Robinson made his major league debut for the New York Yankees on May 6,
1943, playing in only one game before leaving to serve in the
United States Coast Guard for the remainder of
World War II. His service in the Coast Guard began on June 21, 1943, and he played baseball while serving. When the war ended in
1945, Robinson returned to the Yankees in July, appearing in 50 games. Robinson finished 16th in the American League
Most Valuable Player Award voting. Robinson began the
1947 season as the Yankees' starting catcher, and was named as a reserve player for the American League in the
1947 All-Star Game. However, as the season progressed,
Yogi Berra began to take over as the starting catcher. Having a surplus of catchers in
1948 with Berra,
Sherm Lollar and
Gus Niarhos, the Yankees decided to trade Robinson, along with
Fred Bradley and
Bill Wight, to the
Chicago White Sox for
Eddie Lopat in February of that year. He played in 98 games for the White Sox, but his offensive statistics continued to decline, as he hit for a .252 batting average. The Tigers had been in first place for most of the season and, had just fallen to second place behind the Yankees with one week left in the season. Heavy smoke from a Canadian forest fire forced the Indians to turn on the lights in
Cleveland Stadium for the Sunday afternoon game. With the score tied 1–1,
Bob Lemon opened the bottom of the tenth
inning with a
triple, and two
intentional walks followed. With the bases loaded and one
out,
Luke Easter grounded out to Tigers'
first baseman Don Kolloway, who then tagged first base. Because of the haze, Robinson did not see Kolloway remove the force after fielding the ball. Thinking he only had to step on
home plate to
force out Lemon, he failed to apply a
tag, thus allowing Lemon to score the winning
run. The Tigers fell two and a half games behind the Yankees in the standings with one week left in the season, and were unable to recover before the season ended. Robinson retired at the end of the season. In 610 games played in the big leagues, Robinson collected 478
hits, including 74
doubles, 11
triples and 61
home runs. He
hit .260 lifetime. ==Career statistics==