George Brett

At 71 years old, George Brett has this physical status:

George Howard Brett (born May 15, 1953) is an American former professional baseball player who played 21 years, mainly as a third baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals. Brett's 3,154 career hits are the most by any third baseman in major league history and his 16th all-time.

He is one of the only four players in MLB history to hit 3,000 runs, 300 home runs, and a.300 batting average (the others being Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Stan Musial; Albert Pujols is currently a member).

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 on the first ballot and is the first player in Major League history to win a batting title in three separate decades. Brett was named interim hitting coach by the Royals in 2013 on May 30, but he resigned on July 25 in order to resume his role as vice president of baseball operations.

Early life

Brett was the youngest of four sons of a sports-minded family that included Ken, the second oldest, a major league pitcher who pitched in the 1967 World Series at the age of 19. Brothers John (eldest) and Bobby had brief stints in the minor leagues. Despite the fact that his three older brothers were born in Brooklyn, George was born in the northern panhandle of West Virginia.

Jack and Ethel Brett retired to the Midwest, and three years later, they moved to El Segundo, California, just south of Los Angeles International Airport. George aspired to follow in the footsteps of his three older brothers as a child. He graduated from El Segundo High School in 1971 and was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the second round (29th overall) of the 1971 baseball draft. He was a high school buddy with pitcher Scott McGregor. He migrated to Mission Hills, Kansas, before he moved to the Midwest.

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Playing career

Brett began his professional baseball career as a shortstop but soon discovered he had trouble moving to his right defensively and was quickly promoted to third base. His long arm as a third baseman maintained his value, and he remained at that position for more than 15 years. Brett's minor league stops were with the Billings Mustangs in 1971, the San Jose Bees of the Class A California League in 1972, and the Omaha Royals of the Class AAA American Association in 1973, batting.291,.274, and.284, respectively.

On August 2, 1973, the Royals promoted Brett to the major leagues after he appeared in 13 games and was 5 for 40 (.125) at age 20.

Brett earned his third base job in 1974 but was unsuccessful at the plate until he asked for assistance from Charley Lau, the Royals' batting coach. Lauding on the All-Star break together, Lau showed Brett how to shield the entire plate and cover up some holes in his swing that big-league pitchers were exploiting. Armed with this information, Brett developed quickly as a hitter and finished the year with a.282 batting average in 113 games.

Brett surpassed the.300 mark for the first time in 1975, hitting.308 and leading the league in hits and triples. He then captured his first batting title in 1976 with a.333 average. Brett and Royals teammate Hal McRae, as well as Minnesota Twins teammates Rod Carew and Lyman Bostock, were among the four candidates for the batting championship this year. In the final game of the season against the Twins, Brett went 2 for 4 and took out his three closest friends who were all participating in the same match. He had a 0.1 percent lead over second-place McRae, who was less than.001. Brett claimed the title after a fly ball was dropped in front of Twins left fielder Steve Brye's head to the wall; Brye's head to the wall; Brett circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run. Brett was grounded out and Brett gained his first batting title, and McRae was batting just behind Brett in the lineup.

Brett had three or more hits in six consecutive games from May 8 to May 13, 1976, a major league record. He appeared on Sports Illustrated for a feature article and became the first of 13 All-Star teams a month later. The Royals won the first three straight American League West Division titles, kicking off a formidable rivalry with the New York Yankees, who played in the American League Championship Series for three years. Brett scored a three-run homer in the top of the eighth inning to tie the score at six, but the Yankees saw Chris Chambliss hit a solo shot in the bottom of the ninth to win by 6 runs. Brett Munson came in second second place in American League MVP voting to Thurman Munson.

Brett made a name for himself by posting 22 home runs as the Royals enter another ALCS for the first time a year. In Game Two of the 2007 television miniseries The Bronx is Burning, he is shown in archive footage batting against the New York Yankees. Following an RBI triplet, Brett became embroiled in a match with Graig Nettles that sparked a bench-clearing brawl.

Brett batted.294 in 1978 (the only time between 1976 and 1983, in which he did not bat at least.300) in the Royals' third straight AL West championship. However, Kansas City dropped to the Yankees in the ALCS once more, but not before Brett scored three home runs off Catfish Hunter in Game Three, becoming the second player to do so in a LCS game (Bob Robertson was the first).

Brett had a fruitful 1979 season, in which he finished third in AL MVP voting. He was the sixth player in league history to have at least 20 doubles, triples, and homers in one season (42–20–23) and led the league in hits, doubles, and triples while batting.329, with an on-base percentage of.563.

All these remarkable statistics were just a preview to 1980, when Brett won the American League MVP and batted.390, a new record for a third baseman. Brett's batting average hit or above.400 as late in the season as September 19, and the world closely followed his quest to bat.400 for the entire season, a feat that has not been achieved since Ted Williams in 1941.

Brett's 1980 batting average of.390 is second only to Tony Gwynn's 1994 average of.394 (Gwynn played in 110 games and had 419 at bats in the strike-shortened season, relative to Brett's 449 at bats in 1980). Brett was also recorded 118 runs batted in while appearing in 117 games; this was the first case of a player with averaging one RBI per game since Walt Dropo's time in more than 100 games. Both slugging and on-base percentages led the American League in both slugging and on-base percentages.

Brett came out slowly in April, hitting just.259 in April. He hit.329 in May to bring his season average to.301. The 27-year-old third baseman's season average soared to.337 in June, but he did not return to the lineup until after the All-Star Break on July 10.

He played in 21 games and hit.494 (42–85), his highest season average to.390, after being off for a month. On July 18, Brett began a 30-game streak that lasted until he went 0–3 on August 19 (the following night, he went 3-for-3). Brett scored.467 (57–122) in 30 games during those 30 games. Brett's best mark for the season came a week later, when his batting average hit.407 on August 26, when he went 5-for-five in Milwaukee on Tuesday night. He batted.430 for the month of August (30 games), and his season average was.403 with five weeks remaining. George Brett played in 60 American League games over the three months from June, July, and August 1980, the majority of it after a return from a month-long injury. He had 69 RBIs and 14 home runs in these 60 games.

Brett missed another ten days in early September and the month's total hit was.290. His average was.400 on September 19, but he recovered to.384 on September 27, with a week to play. Brett went 10-for-19 this week, with one going 2 for 4 in the final regular season game on October 4. His season average hit.390 (175 at-bats =.389755), with more than 5 RBI per game. Brett led the league in both on-base percentage (.454) and slugging percentage (.664) on his way to capture 17 of 28 possible first-place votes in the MVP election. Since Al Simmons batted.390 in 1931 for the Philadelphia Athletics, his only two highest averages since 1931 were by Ted Williams of the Red Sox (.406 in 1941) and Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres (.394 in the strike-shortened 1994 season).

The Royals also won the American League West and will face the Eastern champion Yankees in the ALCS, which is more important.

Brett led the Royals to their first American League pennant in three games against the rival Yankees who had defeated K.C. In the 1976, 1977, and 1978 playoffs, there was no one in the 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1978 playoffs. Willie Randolph was on first base in the top of the eighth at Game 2 of the 1980 ALCS with two outs and the Royals up by only one run. Bob Watson hit a ball in the left field corner of Royals Stadium's left field corner. Wilson was right to Willie Wilson, but Wilson was not known for his arm strength, and third base coach Mike Ferraro waved Randolph home. Wilson overthrew U L Washington, the cut-off man, but Brett was able to catch the ball, then pass to Darrell Porter, who tagged out Randolph in a slide. A tumultuous George Steinbrenner was spotted fuming immediately after the play by TV cameras. The Royals defeated 32-02. After the game, Brett said he had intentionally positioned himself to cut the throw if Washington missed it, but the Yankees' Tommy Johnston disagreed, saying that if Brett had been supporting Washington, he'd have been between shortstop and home plate, not behind third base. Either way, he was in a perfect position to dismiss Randolph. Brett played a ball well into the third deck of Yankee Stadium, offsetting Yankees closer Goose Gossage. "I have a doubt if he toss the ball at 97 mph," Gossage's previous pitch had been timed at 97 mph, causing ABC broadcaster Jim Palmer to ask, "I doubt if he toss the ball 97 miles per hour." Palmer was given the correct reading of 98 earlier this month. Palmer replied, "I said it wasn't 97." Brett was ranked 375 in the 1980 World Series, but the Royals lost in six games to the Philadelphia Phillies, but the Royals were defeated in six games. Brett made news after he left Game 2 in the 6th inning due to hemorrhoid pain. Brett had minor surgery the next day, and the Royals won in 10 innings 4–3. "My problems are all behind me" after the game. In 1981, he skipped two weeks of spring training to have his hemorrhoids removed.

Brett hit a go-ahead two-run homer off of Goose Gossage in the top of the ninth inning with two out on July 24, 1983, sending the Royals up 5–4. Billy Martin, the Yankees' manager, cited the umpires' ruling, stating that any foreign substance on a bat could stretch no further than 18 inches from the knob. The umpires measured the amount of pine tar, a legal tool used by hitters to increase their grip on Brett's bat, on Brett's bat; the pine tar grew to 24 inches. Tim McClelland, the home plate umpire, alerted Brett, putting the game as a Yankees win. Brett was charged out of the dugout directly toward McClelland and was forced to be physically restrained by two umpires and Royals boss Dick Howser.

The royals retaliated after the game was ruled that the bat should not have been used for future use, but that the home run should not have been nullified. The game was revived on August 18, 1983, from the start of Brett's home run to the Royals' triumph.

Brett had another stellar season in 1985, when the Royals won their second American League Championship. He batted.335 with 30 home runs and 112 RBI, finishing in the top ten of the league in ten different offensive categories. He captured his second Gold Glove, which snapped Buddy Bell's six-year tenure of the award, while finishing second in American League MVP voting to Don Mattingly. He went 9-for-20 at the plate in six crucial games, five of whom were victories, as the Royals closed the gap and claimed the division title at the end of the season. With an amazing Game 3 against the Toronto Blue Jays in 1985, he was MVP of the 1985 playoffs. Brett went 4-for-4 at bats against Doyle Alexander in his first two at bats against him, and doubled to the same spot in right field in his third at bat, triggering the Royals' comeback. Brett batted.370 in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, with one hitting a four-hit record in Game 7. For the first time in history, the Royals rode from a 3–1 deficit to become World Series champions.

Brett walked across the diamond to first base in an attempt to minimize his chances of injury, and he had another good season with a.306 average, 24 homers, and 103 RBI in 1988. But after batting just.282 with 12 home runs last year, it seemed that his career was coming to an end. He got off to a rocky start in 1990 and was even considering retirement at one point. But John Wathan, his former teammate, pleaded with him to keep it out. Finally, the slump came to an end in July, and Brett batted.386 for the remainder of the season. He tagged Rickey Henderson for the league lead in September and captured his third batting title with a.329 mark on September. Brett was the first major league player to win batting titles in three decades.

Brett spent three seasons for the Royals, mainly as their designated hitter, but he did occasionally cover for injured teammates at first base. In 1992, he passed the 3,000-hit mark, but Angels first baseman Gary Gaetti picked him off after stepping off the base to start enjoying the moment. Brett retired after the 1993 season; in his last at-bat with Rangers closer Tom Henke, he hit a single up the middle and scored on a home run by now teammate Gaetti. His last game at Arlington Stadium was also notable as being the last game ever played at the stadium.

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