BALTIMORE ORIOLE BROOKS ROBINSON--THE HUMAN VACUUM CLEANER
RICK on BROOKS ROBINSON
In all my years of being a sports fan, sportswriter, broadcaster, memorabilia collector and promoter, I have never met anyone as gracious, friendly and accommodating as Brooks Robinson. It seems like every Baltimore sports fan has a great Brooks story and you can read mine here on the home page. As a player, his Hall of Fame plaque says it all—“Established modern standard of excellence for third baseman”. The 1970 World Series was the Brooks Robinson show as he hit .429 and made plays at third that others could only dream about. With all due respect to Cal Ripken Jr., as far as baby boomer Baltimorons are concerned, he was, is, and will always be Mr. Oriole. I count it a privilege to have been able to spend time with Brooks of several different occasions and he took a genuine interest in every person he met; including this sports nut. Baltimore broadcasting legend Charley Eckman once said to me, “There will never, ever be anyone as great as Brooks.” And I totally agree.
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Brooks Calbert Robinson, Jr. played his entire 23-year major league career for the Baltimore Orioles (1955–1977). He batted and threw right-handed, though he was a natural left-hander.[3] Nicknamed "The Human Vacuum Cleaner" or "Mr. Hoover",[4] he is considered one of the greatest defensive third basemen in major league history. He won 16 consecutive Gold Glove Awards during his career. Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983.
Robinson was signed by the Orioles as an amateur free agent in 1955. In 1964, Robinson had his best season offensively, hitting for a .318 batting average with 28 home runs and led the league with 118 runs batted in, winning the American League Most Valuable Player Award. In the American League MVP voting, he received 18 of the 20 first-place votes, with Mickey Mantle finishing second. In 1966, he was voted the All-Star Game Most Valuable Player, and finished second to teammate Frank Robinson in the American League Most Valuable Player Award voting, as the Orioles went on to win the 1966 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In the 1970 post-season, Robinson hit for a .583 batting average in the 1970 American League Championship Series against the Minnesota Twins. In the 1970 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, Robinson had a .429 batting average with 2 home runs; however, it was his defensive prowess at third base that stood out, making several impressive plays during the series that robbed the Reds of apparent base hits. His performance won him the World Series MVP Award presented by SPORT, as well as the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year. After the 1970 World Series, Cincinnati Reds manager Sparky Anderson quipped, "I'm beginning to see Brooks in my sleep. If I dropped this paper plate, he'd pick it up on one hop and throw me out at first."
In his playing career, Robinson was selected for the All-Star team in 15 consecutive years (1960-74) and played in four World Series. He compiled a .267 career batting average with 2,848 hits, 268 home runs and 1357 runs batted in. Robinson led the American League in fielding percentage a record 11 times, and at the time of his retirement, his .971 career fielding average was the highest ever for a third baseman. His totals of 2870 games played at third base, 2697 career putouts, 6205 career assists, 8902 career total chances and 618 double plays were records for third basemen at the time of his retirement. Robinson's 23 seasons with one team set a new major league record, since tied by Carl Yastrzemski. Only Yastrzemski (3308), Hank Aaron (3076) and Stan Musial (3026) played more games for one franchise. Robinson, a slow baserunner, also hit into four triple plays during his career, a major league record. He commented, "I wouldn't mind seeing someone erase my record of hitting into four triple plays. "He is the first player to start two triple plays in one season, as he did in 1973.
When the Orioles started their team Hall of Fame, Brooks and Frank Robinson were the first two men inducted. Following his retirement as a player, Brooks began a successful career as a color commentator for the Orioles' television broadcasts. In 1982, local television WMAR's on-air news team in Baltimore, Maryland went on strike and picketed the WMAR headquarters for the two months approaching the baseball season. When Robinson refused to cross the picket line, WMAR management re-opened the negotiations and the strike ended the next day.
At the conclusion of his final season in 1977, his jersey number 5 was retired by the Orioles. Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983, one of only 16 players to have been honored on the first ballot (not including the five charter members chosen in the first election in 1936). Considered among the greatest all-time Orioles, Robinson and the man usually considered the greatest Baltimore Colt football player, Johnny Unitas, had plaques in their honor in the lobby of Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. When the Orioles played their last game there on October 6, 1991, Robinson and Unitas were invited to throw out the ceremonial first balls. (Unitas threw a football.) After the conclusion of the game, 119 former Oriole players took the field in the uniforms of their time and stood at their old positions on the field. Robinson was chosen to be the first player to come out. (Source--Wikipedia)
September 18, 1977: "Thanks, Brooks" Day in Baltimore
Three teams had been battling all year for the 1977 American League East crown and as of Sunday afternoon, September 18, the Yankees held a 2½ game lead over the Orioles, who themselves were two games ahead of the third-place Red Sox with only 13 games remaining. While the Yankees were playing the Tigers in a three-game weekend series, the Orioles and Red Sox were battling it out at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Birds had taken the first two from Boston and were sending Mike Flanagan to the mound. Flanagan was on his way to a 15-win season and was opposed by Mike Paxton, who would win ten games in this, his rookie season. The Red Sox had three future Hall of Famers, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, and Carlton Fisk, gracing the middle of their lineup, while soon-to-be Rookie of the Year and future Hall of Famer, Eddie Murray, was DHing and hitting fifth for the Orioles.
No one had come to the ballpark that day, however, just to root on the Orioles or to see two good teams who would each win 97 games. Everyone had come to pay tribute to another future Hall of Famer, a player who had been a part of the Orioles graced third base since the second year of the franchise’s existence, Brooks Robinson. Sunday, September 18, 1977, was “Thanks, Brooks” Day in Baltimore.
To add to the luster of the day, DeCinces hit a three-run homer in the second to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead. When a Rich Dauer single brought home Mark Belanger later in the inning, Sox manager Don Zimmer brought in another rookie, Bob Stanley, in relief. Those four runs would be all that the Orioles would score, but the Red Sox were just getting started. Flanagan, however, gave up another run in the third and when Boston tied it with two down in the fifth, manager Earl Weaver went to his bullpen for another left-hander, Scott McGregor. Faring little better, McGregor surrendered two runs in the sixth and two more in the ninth. Meanwhile, Stanley gave up just three hits in his five innings of relief and when Dick Drago yielded two more runs to the Sox in the ninth, the Orioles had lost by a final score of 10-4. The trio of Yazstrzemski, Rice, and Fisk had gone a combined seven-for-thirteen, but September call-up Ted Cox, who was making his major league debut that day, was Boston’s hitting star, going four-for-four and scoring three runs while DHing and hitting second in front of the Sox sluggers.
With the Yankees defeating the Tigers 6-5, the Orioles fell 3½ games back in the division race.
It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that even Earl Weaver didn’t care that day. Indeed, he became somewhat emotional when it was his turn to speak during the ceremony but summarized everyone’s feelings when he said, “Brooks, you were number one when it came to doing the things that were right.”
Brooks’ career had been winding down for over a year, and he entered the 1977 season as a player-coach. He pinch-hit occasionally, but Doug DeCinces had taken over third the previous season, and when catcher Rick Dempsey came off the disabled list on August 21st, Brooks went on the voluntarily retired list. Immediately, the Orioles front office began to plan a celebration in Robinson’s honor, but he saw no need for it. Finally, General Manager Hank Peters and Public Relations Director Bob Brown convinced Brooks that the celebration was really for the fans and so he agreed with the stipulation that there to be no gifts and that any donations go to the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.1
An era unlike any other in Baltimore sports history had come to an end and fans entering the stadium that beautiful Sunday afternoon seemed stunned but ready to pay proper homage to their hero. That, they did. As the 1978 Orioles’ press guide described it, “In an emotionally charged atmosphere, Brooks Robinson was accorded a sustained, nerve-tingling ovation as he entered the field and rode around the warning track in a 1955 model Cadillac, manufactured the year he made his major league bow in Baltimore.
Teammate and former Cincinnati Red Lee May added some levity to the day when he presented the guest of honor with a vacuum cleaner alluding to Brooks’ nickname, “the human vacuum cleaner.” May, of course, had been robbed of several hits by Brooks during the 1970 World Series.
“Everything we hit, you sucked it up. And you’ll notice, Brooks, that just like you, this machine has a lot of miles on it,” said May.
Gordon Beard, an Associated Press editor who wrote Birds on the Wing: The Story of the Baltimore Orioles, offered a most salient observation regarding Brooks and the esteem in which Baltimore held him: “Brooks never asked anyone to name a candy bar after him. In Baltimore, people name their children after him.”
Brooks, in typically modest fashion, did not speak long, but thanked the fans by saying, “It’s been a beautiful 23 years. It turned out to be a beautiful day, and you’re all beautiful people.”
The ceremony lasted for about an hour. Despite his request, Brooks was presented a new car by team owner Jerry Hoffberger, a Hawaiian vacation by friends, and replacement Gold Gloves by the Rawlings Company. Brooks had only two remaining in his personal collection, having donated the others to local charities. The most striking presentation of all, however, was as simple as it was spontaneous. The Oriole players were sitting in the grass along the third base line, appropriately enough, and at one point toward the end of the ceremony, DeCinces went to third base, lifted the bag from the ground, and presented it to Brooks.
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Brooks Robinson will forever be the Orioles' third baseman
by Mike Klingaman, The Baltimore Sun
Brooks Robinson owned third base. Still does. At his sendoff in 1977 — a "Thanks, Brooks" Day at a packed Memorial Stadium — Robinson's successor, Doug DeCinces, removed third base from its moorings and presented it to the Orioles veteran.
"This is always yours," DeCinces said.
Baltimore agreed. In 23 years on that spot, fans said, how many runs had Robinson's glovework saved? How many rallies had he killed with his backhand stabs, airborne stops and off-balance pegs to first base? How many batters had he sent back to the bench, muttering to themselves about a hit that should have been?
Moreover, in all of sports, how many athletes had performed with such grace and artistry as to inspire a Norman Rockwell painting?
No position player in baseball history has won as many Gold Gloves as Robinson (16), though he hasn't the hardware to prove it, having donated most of the awards to charities. He was the first Oriole named the American League's Most Valuable Player, in 1964 ... the MVP of the 1970 World Series ... an 18-time All-Star and MVP of the 1966 game ... and a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame in 1983, his first year eligible.
"Throughout my career, I was committed to the goodness of this game," he said at his induction.
Modest, homespun and self-effacing, he'd won the city's heart long before.
"When Brooks went in [to Cooperstown], it was like a member of your family going in," said Bill Tanton, then sports editor of The Evening Sun.
Signed in 1955, Robinson impressed right off the bat with his fielding. Reporters called the 18-year-old "the fancy-fingered kid" and "the youngster with a baseball magnet in his glove."
He retired with 268 home runs, 1,357 RBIs, two World Series rings and the gratitude of Orioles fans who'd seen him singlehandedly — or, sometimes, with both hands — rob Cincinnati's sluggers in the 1970 World Series.
"We have no Brooks Robinson in the National League," Redsmanager Sparky Anderson said. "Brooks is like [Sandy] Koufax, [Willie] Mays and [Mickey] Mantle. They're in a class of their own."
In 1999, Major League Baseball named Robinson to its All-Century team. And, five years ago, in a poll conducted by Rawlings, fans voted the man nicknamed "The Human Vacuum Cleaner" the best defensive third baseman of all time.
The Orioles' No. 5 is No. 3 on The Sun's countdown of greatest Maryland athletes.
"I am humbled to be part of this list," Robinson, 74, said via email from his home in Baltimore, where he is undergoing rehabilitation for injuries suffered in a fall last winter. At a charity event in Florida, in January, he fell backward off the six-foot stage on which he was seated, fracturing his scapula (shoulder blade).
Robinson was to have attended the dedication of his statue atCamden Yards on May 12, but that has been rescheduled for Sept. 29.
Though he declined an interview with The Sun, he passed on his thoughts by email.
"I am truly honored to rank so high in the poll with the number of great athletes who were born in Maryland, or came here to play," Robinson said. "I was fortunate to play with teammates who were the best of the best at every position."
Few, however, hit it off with the Orioles' faithful like the folksy, moon-faced kid from Little Rock, Ark. Robinson once said he seldom attends an autograph signing without meeting "five or six" people named Brooks, in his honor.
"The fact that I played so long with one team resonates well with fans," he said in his email. To them, he said, "Thank you for your continued love and support. I never thought of you as fans, only as my friends."
