'Gifted and tenacious'
Brett's hard work, sweet stroke leave lasting legacy
Posted: Tuesday January 05, 1999 07:10 PM
| |
Kiss it goodbye: George Brett was the heart and soul of the Royals for 21 years AP |
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Wandering through the crowd at Fenway Park
during the 1967 World Series, a television camera crew happened upon a very
excited 14-year-old boy with a wide grin and a fabulous destiny.
"Hello, I'm Ken Brett's little brother George," he said.
Whether anybody turned away from their TV and remarked, "That kid'll be in
the hall of fame some day," cannot be confirmed.
But 31 years, 3,154 hits, three batting titles, two World Series
appearances and one notorious wad of pine tar later, Brett has his place in
Cooperstown.
"George Brett clearly deserves a special place in the annals of major
league baseball history," said American League president Gene Budig, a
close friend.
When Brett retired in 1994, he had a .305 lifetime average and,
reflecting his knack for rising to the occasion, a .337 postseason mark.
His overall statistics in 20-plus years, all with the Kansas City Royals,
project an elegant symmetry with more than 5,000 total bases, 3,000 hits,
1,500 runs, 1,500 RBIs, 1,000 extra-base hits, 600 doubles, 300 home runs,
200 stolen bases and 100 triples.
"Very few were as gifted and tenacious as George on the field of
play," said Budig.
While growing up in Southern California as the youngest of Jack and
Ethel Brett's four sons, the best player in the history of his team was not
even supposed to be the best in his family.
That distinction belonged to Ken, five years older and a can't-miss
prospect with a dominating fastball when the Red Sox brought him up in '67.
And, in two-plus minor league seasons as a wide-ranging third baseman
who threw right and batted left, Brett never hit .300. But his quick, level
stroke sprayed the ball all over the field and he hustled harder than
anybody else in the Kansas City system. So, on Aug. 2, 1973, when the
Royals needed an emergency replacement at third, a nervous 20-year-old made
his debut in Chicago's old Comiskey Park.
Facing Stan Bahnsen, he blooped a broken-bat single into the opposite
field in the fourth inning and one of the greatest careers of his
generation was under way.
"George was the franchise," said Royals general manager Herk Robinson.
Almost immediately, he became a devoted student of the late Charley
Lau, the Royals' renowned batting coach. He hit .333 to win his first
batting title in 1976 and began a string of 13 straight All-Star
appearances.
"I would never have been anything without Charlie Lau," Brett has said
repeatedly.
He had a smooth and fluid stroke and a happy-go-lucky persona, so most
fans assumed -- incorrectly -- that everything was easy for Kansas City's
hustling third baseman.
"He would get out there and work so long and hard, he had blisters on
his hands,' said Denny Matthews, the Royals' radio voice since 1969. 'He
would be out there at 2:30 in the afternoon working in the hot sun. Then
that evening he would go 3-for-4 and people would say, "Gee, what a natural
hitter."
In the history of major-league baseball, no other man launched 3,000
hits, 300 home runs, 600 doubles and 100 triples while also stealing 200
bases. Besides Brett, only Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Carl
Yastrzemski, Al Kaline and Dave Winfield combined 300 homers with 3,000
hits.
Mark of excellence: No one has seriously threatened the magical .400 barrier since Brett hit .390 in 1980 Otto Greule/Allsport | |
"Hard work and mental toughness are what made George Brett great,"
said Robinson.
Pete Rose is the only player with more doubles than Brett's 665 who's
not in the Hall of Fame. And Aaron and Mays are the only others with 3,000
hits, 300 home runs and 200 stolen bases.
Brett stands alone as the only man to win batting titles in three
decades ('76, '80, '90). And his .390 average in 1980 -- when he fell only
about five hits shy of .400 -- is the highest in the majors in 57 years.
"We would never have achieved what we achieved without him," said
Robinson.
In fact, it's hard to imagine the Kansas City Royals without George
Brett. He has been a central figure in virtually every significant event in
team history.
He debuted the year Royals Stadium opened in 1973. His first batting
title coincided with Kansas City winning the first of three straight AL
West championships. He had his .390 average in 1980 and was named American
League MVP as the Royals swept the New York Yankees in
the playoffs.
But his most brilliant year and game may have come in 1985 when he won
his first Gold Glove, finished second in the batting race with a .335
average, led the league with a club-record .585 slugging percentage and
came within two intentional walks of tying Ted Williams' AL record.
However, it all seemed for naught when the Blue Jays won the first two
games of the seven-game playoff series in Toronto. But then Brett
single-handedly kept his team alive in game three in Kansas City -- hitting
two home runs, a double and single, scoring the decisive run and making a
key defensive play as the Royals rallied 6-5.
"That was the most amazing game for any position player I've ever
seen," said Matthews. "George simply willed the Royals to win."
If that was Brett's finest day, then his most famous was a July
afternoon in Yankee Stadium in 1983 that has become a part of the lore of
the sport.
No sooner had he crossed the plate with a two-run homer off Rich
Gossage to give the Royals a 5-4 lead when Yankees manager Billy Martin
protested that he had pine tar too high up his bat.
After umpire Tim McClelland called him out, an enraged Brett charged
out of the dugout in a fury.
A few weeks later, AL president Lee MacPhail upheld the Royals'
protest, ruling Brett's bat had not "violated the spirit of the rules."
When Brett is formally inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, the
pine-tar bat will be waiting for him.
"It was the craziest thing I've ever been involved with," he said. "I
got sick of hearing about pine tar."
In 1990, at the age of 37, he hit .329 to win his third batting title,
then retired four years after that.
"Now that my playing career is over, it still seems kind of unreal,"
Brett wrote in a personalized chapter of his biography "Last of a Breed."
"I started thinking about what I'd accomplished and I thought: That
didn't really happen to me. That couldn't happen to me. I was the kid my
parents thought would be back living at home when he was 40. This all has
turned out like when you're growing up and you have all these dreams, and
somehow mine all came true."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| 
