was 35 and in the penultimate season of his magnificent career when he led off the 10th inning of a 1-1 game by belting a 2-1 fastball from Robin Roberts into the upper deck above left field at Philadelphia's Shibe Park.

Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts, a star of the 1950 Whiz Kids who stayed connected to the 21st-century Phillies, died Thursday morning at his home in Temple Terrace, Fla. Mr. Roberts, 83, died of natural causes. He is best known as the staff ace of the 1950 Phillies, a team that captured the franchise's first National League pennant in 35 years before being swept in the World Series by the New York Yankees. The hard-throwing righthander went 20-11 for the Whiz Kids, including a pennant-clinching victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers on the final day of the season, triggering citywide celebrations.

You might say it has been a while since a National League pitcher started two straight All-Star Games. It has been so long, in fact, that the names of some of the guys who took the field the last time this happened included Ted Kluszewski, Jackie Robinson and Minnie Minoso. The years were 1954 and '55. And the starting pitcher was a fellow named Robin Roberts. Little did he suspect that it would be nearly 40 years until someone followed in his very large footsteps. But tonight, in the 63d All-Star Game, someone finally will.

To read Paul Hagen's "Wonder of the Whiz Kids," an extensive series from March on the 1950 Phillies, including a lengthy interview with Robin Roberts, go to our website at go.philly.com/whizkids. Comcast SportsNet will air "Spotlight: Robin Roberts" at 4 o'clock today and the show will then be available On Demand tomorrow.  

1. Robin Roberts (1950) 2. Steve Carlton (1980) 3. John Denny (1983) 4. Curt Schilling (1993) 5. Cole Hamels (2008)

WE FIGURE Phillies fans probably need a bit of good news after the weekend's disappointing losses to the Marlins. To that end, we take you back to Friday night when Ryan Howard hit a home run at the request of A.J. Moncman, a 7-year-old who is blind. It was Teacher Appreciation Night and A.J. was at the game because his teacher, Bethann Molinari - who he had nominated - was being honored in a pregame ceremony. A.J. attends Hopewell Elementary School in Upper Saucon Township and Molinari taught him how to read and write in Braille.

How big a deal was Robin Roberts ' return, after a six-month sick leave, to ABC's Good Morning America on Wednesday? So big, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama marked the event in a taped message. "Welcome back, Robin!" said the president, who called the news anchor "an inspiration to all of us. " Roberts, 52, who received a bone marrow transplant as part of her treatment for myelodysplastic syndrome, was elated. "I have been waiting 174 days to say this: 'Good Morning America,' " she said.

"I'm coming home," Robin Roberts joyously declared Monday in a videocast appearance on Good Morning America beamed from her home as a rousing rendition of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" played in the background. By home, she meant GMA , which has flown without her since she underwent a marrow transplant 20 weeks ago. Roberts, 52, who has the blood disease myelodysplastic syndrome, said her latest tests were so positive, she'll be back "in weeks, not months. " Roberts was excited to be back on air. "I haven't been live on television since the end of August," she said.

Amid the posthumous accolades accorded Marvin Miller this week, the Philadelphian responsible for bringing the labor legend into baseball rated hardly a mention. Yet if not for George Taylor, the change Miller forged as head of the Major League Baseball Players Association might never have happened. It was Taylor, a Kensington native and longtime Wharton School professor, who recommended Miller to Robin Roberts when, in 1965, the toothless union sought a leader. "I knew he had settled numerous labor disputes and had a reputation for sizing up men . . . experienced in negotiating labor agreements," Roberts said in 1969.

Good Morning America host Robin Roberts left the hospital Wednesday, 21 days after receiving a bone-marrow graft. She has myelodysplastic syndrome, the recovery has been (and will be) arduous, and her battle is far from over. But home's a good place to be. She tweets: "There's no place like home. After 20 days in the hospital I'm home. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Thank YOU and bless YOU. XO. " On her blog, she says she'll be away from TV for awhile and must still wear a mask and gloves to protect her immune system, more or less destroyed to accommodate the bone-marrow transplant from her sister Sally-Ann .   Whitney Houston's daughter engaged Like all clever reality stars, Bobbi Kristina Brown waited until her show was about to air to announce big news: She's engaged.

NEW YORK (AP) - Lucimarian Roberts, the mother of "Good Morning America" co-host Robin Roberts, has died a day after the anchor announced she was taking a medical leave for a bon- marrow transplant. Roberts, 88, died in Gulfport, Miss., on Thursday night, Jeffrey W. Schneider, senior vice president of ABC News, said Friday. The announcement of the death also was made on "GMA" on Friday morning. "Robin arrived home with her sister, Sally-Ann, forging through flooded and blocked roads to be with her beloved mother in time to see her," GMA Senior Executive Tom Cibrowski said in an email to the entire news division Thursday evening.

Lucimarian Roberts, 88, an educator and the mother of Good Morning America cohost Robin Roberts, has died. Mrs. Roberts died Thursday in Gulfport, Miss., a day after the anchor announced she was taking leave for a bone marrow transplant. The death was also announced Friday on GMA . "Robin arrived home with her sister, Sally-Ann, forging through flooded and blocked roads to be with her beloved mother in time to see her," GMA senior executive Tom Cibrowski said in an e-mail to the news division Thursday.

David Arquette this weekend became a man, in his own words, after undergoing a bar mitzvah ceremony at Jerusalem's most holy Western Wall. A few days later, he made that most adult, dread decision: to make official his breakup with estranged wife Courteney Cox, TMZ reports. Filed Tuesday, on the couple's 12-year anniversary, in Superior Court of California in Los Angeles, David's divorce papers cite the catchall "irreconcilable differences. " The forms are dated March 23, which means David held onto them for three months before making his move.

Good Morning America cohost Robin Roberts , who five years ago battled breast cancer, on Monday teared up on the show as she revealed that she has the rare blood and marrow disorder myelodysplastic syndrome. Roberts, 51, said she had begun chemotherapy and will need to get a bone-marrow transplant this fall. She has a perfect match: her sister Sally Ann Roberts , a TV anchor in New Orleans. "My doctors tell me I'm going to beat this, and I know it's true," said Roberts, who developed MDS as a result of her cancer treatments, an extremely rare form of transmission.

At his death last May at age 83, Phillies Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts left behind a treasure trove of memorabilia that he had collected during the course of his 19-season career in the major leagues. He also left behind four sons, who found themselves faced with a vexing question: Who gets what? Who gets the signed Babe Ruth ball? Who gets the 1950 National League championship ring? Who gets the collection of hand-painted game-used baseballs from more than 100 of his 286 career victories?