NT, thank you for posting this. Growing up in the NYC area I loved the Brooklyn Dodgers and Gil. He was great guy who married a local Brooklyn girl and lived there in the off season. He was in the Pacific with the Marines in WW II so he lost some years there.
He had class, everyone loved him and he had great numbers with the Dodgers. It's been said that too many Dodgers from that era are in HOF so Gil lost his spot.
Interesting to note, Frank Robinson hated the fact that the Mets beat the Orioles in the 1969 series. Hodges, of course, managed the Mets. Gil would relay signs to coaches who passed the signs along to the Met players. Robinson never caught on a said Hodges didn't do anything to warrant the praise he received for the Met's series win. Later when Robinson was heading up the HOF Veteran's Committee that could have voted Gil in, he lobbied to keep him out and people were afraid to cross Robinson so they went along.
The incident makes me happy to recall the time Robinson slid hard into Eddie Matthews and got knocked out with one punch.
Thanks.