Baseball Legends: Brooks Robinson (Orioles 1955-1977)

“I’m beginning to see Brooks (Robinson) in my sleep. If I dropped a paper plate, he’d pick it up on one hop and throw me out at first.” – Sparky Anderson

When most fans think of defensive third basemen one name immediately comes to mind, Brooks Robinson. His nickname “The Human Vacuum Cleaner” describes his ability at third pretty well. He holds a career .971 fielding percentage in 2,900 Major League games. He also won the Gold Glove every year from 1960-1975. He led the AL in fielding percentage a record 11 times. He was selected to the American League All-Star team eighteen times from 1960-1974 as well. He even took home the MVP award of the midsummer classic in 1966. Numbers cannot even quantify what he did at the position. He made catches that all third basemen must now live up to.

For all of his defensive accolades he was also pretty good at the plate. He hit .267 with 268 home runs, 1,357 RBI’s, and 2,848 hits during his career. He had his best season at the plate in 1964 which also coincides with his only American League MVP award. That year he hit .317 with 28 home runs, and a league leading 118 RBI’s.

The Orioles made it to 4 World Series in Brooks’ career with the team winning two of them. He was selected the Most Valuable Player of the 1970 fall classic. In that ‘70 Series he hit .429 with 2 home runs, 2 doubles, 6 RBI’s, and a record 9 hits. That followed a great ALCS in which he hit .583. He also made some defensive plays that still show up in highlight shows.

Brooks Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983 with 91.98% of the vote. His #5 was retired by the Orioles in 1977.

See Robinson’s career statistics at baseball-reference.com.

Written by Dave at Confessions of a Sports Junkie.