DonRocks Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 Skip directly to Part 1 Bottom of the 9th In the Preambulum, I made a bold proclamation: I said I was going to all-but prove to you that Brooks Robinson was the greatest defensive player ever to play baseball, at any position. My attempt to do so was to use the 1970 World Series - the thing that everyone remembers - to demonstrate just how great Robinson was. As of right now, a certain percentage of readers probably think I did a pretty decent job, while another group probably thinks I didn't prove anything - okay, the guy had a great World Series ... so what? That doesn't make him "the greatest defensive player of all-time, you hyperbolic fan-boy!" I also mentioned Aristotle's recipe for persuasion, translated to Yogi Berrish: "Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em, tell 'em, and then tell 'em what you just told 'em." I have now written the first long-form piece of my entire life, spending dozens-upon-dozens of hours methodically attempting to convey to you the second part of that triptych. What I'm going to do right now is tell you what I just told you, but after five games of tossing you slow, hanging curveballs, it's now time for me to reach back, give it everything I've got, and deliver the heat, on this, my final pitch. I suspect I'll be the first person ever to say this, but I'm going to come right out and say it: Brooks Robinson had a sub-par defensive World Series, and all those "miraculous plays" you just saw were things he did as a matter of course. The difference between this World Series, and Robinson's 23-years playing 3rd base can be summed up by two things: 1) this was the first time he ever got true, national attention for something he did for his entire career, and 2) he had an offensive World Series that would have made Babe Ruth proud. *That* is why this is known as "The Brooks Robinson Series." Robinson had a .958 fielding percentage in this World Series, which for most people would have been excellent: Pie Traynor had a career fielding percentage of .947, and Mike Schmidt had a career fielding percentage of .951 - this would have been an outstanding five games for either of those two; for Robinson? It was below his usual standards. Robinson had a relatively high number of Chances-per-Game in this Series - more than his career average, but let's take a look at the 16 consecutive years in which he won his Gold Gloves (yes, he made all sorts of spectacular plays over that 16-year span, just like he did in this World Series - there was nothing new there): 1960 - .977 1961 - .972 1962 - .979 1963 - .976 1964 - .972 1965 - .967 1966 - .976 1967 - .980 1968 - .970 1969 - .976 1970 - .966 1971 - .968 1972 - .977 1973 - .970 1974 - .967 1975 - .979 Please look closely. In his *worst* year out of those 16 - ironically, 1970 - his season fielding percentage was .966: notably higher than his fielding percentage in this World Series. From 1955 through 1977 - 23 years - his career-average fielding percentage was .971. Brooks Robinson made 45% more Errors per Chance in this World Series than he averaged throughout his career - and this includes seasons when he was both 18- and 40-years-old. Not only that, but he got a chance to field only two bunts during the five games - one of which he let roll for a base hit, which he almost never did - and fielding bunts was one of his preternatural skills. He didn't tag a single runner, he had only one force-out on a double-play ball, and he could have easily been charged with a second error on Tommy Helms' infield single in Game 4. Robinson played in 9 post-season series, and this one ranks #7 in fielding percentage: 1966 WS - 1.000 1969 ALCS - 1.000 1969 WS - 1.000 1970 ALCS - 1.000 1970 WS - .958 1971 ALCS - 1.000 1971 WS - .920 1973 ALCS - .941 1974 ALCS - 1.000 Total - .972, just slightly higher than his career average. That one, seemingly innocuous, throw in Game 1, which was about three-inches too high, was so out-of-character for Robinson that it skewed his entire World Series down in terms of fielding percentage. The spectacular plays? He made those routinely - he made them *all the time* - they were not spectacular plays for Robinson, they were completely ordinary; it was his slightly errant throw that was the oddity. You've been groomed, over the decades, into thinking that Robinson had some sort of statistical anomaly in the 1970 World Series, but the numbers and films reveal otherwise: Robinson had a below-average World Series in terms of defense. In terms of offense? He was a tour-de-force (with due respect to Paul Blair, Lee May, and several others), and he pulled it off in front of the national eye. In 1970, left-handed pitchers Dave McNally (I have a friend who calls him "Dave McLucky") and Mike Cuellar each won 24 games. Both pitchers tended to throw sinking curves, low-and-inside to the 3rd-base side of home plate, forcing batters to hit ground balls to Brooks Robinson. In 1969, Mike Cuellar won 23 games with these slow, loping curveballs and screwballs, and he won the Cy Young Award: In 1971, the Orioles had 4 20-game winners. These pitchers' games - with the exception of the fantastic Jim Palmer - were molded to tempt hitters to direct the ball towards third base and shortstop (even Pat Dobson - formerly a power pitcher - had recently developed a slider with negligible lateral breakaway from right-handed batters, forcing ground balls to the left side of the infield). Regarding shortstop, In my analysis of Game 2, I referred you to a link which some of you may have glossed over. I need you to go there now, and really *read* it (here it is) - it will come very close to mathematically proving what type of range Robinson had, using Luis Aparicio as the constant, and different third basemen as the variable. Is it coincidence that during Robinson's tenure, the Orioles had two of the greatest defensive shortstops the game has ever known? Or was Robinson acting as a booster, rescuing both Belanger and Aparacio when they needed to go towards their right? The answer is pretty-well mapped out in the Aparicio analysis - please visit this link, read it carefully, and remember it well 2-3 paragraphs from now. In the crudest of terms, the baseball field can be broken into four quadrants: 1) the left-side of the infield 2) the right-side of the infield 3) the left side of the outfield, and 4) the right-side of the outfield. The Orioles were very fortunate to have Paul Blair in center-field, one of the greatest - if not *the* greatest - defensive center-fielder in history, because Brooks Robinson wasn't able to cover for the Orioles' outfielders. Likewise, how fortunate to have Davey Johnson at 2nd base, and the extremely underrated Boog Powell at 1st base - a man tailor-made to handle Robinson's bounce-throws to first, and who could stretch-catch as well as anyone I've ever seen, with his massive six-foot, five-inch frame - what a perfect combination this was. Back to the quadrants: In these terms, you could argue that Brooks Robinson was directly and indirectly responsible for fully 25% of the baseball field on defense, and he (with the help of two fantastic shortstops) changed the opponents' strategy, as he essentially removed that part of the field from consideration - the poor Reds had never experienced anything like this before, and even the best of scouting reports couldn't have prepared them for the hellish World Series they were forced to endure. Fifty years ago, there was scouting, but not advanced analytics dealing with shifts; yet somehow, Robinson was able - time-after-time - to be in the right spots, even when playing the line to protect against doubles, and the ball was often hit right to him - it's as if he had some type of sixth sense of where to be. Earlier on, I said that I loved Mike Schmidt, and I still do, but that was before I read this New York Times essay by baseball writer Tyler Kepner, which was published on Jan 25, 2018. In the article, Schmidt - who is inexplicably called "the greatest third baseman in major league history" - is quoted by Kepner as follows: "Don't let the hot corner concept fool you," Mike Schmidt, the greatest third baseman in major league history, said by phone on Thursday. "The third baseman's got his own little corner to protect, some down-the-line pop-ups and a couple of bunt plays here and there, but for the most part, a third baseman can go an entire game and never see any defensive action at all. The shortstop's got to be all over the place on the field. If you play shortstop, you can play anywhere on the field. Going from short to third, it's a walk in the park." It's a 3 AM walk in Central Park. Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Kepner need to be mindful that airline pilots can sit in the cockpit and play Scrabble while the plane flies itself on autopilot (until they're forced to land in the Hudson River); that policemen spend 99% of their time on patrol driving around, writing traffic tickets, responding to minor calls, and drinking coffee trying to stay awake while they're writing out an entire library's-worth of paperwork (and the other 1% making split-second, life-or-death decisions about whether someone needs to be saved, or killed, while the policeman's would-be executioner has planned out their malevolent course of action for days if not weeks); that soldiers overseas spend their days bored to tears in the desert, wiping sand off their burned, chafed skin (until a suicide bomb hidden in a vest comes walking their way in the form of an elderly lady seeking help). Have another look at the post-game interviews made by Tony Kubek after Game 5 - note in particular his interview with eight-time Gold Glove Award-winning shortstop, Mark Belanger - I only wish Belanger was still around so we could ask him what he thinks of Kepner's questionable descriptor (in an otherwise fine article), and Schmidt's humble and self-deprecating, but ultimately misguided, comments. And remember that over the course of the five-game, 1970 World Series, Brooks Robinson probably touched the baseball for less than 30-seconds, total. During his career, he played 2870 games at 3rd base, and had 9165 Chances, which averages out to over 3.1 chances per game. I apologize to my readers for bombarding them with the endless examples from the World Series, but hopefully it was a fun journey down memory lane, and it was the only means I had to demonstrate the greatness of Brooks Robinson - who is now 80-years old, and whose fans are, at this point, mostly deceased. I needed to show you extended examples of jaw-dropping footage from Robinson's five-game-long, third-base ballet in 1970, and then - and only then - remind you that this was nothing out of the ordinary, and that it went on for 23 years. How old were you 23 years ago, and what were you doing then? That's how long this sustained level of excellence lasted. Robinson won 16 straight Gold Gloves: The first nine were when the pitching mound was 15-inches high during 1960-1968 - then he won his next seven when the mound was 10-inches high during 1969 -1975, without any decline in his fielding. The one constant during his career was that he played all his home games on natural grass which is notorious for its unpredictable bounces and slow-rolling bunts. Robinson won his final Gold Glove in 1975; the photograph up at the top is in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and was taken by photographer Walter Kelleher, twelve years before this World Series, in 1958. This would be two seasons before Robinson won his first Gold Glove; yet, 1958 was also the year he was nicknamed "Mr. Impossible" for his fielding prowess. To those who say, "Sure, great defense, but barely above-average offense," Brooks Robinson had more hits than anyone in the entire American League during the 1960s. Really. Look it up if you don't believe me. Robinson had more hits during the 1960s than Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks, Al Kaline, Carl Yastrzemski, Frank Robinson, and Harmon Killebrew. He led the American League in Base Hits and Singles, was #2 in Doubles (behind Yastrzemski), was #2 in RBIs (behind Killebrew), and for those who say "he couldn't hit for power," take note: Brooks Robinson was #3 in the American League in Extra Base Hits (behind Killebrew and Yastrzemski) for the entire decade. Finally, Robinson was #1 in the entire Major Leagues in Sacrifice Flies during the 1960s. Robinson also won a Gold Glove every single year during the 1960s, as well as being the AL MVP (1964) and All-Star MVP (1966). Were Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, or Ted Williams a Top 5 defensive player for an entire decade? If you value defense as much as offense, then Brooks Robinson was perhaps one of the Top 5 greatest baseball players in the history of the sport - how could he not be? His defense was better than Hank Aaron's offense, and his offense was better than Hank Aaron's defense. How could anyone not rate him higher than Sandy Koufax, who only had four dominant seasons, and contributed nothing on offense? Brooks Robinson was an All-Star all 10 years, and was the single best player of baseball’s greatest decade. Put on your seat belts: When Robinson retired in 1977: He was the #1 all-time MLB Hits leader at 3B He was the #1 all-time MLB Singles leader at 3B He was the #1 all-time MLB Doubles leader at 3B He was the #1 all-time AL Home Runs leader at 3B, and the #3 all-time MLB Home Runs leader at 3B He was the #1 all-time AL RBIs leader at 3B, and the #2 all-time MLB RBIs leader at 3B He was the #1 all-time MLB Sacrifice Flies leader at 3B Triples and Sacrifice Bunts are very difficult to measure in the past due to the high amounts of both from 1900-1930. However: Nobody who retired after Robinson has more Triples at 3B Nobody who retired after Robinson has more Sacrifice Bunts at 3B Over 40 years have gone by since Robinson retired, but right now, today: He is the #2 all-time MLB Hits leader at 3B He is the #2 all-time MLB Singles leader at 3B He is the #2 all-time AL Doubles leader at 3B, and the #5 all-time MLB Doubles leader at 3B He is the #4 AL Home Runs leader at 3B, and the #11 all-time MLB Home Runs leader at 3B He is the #1 all-time AL RBIs leader at 3B, and the #5 all-time MLB RBIs leader at 3B He is the #1 all-time MLB Sacrifice Flies leader at 3B He is in the top 50 all-time for MLB career Hits, having more than Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Ted Williams (and only 25 less than Babe Ruth). Regarding “the absolute best hitters vs. the absolute best pitchers on the biggest possible stage” - baseball’s ultimate confrontation: Who is the batter with Hits against the greatest number of Hall of Fame pitchers in All-Star Games? 1 Barry Bonds (Halladay) 1 Rickey Henderson (Carlton) 1 Pete Rose (Hunter) 2 Ernie Banks (Wynn, Bunning) 2 Wade Boggs (Glavine, Maddux) 2 Joe Dimaggio (Dean, Spahn) 2 Charlie Gehringer (Hubbell, Dean) 2 Cal Ripken, Jr (Ryan, Glavine) 2 Frank Robinson (Wynn, Wilhelm) 2 Alex Rodriguez (Maddux, Glavine) 2 Mike Schmidt (Ryan, Fingers) 2 Ted Williams (Roberts, Spahn) 2 Dave Winfield (Gossage, Ryan) 3 Hank Aaron (Ford, Wilhelm, Blyleven) 3 Nellie Fox (Roberts, Spahn, Drysdale) 3 Steve Garvey (Perry, Palmer, Gossage) 3 Derek Jeter (Johnson, Clemens, Halladay) 3 Mickey Mantle (Spahn, Roberts, Drysdale) 3 Stan Musial (Newhouser, Lemon, Ford) 4 Roberto Clemente (Ford, Wilhelm, Bunning, Kaat) 4 Willie Mays (Ford, Wynn, Wilhelm, Kaat) 4 Carl Yastrzemski (Jenkins, Gibson, Seaver, Perry) 7 Brooks Robinson (Koufax, Drysdale, Bunning, Marichal, Perry, Jenkins, Gibson) If Robinson hadn’t grounded out against Spahn, he would have lapped the field. If, one day in the future, defense is considered equal to offense, I'd like to make the immodest proposal that Brooks Robinson may have been the greatest baseball player ever to live. I can't take anything away from Babe Ruth's pitching records - coupled with his hitting, they're just absurd - but if you accept that Robinson was the greatest defensive player ever, can you name me five other players who have such a combination of defense and offense? Willie Mays or Roberto Clemente, maybe? Who else? Robinson was not an all-time great hitter - and he'll say exactly the same thing - but he was better at offense than the all-time greats were at defense, and the statistics above prove it. If Bill Russell in basketball, then why not Brooks Robinson in baseball? Allow me to end this with some quotes about Brooks Robinson from his peers: "He was the best defensive player at any position. I used to stand in the outfield like a fan, and watch him make play-after-play. I used to think: 'WOW! I can't believe this!'" - Frank Robinson "I will become a left-handed hitter to keep the ball away from that guy." - Johnny Bench (NB - The definition of cruelty) "We kind of laughed at the fuss everyone made - we'd seen him make those kinds of plays for years." - Dick Hall "He charged everything. He reacted as the ball was coming off the bat, sometimes as it was coming to the bat!" - Hall of Fame 3B George Brett (Of note: In 1975, Brett switched his jersey number from #25 to #5 in homage to Robinson). "When I got in the Hall of Fame as a 3rd Baseman, that was the first guy I wanted my photo taken with: Brooks Robinson." - Hall of Fame 3B Mike Schmidt "I don't see how anybody could do what this guy does. If I dropped my sandwich, he would dart in, scoop it up on one hop, and throw me out ... He could throw his glove out there, and it would start ten double plays." - Sparky Anderson "If we had known he wanted a new car that badly, we all would have chipped in and bought him one." - Johnny Bench, on Robinson winning the 1970 World Series MVP Award "He was their leader. He didn't mind the pressure, and if the occasion would call where they needed a hit, he got it." - Hall of Fame pitcher Rollie Fingers "My first year in big-league camp, I saw him taking ground balls. It looked like they hit a hundred ground balls at Brooksie - his uniform was all dirty, I went up to him and said, 'Hey Brooksie, you got seven Gold Gloves, why are you taking all those ground balls? And he said to me, 'Son, how do you think I got those seven Gold Gloves?''" - Dave Johnson "He plays third base like he came down from a higher league." - Umpire Ed Hurley (1955) "He did stuff like that [his 1970 World Series plays], and he did better stuff over the course of the year. I've always maintained that if Brooks Robinson had been playing at Yankee Stadium in New York, I think he could have run for President. He was that special." - Boog Powell "Brooks Robinson - you can't say enough about him. To me, he was the greatest ballplayer at third base who ever lived." - Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew. Robinson was "quicker than [former teammate Willie] Jones (*), and had the fastest reflexes I've ever seen." - Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts - (*) Jones was widely considered the best defensive third baseman in the NL in the 1950s, leading the league in fielding percentage five years, and putouts seven years. "Brooks never asked anyone to name a candy bar after him; in Baltimore, people named their kids after him." - Sportswriter Gordon Beard From John Eisenberg on baltimoresun.com, quoting catcher Elrod Hendricks, a rookie just up from the Mexican league, witnessing Robinson in 1968: "Early in the game, Oakland's fleet Bert Campaneris pushed a bunt between the mound and third as a runner on first sprinted for second": "Where I'd come from, that was a hit. Brooks was on it instantly, and without even looking, threw to second for a force. Then, there was a throw to first, double play, inning over, in half a second. I was sitting in the bullpen and my mouth fell open. I went, 'You've got to be kidding me! I don't believe what I just saw!'" - Elrod Hendricks From the same Eisenberg article: "In spring 1957, after [Orioles' manager Paul] Richards thought he had detected a flaw in Robinson's backhand mechanics, the veteran [Hall of Fame third baseman George] Kell was told to correct it. Kell, who played for the Orioles at the end of his 15-year major league career, refused. He observed that Robinson hadn't missed a backhand ball in six weeks of spring training." "He was already so good that there wasn't much I could tell him." - HOF 3B George Kell "I once thought of giving him some tips, but dropped the idea. He's just the best there is." - HOF 3B Pie Traynor "Those plays he made, I guarantee that he practiced those plays 1,000 times throughout the season." - Don Buford "Plug in the biggest vacuum cleaner you could find, and just turn it on - because everything that was hit close to him, he sucked it up." - 1970 All-Star Pitcher Clyde Wright "Blade" [Mark Belanger] and "Brooksie" [Brooks Robinson] made me a Hall of Famer." - Jim Palmer “I’ve never seen anything like him in my life.” - Pete Rose "You should have seen him five years ago." - Dave Johnson, after game two, when asked by reporters if he was surprised by Robinson's defensive play. "If he was better five years ago, they must not have needed a shortstop." - Sparky Anderson, after hearing what Dave Johnson said. "He has to be the greatest third baseman of all time. I just enjoy watching him play. He's in the right place every time." - Tony Perez “He’s the best to ever do it at third base,” said [future HOF 3B Nolan] Arenado. "He’s definitely the best to ever do it.” "I once saw Robinson and crew turn a bunt into a double play. They practiced a play where Belanger would cover third as Robinson charged and threw to him for the force. Belanger then threw to first for the double play. I swear I saw this, probably in 1970 or 1971." - Baseball Fan Mike Hummel "Before every pitch for years and years, he was on his toes, ready to move, instantly alert. He always got ready as if he knew the ball was coming to him. Whenever a new guy would join the bullpen, he'd watch Brooks for a game or two and say, 'Holy cow! He's as good as they say!' We'd say, 'Just watch him. He treats every pitch like there are two outs in the ninth.'" - Dick Hall "I used to collect baseball autographs in the '80s and '90s and would sometimes go to the Negro League reunions and ask the player to compare certain guys from the Negro League to guys from the MLB. They almost always ranked the Negro League players (Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Ray Dandridge, Buck Leonard, etc.) above guys from the MLB. But when it came to Brooks Robinson, they almost unanimously conceded that there was no one in the Negro Leagues as good defensively as Robinson. That was a pretty strong testament to how good Brooks really was." - Baseball Fan and Autograph Collector Matthew Berkowitz "I'd like to be like Brooks, the guy who never said no to nobody, the ones that everybody loves because they deserve to be loved, those are my heroes." - Manager Earl Weaver, on why he tore-up his written speech, cried, and ad-libbed on "Brooks Robinson Day" in Baltimore "He had to be the best player Major League Baseball ever had to represent the sport." - 1983 World Series MVP Rick Dempsey From legendary sportscaster Dick Enberg, who left us in Dec, 2017, during his induction speech into the Baseball Hall of Fame: "I loved acknowledging the subtle arrogance of Hall of Famer Rod Carew's drag bunt. The sleight-of-hand of Brooks Robinson magically reducing a double into 5-3 putouts. The towering arc of a Ted Williams monster shot deposited in the bleachers high. The classic confrontation of the best hitter against the best pitcher, and the immaculately executed bullet of a double play." - Dick Enberg ”That fellah what plays third is a million-dollar baby. He takes you out of an inning. What’s-his-name Brooks what plays third is 33 an’ the best argument I ever seen for old age. He criss-crosses, he backhands, he dives for the ball. Now, it ain’t very good to dive for the ball with men on base as sometimes you miss the double play, but this what’s-his-name Robinson, no relation to their other Robinson fellah, can dive and still come up with the perfect throw. Zoom! He makes the catch on his belly and throws overhand, sidearm, and underhand to second or first or wherever they can use the ball. And he don’t throw no tissue paper. He throws a hard strike. He surmises like a card shark. Seven-of-eight times this what’s-his-name Brooks goes exactly to where the ball’s going to be hit. Yes, he’s a million-dollar baby.” - Hall of Fame Manager Casey Stengel "He was the best third baseman I ever saw or played with. The guy made exceptional plays every day. He made them so often you didn't get excited about it, because you came to expect them. I'm not talking about good plays. I'm talking about exceptional plays." - Frank Robinson Finally, from legendary baseball writer, Thomas Boswell (1983), "In, Out of Uniform, the Epitome of Grace" <--- You need to read this, because Tom Boswell is one of the foremost baseball experts in the world. One day, Major League Baseball will make available films of numerous games, instead of the select few that are available now - hopefully they'll be colorized and digitized. Then, and perhaps only then, will people see just how immortal Brooks Robinson truly was, day in, day out, for 23 breathtaking years. and that there are things which simply cannot be derived from a stat sheet. Then, and only then, will everyone realize that there has never been, and can never be, another Brooks Robinson. This is probably the only long piece I'll ever write in my lifetime, and I've left my blood and guts all over it. Even if you don't agree with its basic premise, please at least be aware of this: "Baseball Great Brooks Robinson Sells Multi-Million Dollar Norman Rockwell for Charity." Watch also this Heritage video about Robinson donating 100% of the proceeds [$1.44 million] of his memorabilia auction to charity. To Mr. Robinson, should you ever see this, and wish to thank me: You already thanked me, fifty years ago. I respectfully ask Rawlings Corporation to consider renaming the "Rawlings Gold Glove Award," the "Rawlings Brooks Robinson Gold Glove Award." [Postscript: Because of this essay, Cal Ripken, Jr was asked in Jul, 2018, what he thought about the Gold Glove award being named after Brooks Robinson. His response to interviewer Jonathan Karl: ”I’m with you. He was my hero growing up. He was amazing at third base. He earned every one of those Gold Gloves, and so if there’s someone that’s deserving of naming that award, it’s him.”] 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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