Part One with Trayvon Robinson: Baseball to a Better Life

Growing up in a neighborhood plagued by violence and limited opportunities, Trayvon Robinson knew early on that escaping that environment would take more than just dreaming—it would take relentless effort. Trayvon was never tempted to turn the criminal activity that many of his peers chose. Baseball took him to not-so-distant neighborhoods with luxurious gated communities, well-furnished baseball programs, and rosters full of recruited prospects. He utilized commitment and his baseball talents to build a future where safety, stability, and self-worth were everyday realities. 

It was a struggle to be seen and respected by scouts and the baseball brass for Trayvon and other prospects in his area. "It's just that it's the stigma of like, 'Oh, he's not playing against anybody.' Or 'He's not in a good league.' Don't get me wrong. It's probably not a good league. But how would you know if he is a good player or not? And that's what I had to make sure that I was put in those situations of playing against Mark Trumbo, Trevor Plouffe,

Justin Sellers, Danny Espinosa. There's a lot of guys I played against that went to prestigious high schools, but my boy Jermaine Williams, he went to Los Angeles High School. So it was just me and Jermaine that went to play against all these prestigious high schools and all these big prospects."

Trayvon was later drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 10th round of the 2005 MLB Draft out of Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles at the age of 17. "They said top 10 to 15 [rounds of the draft] so for me, I was like, I'm fine with that. I just want to go play baseball. Where I grew up, my house situation wasn't great. I just wanted to go and just see how far I can go because I know on the other side there's something better."

By 2009, Robinson was known sprung up the prospect lists. He earned a spot on the California All-Star Team in 2009, the Southern League All-Star team and in the Arizona Fall League's Rising Stars Game in 2010, and the AAA All-Star Game in 2011. Initially Trayvon was more known for his speed, making it remarkable that he was also included in the Home Run Derby of that AAA All-Star Game. 

At the July 31st, 2011 trading deadline, Trayvon Robinson was traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Seattle Mariners in the three-team deal that sent Erik Bedard to the Boston Red Sox. The move came as a surprise to Robinson. "I couldn't even tell you how much I was just crying on the inside. I was stunned."

Trayvon Robinson made his MLB debut less than a week later with the Seattle Mariners on August 5, 2011.

In this episode, Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson shares his journey from growing up in South Central LA to becoming a professional baseball player. He discusses the challenges he faced in his youth, the importance of community and mentorship, his experiences during the draft, and the emotional rollercoaster of transitioning to the big leagues. Robinson's story highlights the impact of personal struggles and the support of mentors in achieving success in sports.

Transcript

Jeff Perro (00:12)
Hello everybody, I'm Jeff Perro Welcome to this week's episode of Catch Up with JP. This week's guest is Mr. Trayvon Robinson. Spent some time in the big leagues with the Salem Mariners.

So Trayvon and I started talking and we just couldn't stop. It was just like making a new best friend basically. And we could not stop talking. So this week's episode is going be cut up into not two, but three parts. The first part of our conversation is going to be about him growing up in South Central Los Angeles and the struggles and challenges he faced with life, not just with around baseball. ⁓ He faced some, let's just say,

Interesting, unique uncertainty around draft time. He's going to talk about his time coming up with the Dodgers to their mind on the system and then being traded to the Seattle Mariners before making his major debut. This is what we're going to cover in part one.

Parts two and three will cover his time in the big leagues, his struggle to get back to the big leagues. And let's just say personal and financial instability kind of focused around the divorce. Some really interesting things we've not covered in any other prior episodes of Catch Up with JP.

So with that being said, split this into three parts because each third of this episode deserves attention. With that being said, here we go. Welcome to part one of Catch Up with JP episode with Mr. Trayvon Robinson, who is the hitting coach for the Lancaster Barnstormers of the Atlantic League.

Jeff Perro (01:54)
Mr. Robinson, welcome to the show.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (01:57)
Thank you, thank you for having me, I appreciate it.

Jeff Perro (02:00)
Thank you for being here. ⁓ So you grew up in South Central LA. What was it like being a young man and a young baseball player in South Central LA back in your time?

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (02:14)
⁓ It was ⁓ a little different. It was a little different. was ⁓

The lights, my mom always used say, when the street lights come on you better be on that portrait, you better be in the house. It was a lot of chaos going on. was the gang activity. I had friends going in and out of gangs. had some friends getting killed, getting caught up, arrested. It was weird because I knew it was something better on the other end. It felt like it was the norm there. I was just like, this is so, I don't think this is right.

When I go play baseball in Orange County, I go play baseball in Palisades area, San Fernando Valley, it was a different life. And people don't realize that those places is only about 20 miles away. You know what I'm saying? you go from the traffic out there, 30 minutes to 40 minutes away, then it's a whole different place. I...

knew that it was something completely different. I just always kept myself busy. I thank my mom for I my brothers ⁓ for their input. We always wanted to... We didn't have that ill will to do something that adapts us to our environment. We didn't have that. We played video games a lot. ⁓ We played a lot of video games. ⁓ Yeah, safe indoors. ⁓

Jeff Perro (03:36)
It's safe indoors, something to do.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (03:41)
Sometimes we go play basketball. Well, I'm not a big basketball guy. play football in the street. We just really did not get involved with any of that stuff. We knew that it wasn't good. You know I'm saying?

it was so much chaos to where we knew like I don't think this is good I don't think this is right right you know I'm saying so Growing up around that was tough and just trying to stay focused at a young kid Making sure that I'm always at the ballpark. I'm always at the park doing something ⁓ I've always you know every week. Just try to play ball. I just wish I was a little bit better in school You know that's the only thing I wish I was better at but

But yeah, growing up, I remember one time I was happy.

Jeff Perro (04:22)
How was it

finding and being involved in leagues in that area? Were the people reaching out to you? Were you able to get involved in leagues or is this kind of casual playing with your friends at that field?

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (04:36)
Yeah, I mean

I say it's kind of little bit both. I grew up in LA off Manchester and Western in that little box area called Manchester Square. ⁓ had this park called St. Andrews Park. St. Andrews Park always had something going on year round. ⁓ They liked my speed, they my athleticism. So was kind of like they always knew that he'll play somewhere, he'll play baseball, he'll play football somewhere. ⁓ The word just got out.

every single time. I wouldn't say it was easy, but I guess I validated their decision to pass my name along. I played there, I played in the Sportsman, literally, they got leveled out. Sportsman, literally, was close to where the SoFi Stadium is, the Rams and the Chargers. It was really close to there.

uh... know yeah i played everywhere then me playing in sportsman little league uh... know us getting to like the tournament champions or whatever you know it reached out to even teams that like outside of LA like hey you need to do this and you do that and eventually i ended up going to Crenshaw High School and uh... i didn't tell anybody about this story but i hope he gets to listen to this uh... Met a uh... Met a guy uh... well i wouldn't say a guy this guy was a big big

Jeff Perro (05:53)
I'm excited.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (05:59)
Big big big big part of my I need to reach out to him ⁓ His name is Stewart Smothers Stewart Smothers was a scout ⁓ for the Philadelphia Phillies at the time and his mother lived up up the street ⁓ She passed away God rest her soul beautiful woman ⁓ beautiful people beautiful people who they were

where they are. ⁓ His mother, he came down and he was just like, you know what, I'm just going to go see what's going on at Crenshaw High School. And he stayed in Ladera Heights, which is up the hill, ⁓ which is like the really rich area, like the urban area. So it was a really wealthy black community up the hill in Crenshaw. So he came down to just kind of see me move around and all that stuff. And he was just like, who the heck is this kid?

And for him, know... ⁓

for him to kind of take me, he took me under his wing. He know everything about me. I haven't talked to Stu in years, but Stewart knew everything about me, man. He picked me up. He know that my house situation, he know exactly what was going on, And I wouldn't thank him, but if it wasn't for him, I don't think I would be put into that next level, like area club baseball. All the others.

Jeff Perro (07:20)
Any

other, the travel ball, the league ball?

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (07:22)
Yeah,

the big high stuff that he literally just picked me up and was just like, hey man, go run this.

Jeff Perro (07:28)
and puts you right on the radar.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (07:29)
Yeah, go run a 60 yard dash as fast as you can and I ran a 60 yard dash but I think what really put it over the top is that my love for the game and my willingness to understand the game. Yeah, I was a little shithead when I was younger. I was just emotionally involved and I couldn't control it at a young age to where I wanted to be successful.

I'm asking for forgiveness now Stu ⁓

little

guy at that time but now I'm it. Yeah!

Jeff Perro (08:26)
You know, we're all 14, 15, 16 years old at one age. I was a

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (08:30)
Yeah,

Jeff Perro (08:30)
shithead. I still am. You know?

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (08:33)
now that 37 years old man literally just trying to go back and play those thoughts and stuff in my head like man everybody was pissed off ⁓ unintentionally you know everybody knows my heart and how I go about things I was definitely not trying to do that I was just I just wanted to be great I just wanted to be a great baseball player who came from my neighborhood I had a lot of guys I

Ozzie Smith, ⁓ Eddie Murray, Darryl Strawberry, Eric Davis, Ellis Valentine, Chris Brown, Royce Clayton. There's a number of guys, there's a Mount Rushmore guys who came from Los Angeles, like the hood of Los Angeles, and actually succeeded. ⁓

If there's anybody else I'm missing, ⁓ with Brandon Watson, Brian Barton, I just talked to him probably a few weeks ago on Instagram.

great guys. Them the guys I actually looked up to. ⁓ You know, got the Watson brothers, Brandon Watson, Sam Watson, all those guys. My high school coach, Andre Green. ⁓ Johnny Washington, he's a hidden coach with the Angels.

It's too many guys that I can't even name but I didn't want to like, because they took me under their wing. I didn't want to waste my time but they knew I was a young kid that just had so much potential and I just wanted to live up to it and it was just...

Jeff Perro (10:00)
So in your opinion,

from the Darryl Strawberry era to Davis days in the early 80s to your time in the early 2000s and now, how has the baseball scene in that area changed? it easy? Are there more guys coming out of there? Are there less guys coming from out there?

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (10:19)
There's a significantly a lot less guys coming out here. Just because I think, mean we have the Urban Youth Academy in Compton, but you know that's far from where I'm at. Like if you look at it directly, like it's still like 25, 30 minutes away. That's not a hop, skip, and away. Yeah, it's not.

Jeff Perro (10:35)
That's a way. That's a long time

there. 13 or 14 without a card.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (10:40)
Yeah, yeah, so it's not close. in my neighborhood, yes, it is significantly a lot less. But there still are good players. It's just that it's the stigma of like, oh, he's not playing against anybody. Or he's not in a good league. Don't get me wrong. It's probably not a good league. But how would you know if he is a good player or not? And that's what I...

I had to make sure that I was put in those situations of playing against Mark Trumbo, ⁓ Trevor Plouffe

⁓ Justin Sellers ⁓ Danny Espinosa There's a lot of guys I played against that went to prestigious high schools but my boy ⁓ he was with me Jermaine Williams he went to Los Angeles High School so it was just me and Jermaine that went to play against all these prestigious high schools and all these big prospects and all that stuff so we're like

Jeff Perro (11:30)
Right.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (11:33)
You know, we gotta make sure that there's good ballplayers that come out of our neighborhood. I don't think it's really about who you're playing against. It's that you think his attributes can compete against the guys that you guys say they are the top guys. So me and Jermaine literally had like, yo, we can play the game. It's just where we're from, that's fine. We can play the game.

and Jeff, it's different now too because now everything is so computer based to where like now you're taking the human element out of the game that like actually for me to actually physically see somebody's hunger of you know how much IQ do they have in the game because we all know that if you have the will-fulness of being a great baseball player

You can have three or four tools and make it to the big leagues and be in it for very long time. I really truly believe the game will go back to where the traditional baseball will come up again. But it will involve computers, but it has to go back again. And I think that starts with seeing the athlete, seeing the player, ⁓ knowing the player, understanding where his heart is, and so on and so forth.

Jeff Perro (12:53)
A lot of people I've talked to that have said, we're the place where the game is now involving a lot of things. It's going to shift back to the way things were. It goes from, uh, trying to mention travel ball to technology to bat flips. Everybody kind of sees that the game is going to kind of go back to the older school like it was 10, 20 years ago.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (13:12)
so I think so but you know I mean what I think this this is a marketing thing this marketing it's all it's all you know they're trying to compete

Jeff Perro (13:19)
Right, it is. The amount of

money inside the game nowadays in youth sports and youth baseball? Yeah, absolutely.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (13:25)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think we need to go back to focus on development I think we need to go back and focused on like just be just leadership All the all the guys that took care of me You know again, I was a shithead, know, it's just some guys but not intentionally

You know those guys, we need those guys again. I remember when I came back to AAA in 2019, I was an older guy. I was older guy, was 31. When I got to AAA, the guy was like 40. So he was like, what's going on here? So, you know, mean, with my age right now, I will be a AAA veteran. Still playing. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff Perro (13:58)
Right. ⁓

It's another way the game changed in the last 20 years. It used to be like that.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (14:10)
so well but you know i think it will go back to it you know think it has something that i think is bigger than what it is i think is is something i don't think you're you're taking away development that you're taking away patients you take away patients from the game ⁓

by saying hey I want younger players, want this and that. Dude, you can have younger players, but eventually life doesn't stop. They're gonna get older. They're probably gonna get better. I think rushing, rushing guys is a detrimental to the game and more so the player. Yeah.

Jeff Perro (14:43)
I think so too. Development, long term success, for sure.

you were drafted out of Crenshaw High School out the 10th round in 2005. The 10th round, that's a higher round, so you obviously did attract some attention from salesman. Tell us about your draft experience. Did you go as high as you thought? Did you thought you'd go higher? Were you surprised by the Dodgers picking you?

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (14:49)
Mm-hmm.

man, Jeff

are you really ready for some of these stories I'm about to tell you right now? Alright, I'm just just

Jeff Perro (15:10)
Emma?

No, just to give you something, I

just want to get an idea about who you are as a player, who you are as a player, and where you come from and where you are.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (15:20)
Yeah,

so I was just, you know, like I said, I was a young kid. I was very, very fast, you know, but I think what got them is that I was surprised that I was able to, had some good hand-eye coordination able to, was able to right full line drives. I stayed with them myself and I had a baseball, I loved the game of baseball. And I was like,

Jeff Perro (15:40)
Yeah,

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (15:41)
I was probably one of the best in the neighborhood, you know, for sure one of best in neighborhood with me and my boy Jermaine Williams. But yeah, we so, you know, we're getting all these calls, you know, we're doing all this stuff, these showcases, this and that, that and this. But then we ended up draft day. So we had our draft day. and Jermaine went to Stewart's house, Stewart Smothers house, Mrs. Smothers house that stayed right up the hill. ⁓

So I took a day from that, from school and went there and ⁓ the first five rounds we wasn't being called. we're just kind of like, Jermaine was kind of like,

Jeff Perro (16:18)
Right.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (16:21)
Hey, we're gonna get picked bro. So because you know, all these teams were telling us like yeah, you know the top five rounds top ten I knew I was gonna go into 10th floor out of 10 for hours. They said top 10 10 to 15 So for me, I was like, I'm fine with that, you know, I just want to go play baseball You know, I grew up I grew up where I grew up my house situation wasn't great. You know saying so it was crowded I just wanted to go like you know say I just wanted to go and just see how far I can go because I know on the other side There's something better on the other side. So

Jeff Perro (16:24)
you

Right.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (16:51)
we're waiting. We're waiting waiting after the fifth round of Jermaine leaves. I'm like Jermaine Where you going, bro? There's like 45 more rounds left. He's like, uh, you know, I don't know I'm getting if I ain't getting picked by now, you know, it'll probably be later for sure So he went to he just left so I just stayed there. I was like, I'm gonna just stay here and just listen

Jeff Perro (16:58)
Alright.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (17:11)
Hearing all my boys getting picked up, my boys sellers got picked up in the eighth, you know, couple other guys I knew got picked up at eighth, ninth, tenth, and then the tenth round came around. I was like, oh, well, this is where all they were saying that I was going to go, even though the Braves said they were going to take me in the five to tenth round. So I was thinking like, oh, I'll probably fall in the seventh, eighth.

Jeff Perro (17:30)
But you had a feeling

it was coming.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (17:32)
Yeah, I feel like it was starting to get warmer. So I was just like, okay, well, I gotta go now because everybody was saying the 10th round, 10th round, 10th round, 10th round. So I'm like, okay. Then I played this scenario back in my head that, you know, my brother was in, my little brother was there too. And I had the Colorado Rockies, I had the Atlanta Braves, cross checker and the scout there.

and I had the Seattle Mariners at my game one time. So I had about three to four guys at the game one time. ⁓ And was just probably a couple weeks before the draft.

And they ended up coming and I was playing shortstop and they were just like, man, why are you playing shortstop? You're not a shortstop. I'm just like, yeah, I know I'm not a shortstop, bro. My brother's pitching right now and who else is gonna play shortstop? So I was like, you guys just came here literally just to see me, you know, do whatever. you know, I grew up in a rough neighborhood.

And you know, I'm always looking at my surroundings just because that's just what it is. Like you always got to look and see where you're at, where you're going, blah, blah, blah, etc, etc. So I'm playing shortstop, my brother, you know, he's pitching pretty good. And I just happened to look up in right field and I seen this car just kind of parked there. I'm just like, well, that's weird. Then we go into the next inning then we come back out, you know, for defense and there's a car, the car's still there. I'm just like.

It's a residential area so for me it's like Why I'm looking at this car like something told me like just to watch this car There's two kids coming down the Street and There's a guy that popped out of the car with he had black gloves on he

popped out of the car and started shooting at the at the two guys on the bike. And they were passing, they were passing the field. So they're shooting towards the field. Like this guy is shooting towards the field, just shooting everywhere. And there's a softball practice, my friend, she was telling me that she seen the whole thing. It was a softball practice going on. They all hit the deck, we all hit the deck. And I'm just, I didn't hit the deck.

I literally just kind of like bend my head down and looked around and I was just like you gotta be you gotta be kidding me right now I mean that wasn't really the wow factor it was just like bro you don't really wait until these scouts come here to do that you couldn't wait like You know two days later or something like that. It was like it was the perfect storm that would happen. I have I have

Jeff Perro (19:51)
Is this real?

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (20:11)
the cross checker, everybody hitting the ground, and I'm just, and I didn't even look, I'm just looking at them, two seconds later, the Braves are gone. And I'm just like, that could have been it. And literally they were gonna take, the guy was saying like, he was gonna take, he put me in to be a fifth round draft pick with no, with no letter of intent, with no, you know, commitment to go to any college, even though I verbally committed to a couple colleges or whatever.

Jeff Perro (20:22)
That could have been it for you, man. That could have been your career right there.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (20:41)
But yeah, that happened. And then that's when I realized later on, and I fast forward back to draft day. So I got a call from that Braves guy. He was like, hey, I don't know what we're doing, but in the fifth round, we took this guy, blah, blah, blah. This guy's probably not even going to be playing out to me. I was like, don't worry about it. We're all good. Then he ended up kind of still reaching out to me.

Hey, how you feel? How you feel about this round? you feel about it? I was like, look, I just want to go play baseball. You have no idea. you know how I feel. Like the money is not an issue. can't like you give me three dollars. I can make it stretch. Like it's not a big deal. Just treat me fair. Whatever around you going to get me in. We're all good. So he was like, yeah, OK, OK, OK. Then the then the Dodgers pick me up in the 10th round. And I ran out the house. I screamed. I screamed and ran out the house because I was so excited. I was like, there's no way the Dodgers pick me up.

Jeff Perro (21:10)
I think you know how I feel. You should know by now how I feel.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (21:36)
know this and that and I don't know why the Dodgers were like least on my radar just because they had a lot of prospects. had the number one minor league organization, ⁓ et cetera, et cetera. ⁓ But I also did everything. I did the Dodger Elite Scout team.

Bobby Darwin, that was a scout. He was always in contact with me, but he was just a good dude. He didn't really try to... He came to my house, he seen my whole situation. I was just so surprised that they actually took a chance on me. So yeah, they ended up picking me up. And the guy from the Braves called me and was like, dude, I wish you the absolute best because...

I thought for sure you were going to be a brave and I was like I thought I was going to be a brave too and he was like you're in good hands over there with the proun with the Dodgers I was like ⁓ okay all right

Jeff Perro (22:26)
I know

having the impression from the those scouts, the networking that happens in baseball, it's always good to have those people that have your back that that know who you are

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (22:34)
Absolutely, absolutely.

think in their eyes when they really got to know me, they knew that this is a good dude. He has no ill will. He's just trapped. He's just trapped in a situation you don't want to be in. But some teams like that. They lick their chops. They're like, well, we can get this guy anything.

And I'm on the other end the line. I'm on the other end like, dude, I just want to play baseball. don't care. Yeah, you might take advantage of seeing how my house and my family, how we live, whatever. That's fine, dude. Whatever makes you happy. All I ask for is an opportunity to play in the Big League Stadium. That's all I ask.

Jeff Perro (22:58)
$3.

and you drafted, you had a lot of success in the mind leagues. I'm gonna read off these accolades here. 2009 California League All-Star, 2010 Southern League All-Star, 2011, guess what? Surprise, AAA All-Star, played in the Homerun Derby, the Rising Stars game in the Arizona Fall League. So fast forward up to 2011, you were...

getting pretty hot you were having a very good AAA season ⁓ with the Dodgers. trade deadlines happens and you get traded to the Mariners.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (23:52)
Yeah, I couldn't even tell you Jeff how much I was just crying on the inside. was stunned, I was stunned because I knew that the only thing I was asking is, bro, is that grass green or another side? Is it green or another side? And I had a lot of teammates that were like, yes, it can be. It can be. It can be. But.

Jeff Perro (24:11)
Can be.

Trayvon "T-Rob" Robinson (24:14)
I don't know man, I just really think it was moving too fast, Jeff. Everything was moving way too fast and I couldn't know how to handle it. I didn't know how to control my emotions. I even turned down some things that probably could have kept me in the big leagues a little bit longer. I don't know man, it was just too fast. I wasn't able to think. I was just so excited that I got my chance to be in the big leagues after I got traded over because it was like trade big leagues. I was like, what's going on