Kernels rally late to give Senator Robinson a victory

CEDAR RAPIDS - Mayor Dakota Robinson. Senator Dakota Robinson.

President Dakota Robinson?

“I'm sure mom would like to hear that one,” smiled the Cedar Rapids Kernels relief pitcher after Travis Witherspoon homered in the eighth inning to give their team a 5-4 victory Wednesday afternoon over Great Lakes at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Robinson has his eye on the future, and that future includes politics, of all things.

Don't get him wrong, he'll take baseball as far as it can go. Being a left-handed reliever, he's got a chance to pitch for a long time.

But there's a reason he recently spent an off day taking the Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT, as it's known. He hopes he's accepted into graduate school at Louisiana Tech.

After that, it'll be law school, with an eye toward some political office somewhere.

“I like trying to help people,” he said. “Wherever God puts me at, whatever level, that's what I'm willing to accept.”

Robinson was a 26th-round draft pick of the parent Angels last year out of Centenary College in his hometown of Shreveport, La. He got the win Wednesday to improve his record to 3-0, to go along with six saves and an earned run average in the threes.

But along with doing good work on the mound this season, the gregarious 23-year-old has been doing good work off it. Instead of sleeping on bus trips or watching television and playing video games in his spare time, Robinson was studying.

“To be honest with you, I don't know,” he said, when asked why he took the GMAT during the season. “I was always a guy who said I would never go back to school once I was done. I don't know if it's just a sense of pride or accomplishment. I've always been a goal-oriented person, whether it's baseball or whatever. Something feels good about reaching that next level. I think more than anything, that's what it is.”

It's not like he is failing to work on his pitching. In a recent slump, Robinson did a lot of work on his mechanics with Kernels pitching coach Trevor Wilson before Wednesday's game.

“You look around a lot and see that people in the baseball field don't really prepare for the future,” he said. “I don't know what the stats are on who makes it, how many people make it. The odds aren't good, so it's one of those things where I'm trying to lay the groundwork for my future. If baseball works out, baseball works out. That's icing on the cake.”

"Smart kid. He's a really smart kid," Kernels Manager Brent Del Chiaro said. "He'd be a good politician. He really is a people person. Very approachable, easy to talk to. I think he'd be good at politics."

The Kernels improved to 28-31 with the victory. They opened Midwest League play Wednesday five games behind Quad Cities for second place and the final first-half playoff spot in the Western Division.

There are 11 first-half games remaining, including the finale of this three-game series Thursday night at 6:35.