 A first-round pick in the 1975 Major League Baseball draft (21st choice overall), Robinson got most of his major league at-bats with the 1978 Oakland Athletics.After batting .299 with 10 home runs and 73 RBI in 102 games with the Vancouver Canadians in 1978, he received a mid-August call-up to the Major League club and hit .250 in 88 plate appearances over the final 28 games of the season.In 1980 Robinson, along with New York Yankees teammate Dave Righetti, was involved in a car accident in which his right shoulder sustained a career-impacting injury, necessitating reconstruction in May 1981.