In his 23 seasons with the Orioles, from 1955 to 1977, Robinson became known as the Human Vacuum Cleaner for his ability to snare just about anything hit his way.
Charging topped grounders or bunts, backhanding smashes, ranging to his left or his right, he won 16 consecutive Gold Glove awards as the American League’s leading fielder at third base. Only the pitcher Greg Maddux, with 18 Gold Gloves, has exceeded Robinson’s total.Robinson played on four pennant-winning teams, two of them World Series champions. He was the most valuable player of the 1970 World Series, in which the Orioles beat the Cincinnati Reds in five games, for his spectacular plays and for his hitting: He had a .429 batting average and hit a pair of home runs. (The Orioles also beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in four games in the 1966 Series.)
Robinson had 2,848 hits, 268 home runs and a career batting average of .267. He was the American League’s Most Valuable Player in 1964, when he hit 28 homers, had a league-leading 118 runs batted in and batted .317, all career highs. But he was best known for his fielding.
Robinson was named an All-Star every season from 1960 to 1974. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983, his first year of eligibility, with almost 92 percent of the votes.
Edited to add: Dave Barry on Brooks Robinson.
Phil Sellers. He was a dominant player for Rutgers in the 1970s:
He was called “Phil the Thrill,” and, with Sellers leading a team that also included Eddie Jordan, Mike Dabney and Hollis Copeland, Rutgers kept improving. During Sellers’s junior year, when he averaged 22.7 points and 9.4 rebounds a game, Rutgers had a record of 22-7 and played in the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament, losing in the first round.
Rutgers was undefeated in 26 games during the 1975-76 regular season, Sellers’s senior year. Late in a conference tournament game against St. John’s University that preceded the start of the N.C.A.A. tournament, Sellers clashed with his coach, Tom Young.
“Give me the ball,” Young recalled Sellers saying when he described the incident to The New York Times in 1983. “I said, ‘Phil, we’re going to run our offense.’ He said it three times, ‘Give me the ball.’”
Sellers scored six points in the next 90 seconds, and Rutgers won.
Rutgers then won its first three games in the N.C.A.A. tournament, despite subpar scoring performances from Sellers, to raise its record to 31-0. But the Scarlet Knights lost the semifinal game to Michigan, 86-70, with Sellers scoring only 11 points against the strong defense of Michigan’s Wayman Britt.
Sellers’s college career totals of 2,399 points and 1,115 rebounds are still Rutgers records.
Terry Kirkman, of the Association. This is another one of those groups that was a little before my time – though I have heard of Terry Kirkman – so I’m going to leave comment on this up to my music consultant.
Brooks Robinson was THE player when I was in high school. Much like following generations had Derek Jeter and others, when you thought of the best 3rd basemen of the time, there was no debate. He was just that dominant.
As for Terry Kirkman of the Association, I believe that he wrote their hit, Cherish. The Association was sort of an early version of the Carpenters, with the music that they both made being quite good, but kind of getting the reputation of being to bland for their times.
It always reminds me of my own mortality when I see the heroes of my high school years passing away. Then again, it also reminds me of the quality individuals that I was fortunate enough to have had during my formative years. People often say that the music of the 70’s was the best. That is because it WAS the best. I can’t imagine a breakout group like the Beatles or the Doors or even Pink Floyd getting a recording contract today, when every artist is chosen not strictly on talent but on how many units they can sell.
If you ever listen to the music stars of today, in concert with their vocals separated, it shows you just which ones can really sing and who is pretty much a manufactured sound for sale to the masses.
One musician who is still touring trying to catch lightning a second time, is Colin Hay, the singer behind Men at Work. I saw a documentary on him, and he still plays VERY small places, for as few as half a dozen people, just to keep playing and to remain relevant. He was in Grand Rapids last year, at a nature center playing. I don’t know how many he drew, but I am sure that there was a pretty good turnout there, since that place usually has a big following.
The more I consider my mortality at the loss of the heroes of my youth, it doesn’t hurt but instead I really am grateful, for the time that I was born. I was able to watch the first man walk on the moon, I was cognizant enough to remember much of the Nixon Watergate scandal. So many things that we look back on as definite important parts of American history, I was witness to, and able to remember what was happening. I guess it is because I know some of the tough things that America has weathered that I still cannot abandon faith that our best days are yet to come, and that we have not even seen the great things that we will do.
As always, have a great week, and now a great Autumn, from Michigan.