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Brooks Robinson (1937-), Baltimore Orioles 3rd Baseman (1955-1977) and The Greatest Defensive Baseball Player of All Time


DonRocks

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American League’s Brooks Robinson makes great fielding play in today’s All-Star game at St. Louis on July 12, 1966, and throws out National League’s Henry Aaron at first in sixth innings. He is shown reaching for ball, regains balance, and then prepares for the throw. Robinson was named All-Star Most valuable Player. Nationals’ won, 2-1. (AP Photo)

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In the second inning, facing Sandy Koufax, and against an outfield of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Roberto Clemente, Brooks Robinson tripled, and then scored on a wild pitch.
Robinson went 3-for-4 in the game, adding two singles, and is one of two people ever named All-Star MVP on the losing team (the other being Carl Yastrzemski in 1970 - interestingly, these are also the only two players ever to have played for 23 seasons on a single team).

Box Score

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I've been watching the re-broadcast of the O's coverage of last night's game with the Nats. It's interesting to hear the other announcers. They had Brooks Robinson in the booth for a half an inning for an interview, since it was a Brooks Robinson bobblehead night. The interview was pretty cool, but afterwards, their sideline reporter went over to talk to a boy wearing a Brooks #5 jersey. Brooks had seen the boy on the tv monitor while he was in the booth and sent someone down with an autographed ball for him. It was a nice story. (I figured you'd be interested, Don, if you hadn't seen it.)

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From camdenchat.com:

On this day in 1964, Brooks Robinson was robbed of a home run in Kansas City by third base umpire Jon Rice, who mistakenly called his fly ball in play even though it bounced off the foul pole. Robinson was thrown out trying to get to third base. If not for that, Brooks could’ve had 269 career home runs instead of a meager 268! This is why replay is a thing now.

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Robinson starts a double play in Game 4 of the 1966 World Series. While this looks fairly routine:

* He caught it before it hit the ground a second time so he could 1) have more control over the ball and 2) have a bit more time
* Regarding "controlling the ball," notice how he leaned hard to his left and caught it with two hands
* Catching it with two hands also minimized the time from catch to release, and gave him plenty of time to get balanced
* Some third baseman would have rushed to underhand-scoop the throw after two steps (R-L); Robinson took four (R-L-R-L) and threw overhand
* Look at the absolutely perfect throw to Dave Johnson - perfect speed, perfect placement

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The 1965 MLB All-Star Game

Bottom of the 5th, AL batting, 2 outs, NL leading 5-1

Jimmie Hall walks against Jim Maloney, followed by Dick McAuliffe hitting a 2-run home run.

Still 2 outs, NL leading 5-3

Brooks Robinson singles (*), keeping the inning alive, and allowing the next batter, Harmon Killebrew, to hit a 2-run homer to tie the game at 5-5.

(*) Let's take a closer look at Brooks Robinson's single down the third-base line against Hall of Fame third baseman Ron Santo, who many are now saying was "superior to Brooks Robinson." Had the batter and fielder been reversed on this play, the inning would have been over, and the NL would have still been ahead 5-3. Maybe for Ron Santo this wasn't an error; had it been Brooks Robinson, it would have been.

Top of the 7th, NL batting, Sam McDowell pitching, none out:

* Willie Mays walks

* Hank Aaron singles to right, sending Mays to third

* The NL pinch-hits the right-handed Roberto Clemente (think hard about this) for the left-handed Willie Stargell

Roberto Clemente grounds to shortstop Zoilo Versailles. As he did so many times in his career, Brooks Robinson ran to his left and cut it off, giving him enough time to check Mays (who had broken towards home, and was forced to scamper back to third base), then threw to second base to force Hank Aaron while Roberto Clemente reached first.

The next batter, Ron Santo, with the score still tied at 5-5, chopped a ball over Sam McDowell's head, which went off the mitt of second baseman Bobby Richardson, and was then bobbled by (1965 AL MVP!) Zoilo Versalles (?!) before Versalles desperate throw was too late, and Mays scored with the wnning run (the final score was 6-5).

Both the Santo grounder and the Richardson-Versalles grounder would have been errors in the league that Brooks Robinson came down from; instead, the NL won this game 6-5.

Fear not - the NL won the 1966 All-Star game also, but Brooks Robinson was named the only MVP in history from a losing team. A make-up call from this game? Perhaps, or perhaps he deserved it both years.

I'm certain advanced sabermetrics can account for all these nuances, even though almost no games were televised. I mean, you can get all these details just from looking at a box score, right? Right?

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