Quarterly Newsletter of the Brooks Robinson - George Kell Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research Volume 2, Number 1 January 2007 In This Issue Chapter Chairman Madison McEntire [email protected] Trivia . page 1 Manager's Memo . .page 2 Newsletter Editor Fred Worth Biography - Brooks Robinson. page 2 [email protected] Schedule of Coming Events . page 8 Research Anecdote . page 8 Book Reviews . page 9 Editor's Note We are thrilled to include a special item in this issue. In the last issue, we featured a biography of George Kell, one of the two Arkansas Hall of Fame third baseman after whom our chapter is named. In this issue, we feature the other Arkansas Hall of Fame third baseman, Brooks Robinson. Again, the biography is written by Robinson's long-time friend, Jim Rasco. Please take the time to read this delightful biography of a wonderful player and man. We also have two book reviews, The Echoing Green, reviewed by Terry Turner and The Only Game In Town: Baseball Stars Of The 1930's And 1940's Talk About The Game They Loved, reviewed by Mike Dugan. I've read The Echoing Green and concur with Terry's endorsement. I haven't read The Only Game In Town, but after reading Mike's review I've decided it will be my next "baseball book" purchase. Trivia Column (For answers, look on page 8.) "Correct thinkers think that baseball trivia is an oxymoron: nothing about baseball is trivial." -- George Will (April 8, 1990) Questions of the day ----- 1. What is the longest winning streak by a team that finished with a losing record? 2. Who is the only player with a 240-hit season who never got 200 hits in any other season? 3. Who is the only man to hit a ball off the Wrigley Field scoreboard? Manager's Memo Hello baseball fans! It’s hard to believe, but Spring Training 2007 is almost here! If you listen closely you can almost make out the crack of the bat on the ball. Here is a quick update on upcoming events for the Brooks Robinson – George Kell chapter SABR chapter. • Our spring meeting will be March 10 at 12:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Member Jim Sanders has arranged for former major leaguer Hal Smith (St. Louis, 1956-1961 and Pittsburgh, 1965) to speak to us. Following any research presentations, we will venture just down the street to tour Andrews Field. Andrews Field is one of the five oldest surviving parks in the country and is due for demolition later this year, so don’t miss the chance to see it. • The National SABR convention will be in St. Louis from July 26 to 29 at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. This is probably as close to Arkansas as it will ever be, so make it if you can. A few members from our chapter have expressed interest in going. Perhaps we can make arrangements for carpooling to St. Louis. The Cardinals play the Cubs that Thursday so any of us who want to see that game on the first day of the convention should plan ahead for it will sell out quickly. I attended the last SABR convention that was in St. Louis (1992) when I was fresh out of college and had a blast. Although the panels and presentations were great, my favorite part was just meeting and chatting with knowledgeable baseball fans from all over the country. It is also a good chance to pick up some good baseball reading material. • Due to popular demand, our late summer meeting will be back at AutoZone Park on August 11. The meeting will start at 12:00 noon and conclude with the fireworks that will follow the Omaha – Memphis game which begins at 6:00. Lunch will be on your own before the meeting, but snacks at the meeting and dinner at the game will be provided. Cost is $20 per person. If anyone knows of a possible speaker for the meeting, please let me know. ---- Madison McEntire BROOKS ROBINSON By Jim Rasco On July 31, 1983, Brooks Robinson of Little Rock, Arkansas and George Kell of Swifton, Arkansas became the sixth and seventh third basemen in major league history to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. Most areas of the illustrious career of Brooks Robinson have been well documented. It is easy to check out the details of Robinson’s sixteen consecutive Gold Glove awards; his eighteen All-Star game appearances; and his World Series stats. However, nowhere can you find any kind of a compilation of the contemporary post-season all-star selections of the twentieth century. Beginning in 1931, The Sporting News announced a post-season Major League All-Star team as selected by the Baseball Writers Association. In 1946, the Associated Press polled baseball writers to announce their annual major league all-star selections. Starting in 1948, the United Press polled their writers to select annual post-season all-star teams for each league. For the fifteen year period from 1950 through 1964, LOOK magazine polled the Baseball Broadcasters and Telecasters of America to announce a major-league “All America Baseball Team” and also published “All American League” and “All National League” teams. Beginning in 1960, The Sporting News switched from a major league team to separate teams for each league. In 1961, the United Press International dropped their separate league selections for a few seasons and began to announce only one major league team - before switching back to their original format before the end of the decade. Finally, in recent years, several different sources such as STATS, Inc. and Charles Faber have published books featuring retroactive AL & NL all-star teams. (However, these retroactive teams were based strictly on offensive statistics or pitching statistics that the authors considered important. For that reason, I would consider these selections as “minor” selections when compared to the teams that were selected by the actual votes of the players, managers, coaches, writers and/or broadcasters immediately following each season.) Over the past couple of decades, I have spent many, many hours in many different libraries across the country searching out the various post-season all-star selections from 1931 through the late 1970’s. I am pleased to share the post-season all-star selections that mention Brooks Robinson. Briefly, before I get into the major league career of Brooks Robinson, I will mention that Brooks grew up in Little Rock; was honorable mention all-state quarterback for Pulaski Heights Junior High in 1951; starred for the Doughboys American Legion teams during the seasons of 1952, 1953 and 1954; and was first team all-state in basketball as an eleventh grader in 1954 for Little Rock Senior High (this school, of course, was soon to be known as Little Rock Central High). Everyone knows that Brooks became a Hall of Famer playing third base. Third base was not always his primary position. In 1983, I had the honor of being a guest in Cooperstown for the HOF induction of Brooks and George Kell. During the HOF ceremony, I was seated behind George Haynie. George was the manager of Brooks’ American Legion team. He told me that he played Brooks at second base – because Brooks was the only player on the team that could “make the pivot” on the double play. Brooks told me that his first minor league manager, George Staller (at York in 1955), saved his career by moving Brooks from second base to third base and keeping him “from getting killed” by runners sliding into second to break up the double play.) All of you reading this article know that Brooks appeared in a few games during the 1955 and 1956 seasons with the Orioles before getting his first opening day start on April 15, 1957. As Brooks told me a few years ago, “George Kell moved over to play first base that day.” Shortly after the season started, Brooks had knee surgery and Kell returned to third base and started for the AL in the annual All-Star game in his final season. At the end of the 1957 season, Kell retired and in 1958 Brooks was able to continue his streak which would extend to twenty consecutive seasons as the Oriole third baseman on opening day. For the 1960 season, Brooks hit .294 with 88 RBI’s and won his first of sixteen consecutive Gold Gloves. He came into his own during the middle of July. In the last game before the All-Star break, Brooks had three consecutive hits – a triple, a double and a single. Then he played in his first All-Star game. Immediately after the break, on July 15th, he hit for the cycle for the only time in his big league career. In that game he had a homer, a triple, a double and two singles to run his streak to eight hits in eight consecutive trips to the plate. At the end of the season, he was third in the voting for MVP of the American League. He was the leading vote-getter for the AL All-Star team selected by the UPI. Brooks received 23 of the 24 UPI votes and was also selected to AL All-Star teams picked by STATS, Inc. and by Charles Faber. LOOK magazine selected Brooks as the top third baseman in the AL and third best in the majors behind National Leaguers Eddie Mathews and Ken Boyer. In the AP major league poll, Mathews beat out Brooks 83 votes to 60.