Baseball, and America, lost a true hero Thursday when Hall of Famer Frank Robinson died of bone cancer at age 83.

Robinson was a hero, not just because he was one of the best baseball players ever, which he was, and not just because he was Major League Baseball’s first black manager, but because he did it all with such grace, dignity, and integrity. The pressure was intense when he took over as player-manager of the Cleveland Indians 1975. Yet, he plowed ahead with legendary focus on the game itself, neither loudly trumpeting nor running from all the questions about his blackness and his, well, firstness.