I still have vivid memories of sitting four rows from the top of the bleachers in left field at Memorial Stadium on October 9, 1966 as the underdog Baltimore Orioles defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the World Series in four straight games. I way watching live as the final out was recorded and Brooks Robinson at third base jumped what appeared to be four feet off the ground in excitement. At a young age where sports heroes matter, he filled the bill and then some.
While widely renowned as a fielder, he also hit well and with power. He was a career .267 hitter and hit 268 home runs with a lifetime Wins Above Replacement of 78.4 which ranks him 71st all time. His pinnacle achievement was his performance in the 1970 World Series against Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, and Pete Rose et al, aka The Big Red Machine.
It’s possible that no other position player has ever dominated a World Series to the extent Brooks Robinson did in 1970. That October, Robinson was dazzling in the field and at the plate as the Baltimore Orioles defeated Cincinnati in the Fall Classic.
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The next day, Robinson snared a liner off the bat of May (again) and started a double play to end the third inning. In the fifth, Robinson singled in the tying run and scored the go-ahead run. In Game Three, Robinson doubled in a pair of runs in the first inning, pacing the O’s to a 9-3 victory. In the sixth inning, Brooks was at it again: robbing Johnny Bench of a hit to left field when he dove to his left.
“That was an illusion,” Pete Rose said after the game. “I saw that ball bouncing down the line for a hit, but when I blinked, [Robinson] had it in his glove.
“I’ve never seen anything like him in my life,” Rose said. He joked to his teammates that if he knew Robinson wanted a car so badly (the MVP of the World Series traditionally receives an automobile), he and Bench (who shared ownership in a Cincinnati car dealership) would have gifted him one.
There is so much more I could write about the many ways that Brooks contributed to the Baltimore community along with his long time wife Connie, but I have much to do today. It is harvest time and it is not raining, so I am busy.