Happy belated Birthday to Brooks Robinson, “The Human Vacuum Cleaner,” and “Mr Oriole.” At 18, coming from Little Rock, Arkansas, he found his way to the Baltimore Orioles as the Third Baseman, where he’d spend the next twenty-three seasons there. He joined the Orioles at a critical time; two years after the team relocated from St. Louis, the team needed a face of the franchise, and Brooks certainly fit the bill.

UNSPECIFIED – CIRCA 1970: Brooks Robinson #5 of the Baltimore Orioles poses for this photo before a Major League Baseball game circa 1970. Robinson played for the Orioles from 1955-77. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

Career Statistics/Accolades (1955-1977):

.267 BA, 2,848 HITS, 268 HR, 1,357 RBI, 1,232 RUNS, .322 OBP

  • 18x All-Star
  • 16x Gold-Glove
  • 1964 MVP
  • 2x World Series Champ

Brooks Robinson isn’t just the most outstanding defensive third baseman of all time; he’s the greatest fielder ever. To this date, his 2,870 games at Third Base remain the most by any player in MLB history at a single position. He consecutively won 16 Gold Glove awards; only Greg Maddux has more Gold Gloves than him. Robinson led AL third basemen in Fielding Percentage eleven times and Assists eight times. Both are records and in Double Plays and Putouts three times each. Career-wise, Brooks still holds primary league records for career putouts (2,697), assists (6,205), total chances (9,165), and double plays (618) at third base.

While Brooks won an MVP and finished in the Top-5 in the voting five times, Brooks could have been better known as a great offensive player. I would like to pony out that 1962-1968 was considered the “Dominant Starting Pitching Era,” in which the strike zone was extended for Pitchers from the top of the batter’s shoulders to the bottom of the batter’s knees. Brooks played through his age 25 to 31 seasons with the extended Strike Zone. While he did win an MVP and finished in the Top 5 during those years, imagine how much better Brooks would’ve been offensively had the Strike Zones not been changed. He would’ve played so much better; possibly buffering his career statistics to 3,000 Hits and 1,500 RBIs.

The best part of the career of Brooks was the 1970 postseason/World Series. Brooks hit .485 driving in eight runs during the postseason run. His glove at Third Base is why the Orioles won the whole thing, and he received the series MVP. He started multiple doubles and insane plays, robbing guys like Bench and Rose of extra-base hits. Including this one:

References:

  1. Brooks Robinson Career Statistics via Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/robinbr01.shtml 
  2. Brooks Robinson via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Robinson#