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Fast track

Yount's career path leads him to Cooperstown

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Posted: Wednesday July 21, 1999 06:54 PM

Brewing history: Robin Yount had 3,142 hits, finished with a career .285 average and twice won the AL's MVP award. Stephen Dunn/Allsport

By Nick Charles, CNN/SI

MADISON, Illinois -- The face on pit row looks vaguely familiar but you may not be able place the name right away.

"I was a wanna-be race car driver and ended up playing baseball," he says.

And play he did.

For 20 years, Robin Yount was the engine that drove the Milwaukee Brewers. Now he's picked up his other passion as part owner of P1 Racing, which operates two cars on the Toyota Atlantic Racing Series, the Junior Indy Car Circuit.

"I think more than anything when I was very young the sound of the cars attracted me to some sort of racing," he confides.

Yount's chief role on this team is that of corporate fund-raiser. He's test-driven the cars and felt the adrenaline rush. And while he would leap at the challenge of competing on race day, for now he's only a spectator.

Boxed in: Some may feel Yount toiled in relative obscurity, but Milwaukee was the perfect fit. CNN/SI

"I bring my pom-poms with me and do some cheerleading," he said. "It's just an exciting sport and something that I have always been interested in. Now I get to feel that I am part of it."

On Sunday, Yount will become part of one the most exclusive clubs in the world, baseball's Hall of Fame.

His career began at age 18 when after only 64 minor league games, the Milwaukee Brewers threw him into the fire and named him their starting shortstop for the 1974 season.

"I was very young and probably not ready to play in the big leagues, Yount recalls. "But times were different then. We were an expansion team that really had no expectations at the time to succeed right away and it was an opportunity for a young kid to go out and see what he can do."

After a rocky rookie season, Yount not only hit stride, he found the express lane. During two decades on the field, he amassed over 3,142 hits, carved out a career .285 average, won the MVP at two different positions (shortstop and center field) and got to the World Series once. Yount's anthem was to never play baseball for himself.

"I always felt like winning was my priority. I got a lot more enjoyment out of winning a game that I went 0-4 in than going 4-4 in a game we lost."

Because Yount played his entire career in a small market, some feel he toiled in relative obscurity. But for a man who shunned the spotlight, Milwaukee was the perfect fit.

"I wanted to always be the guy that got the hit to win the game, but I guess it was the off the field attention that I wasn't seeking, he said. "I don't really enjoy talking about myself."

Instead, Yount would rather talk about the three men who will be inducted along with him.

Driving ambition: As the corporate fund-raiser, Yount would leap at the challenge of competing on race day. CNN/SI

"We had a day off and my roommate was an ex-teammate of Nolan Ryan's," Yount recalls. "And the Angels were in town and I was 18 or 19 years old and I took him fishing one day."

"I'm sure that he wasn't too comfortable being in the same boat with me as I was with him," Ryan said.

Another inductee, Orlando Cepeda was a boyhood idol.

"When I got a chance as a young kid to go play in Puerto Rico and play with him, I was like, 'Wow, this one of the guys I use to imitate in our kids games and now I am getting a chance to play with him.'"

As for George Brett, they've been good friends for years and it led to the making of a beer commercial.

"I don't like to do a lot of this stuff, but if I was going to do one type of commercial, that would have been the one," Yount says. "The old Miller Lite commercials with the Miller Lite all-stars. To be one of those guys, it's like, 'Wow, now I have really made it.' I got more publicity from this one commercial than I did for 20 years of playing baseball."

While Yount's currently a TV star and his first love was auto racing, baseball was his true calling. Through his accomplishments he gave those of us who watched him immense pleasure and what he achieved through his work on the field all those years has now gained him a spot among the game's immortals.

"It's still hard for me to grasp this, to be honest with you. When I went back there [at the Hall of Fame] and walked around and looked at it, it was hard to believe that I was being put into this category."

But for those who saw him play the game, it comes as no surprise that Robin Yount's career path has taken him on the road to Cooperstown.

 

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Robin Yount says being in the Hall of Fame is beyond his comprehension. (115 K) Yount shares his thoughts on Orlando Cepeda. (111 K) Yount talks about the importance of winning. (114 K) Yount talks about where his love of racing came from. (105 K) Click here for the latest audio and video
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