After Barry Bonds passes Mark McGwire on the all-time home run list, the only name between Bonds and 600 is the most underrated superstar I ever played against -- Frank Robinson.

	Frank Robinson earned his first of two MVP awards in 1961 while playing for the Reds.

I have never understood why Robinson, now manager of the Montreal Expos, has always been the forgotten man. Somehow, he has failed to garner the respect other great players have received.

He was the most glaring omission on Major League Baseball's All-Century Team three years ago. After the fans selected an all-time 25-player roster, a panel of baseball executives, media and historians added five more players -- Lefty Grove, Warren Spahn, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner and Stan Musial. They should have added Robinson as well.

Being left off the All-Century team bothered Robinson and those who played against him. While a player's accomplishments should speak for him, that is not the case with Robinson. He hit 586 home runs -- for now, fewer than only Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. He finished only 57 hits shy of 3,000.

He is still the only player to win the MVP in both leagues. He won the Triple Crown in 1966. He played on two World Series championship teams. He was a World Series MVP. There is not much more Robinson could do to get noticed.

If you asked six to eight players from the great NL era of Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente and Robinson, some would say Robinson was the best player they ever saw. The way I rate players might be different than how someone else does. Mays is the greatest player I have ever seen, but Robinson isn't far behind.

In Cincinnati and in Baltimore, he was always the man, the team leader. In addition to hitting home runs, Robinson did everything on the field that a player is supposed to do, including run, field and throw. He was also one of baseball's toughest players, one who played hard and played to win.

Robinson came from Oakland, where I grew up. And when I entered the big leagues in 1963, I admired the Cincinnati Reds because they had a number of players from my little corner of the world, including Robinson, Vada Pinson, Joe Gaines and Jesse Gonder.

Before my first major-league game in Cincinnati, Pinson, Gaines and Gonder came over to me during batting practice to shake my hand and say hello because they knew I was from Oakland. Frank just kind of nodded at me from a distance. Afterward, they took me over to shake Frank's hand as well.

However, friendships ended once the game started. In the first inning, Robinson reached first base. And as I was turning a double play, he just destroyed me at second base. I got rid of the ball, but he took me out. It didn't bother me because that is the way you play the game.

At another time, in the first game of a doubleheader in 1962, he slid hard into third base against the Braves, and Eddie Mathews hit him in the face three times. Robinson's eye swelled up. But in the second game, he went out and hit a home run to win it for the Reds.

Robinson used to stand almost on top of the plate, but pitchers told me their managers instructed them never to knock Robinson down. They didn't want to make Robinson mad. If they knocked him down, he would make them pay. Don Drysdale used to knock him down all the time. One time Drysdale nearly took his head off. But Robinson hit a home run on the next pitch.

The fact Robinson played the bulk of his career in Cincinnati and Baltimore had an effect on how much he has been recognized. At the same time, Ted Williams played in Boston and Stan Musial played in St. Louis, and people seem to remember them.

Maybe he is somewhat forgotten as a player because he fell short of 600 home runs and 3,000 hits. But Robinson shouldn't need 600 homers or 3,000 hits to be more fondly remembered. Clemente reached 3,000 hits but hit only 240 homers. Yet some people think he was the greatest player of his era.

Statistics are just numbers now. Because home runs are hit with more regularity now, reaching the 500 mark may no longer guarantee a player's election to the Hall of Fame, as it once did. Although Robinson is fourth on the all-time list, he was recently quoted saying, "I hope I end up 30th." People may laugh, but he was serious. If players continue to hit home runs at the current pace, more will hit 500-plus home runs and push Robinson further down the list -- and further out of peoples' minds.

Like Robinson, there are some players who will never get the credit they deserve. One is Tony Perez, who was finally elected to the Hall of Fame in his ninth year of eligibility. In today's game, Sammy Sosa is not as appreciated as he should be. No one but Sosa has hit more than 60 homers three times, yet in people's eyes he is always second to either Bonds or McGwire.

As the old saying goes, "You can only do what you do. You can't control what somebody else does." And Sosa is doing what he does, on his way to perhaps another 60-homer season, and Robinson did what he did.

Baseball owes a big debt to Robinson -- as one of the greatest players ever, as the first African-American manager, and as a man never given the opportunity to be a general manager. But guess what? Robinson still loves the game and does what he thinks is best. While it would be easy for him to be angry, Robinson has mellowed with age. He decided to go back and manage Montreal for the good of the game.

His on-the-field accomplishments deserve our continued admiration. When Bonds hits home run No. 587, it's unfortunate that Robinson might be recognized only as a great player for a day -- and then forgotten again. Robinson should be remembered as a force, not a footnote.

Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan is a baseball analyst for ESPN and contributes a weekly column for ESPN.com.