In one of his final gestures as manager of the Washington Nationals, Baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson met with a group of journalism students Thursday to discuss media coverage of Major League Baseball.

On Saturday, the team confirmed reports on its Web site that Robinson will not return as the National’s manager after two years at the helm of D.C.’s MLB team.

Vice President of Communications Mike Freedman’s “Radio News: History and Practice” class traveled to the Nationals’ home at RFK stadium to meet with Robinson, Nationals President Stan Kasten and the radio and television play-by-play broadcasters for the team. Students also ate dinner in the press dining room and watched the game in the press box, Freedman said.

“It was a magic moment for all of us to be standing in the dugout with a man who-perhaps more than anyone alive today-best epitomizes all that is good and right in baseball,” Freedman wrote in an e-mail after the event.

Robinson spoke to students about how he deals with the media and how he develops relationships with specific reporters rather than be confrontational with them, Freedman said.

Freedman and his wife are personal friends with Robinson and his wife Barbara, he added.

Robinson just finished his 51st season in Major League Baseball and has spent the last 16 years as a manager. As an outfielder in the 1950s and 1960s, Robinson won the Most Valuable Player award twice and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982.

GW honored Robinson with an honorary Doctorate in Public Service degree during the Columbian College of Arts and Science’s Commencement ceremony in May.