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 By George Brett honored the game with respect
Posted: Thursday July 22, 1999 10:08 PM
By Nick Charles, CNN/SI BASEBALL CITY, Fla. -- To George Howard Brett of the Kansas City Royals, baseball was much more than a sport. To Brett, it was a game to be played with tenacity, but also with joy -- which was evident from the smile that usually spread across his face when he took the field. "I'm not the fourth-best ballplayer to ever play the game, no way," he says. "That's absurd. How did I get 98 percent of the vote and be the fourth-highest vote-getter? It had to say something about the way you played the game. I played it with respect." Fellow Hall of Fame inductee, Robin Yount saw that respect first-hand. "You couldn't tell he wasn't playing a Little League game, for instance, laughing and joking and having a good time," Yount said. "But the intensity and competitiveness in him was also second to none." The youngest of four boys, Brett had to develop a toughness and a thick skin just to be able to compete in his own backyard games. "I was always being compared to my three older brothers and never really got that pat on the back that said, 'You are alright,' and I never, ever did as long as my father was alive," Brett said. "It's like in 1980, the year I hit .390. I went home about a month after the season and the first thing my father told me was, he says, 'You mean to tell me you couldn't have gotten five more hits?' So he wasn't content with me hitting .390 and winning my second batting championship. He was more concerned at what I didn't do." His father's perfectionism didn't defeat Brett, it fueled him to a tremendous 21-year career in which he batted .305, collected 3,154 hits, made the All-Star team 13 times and won the American League MVP in 1980. In 1985, he led the Royals to the World Series title. Yet when Brett looks back at his career, he's just like his father, more concerned about what he didn't do. "After the 1980 season, I felt like I failed because for the last six weeks of the season, all anybody talked about was .400 and I didn't do it," Brett said. "Back then it really didn't matter, I didn't do it, big deal. And now it is more important. Now it is a regret that I have that I didn't do. To come so close to something and who knows? Back then I was 27 years old. I thought I might get another shot at it, but I never got another shot at it." Brett's only other regret was his decision to retire before exhausting every possibility that he could have played one more season. "Believe me I wish I was still playing today," he laments. "I wish all of a sudden I said, 'I'm going to give this one more year and I'm gonna work my [tail] off all winter. Then I am going to go to spring training in the best shape of my life at 41 years old and I am going to see if I can play one more year. And if I can't, then I will retire at the end of spring training. I wished I would have done that looking back at it now."
Brett's entrance to the Hall of Fame has sparked memories of those who influenced him. Among them, his father, his batting coach Charlie Lau, and one of his managers Whitey Herzog. Brett knows the gratitude and humility he feels for all involved will manifest itself in his acceptance speech Sunday in Cooperstown. "I'll be very surprised if I don't lose my emotions and start crying somewhere during the speech," said Brett. "I mean every time I think about it I get goose bumps and my eyes start to water. I'm not gonna feel like a loner if I do breakdown. I just hope Nolan [Ryan] or Robin [Yount] break down too, if I do." It's only fitting that George Brett, so full of emotion during his playing days, should give us one more glimpse of his passion for the game Sunday.
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