No Oriole was extra beloved or extra integral to the story of the franchise than Brooks Robinson, who died Tuesday at age 86.
Robinson performed his first recreation for the Orioles in 1955, the yr after the franchise arrived in Baltimore, was a key member of the membership’s first 4 World Series groups and lasted lengthy sufficient to go well with up with a brand new technology of stars, led by Eddie Murray.
Here are 10 moments that seize what Robinson meant to baseball and to Baltimore.
1970 World Series
After watching Robinson dismantle the Cincinnati Reds together with his glove and his bat, Pete Rose put it merely: “Brooks Robinson belongs in a higher league.”
What else was there to say about Robinson’s magnum opus? He hit .429 over 5 video games, with two house runs and 6 RBIs. His house run off Gary Nolan offered the profitable margin in Game 1. His two-run double put the Orioles on the board of their 9-3 win in Game 3.
But it was Robinson’s incomparable glove at third base that left the strongest impression on a nationwide viewers. He ranged a number of ft huge of the foul line to snare what regarded like a positive hit for future teammate Lee May and made an ideal one-bounce throw to get May by a step. It’s the play that lives on in spotlight reels, however Robinson made a half-dozen almost nearly as good over the course of the sequence. He was by no means higher.
1983 Hall of Fame induction
As nice as Robinson was on the sphere, Baltimoreans cherished him simply as a lot for his decency towards everybody who crossed his path. Not solely would he signal an autograph for anybody who approached, he would chat with the particular person like an outdated buddy or neighbor.
After Robinson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1983 with 91.98% of the vote, Orioles followers seized on his induction in Cooperstown, New York as their probability to say thanks. A then-record crowd of 12,000 descended in town of two,500.
“Before these ceremonies could even begin, the crowd — which swept over knolls, spread itself under maple trees and stretched almost out of sight — had conducted its own singing of the national anthem, complete with an earsplitting ‘O’ at the appropriate ‘Oh, say can you see’ juncture,” Thomas Boswell wrote in The Washington Post. “The gleeful mob, fresh from a morning of lay services at The Bold Dragoon Saloon, followed unofficial team mascot Wild Bill Hagy in spelling ‘O-R-I-O-L-E-S’ and passing the cold beer on a hot afternoon. Bedsheet signs and placards dotted the sea of orange humanity, their slogans perhaps more heartfelt than literary.”
Robinson choked again tears when it was time to handle the throng. “You really know how to make it tough on a guy,” he stated. “I realize I must be the luckiest man in the world … I’ve been given more than any human being could ever ask for.”
1964 AL Most Valuable Player
Robinson was the primary to confess he was an inconsistent hitter, good with males on base and accountable for many vital knocks however hardly ever a contender for the batting title.
His 1964 season, when he completed second to Minnesota’s Tony Oliva with a .317 common, slugged a career-high 28 house runs and led the league with 118 RBIs, was the exception. If you favor a extra trendy summation, Robinson, who additionally gained his fifth Gold Glove, led all American League place gamers with 8.1 wins above alternative.
The Orioles gained 97 video games and held first place till mid-September, when the New York Yankees lastly caught them. But Robinson gained American League Most Valuable Player honors for his best particular person seasons.
1966 World Series
Frank Robinson headlined for the primary Orioles group to seize the World Series, profitable the Triple Crown after the membership traded for him within the offseason. But Brooks Robinson did his standard stellar work that season, profitable his seventh Gold Glove, driving in 100 runs and ending second to his teammate in MVP voting.
He homered off Don Drysdale within the first inning of Game 1 of the World Series, simply after Frank Robinson did the identical.
A photograph from The Baltimore Sun reveals Brooks Robinson leaping into view to rejoice with profitable pitcher Dave McNally and catcher Andy Etchebarren after the Orioles accomplished their sweep of the favored Los Angeles Dodgers.
He later listed the victory as his favourite profession second. “I value that more than anything else that happened to me,” he stated in 2016. “I remember thinking that even if we never won anything again, we could always say we were world champions.”
Last house run
A 40-year-old Robinson had ceded the beginning third base job to Doug DeCinces by 1977, and he would make simply 52 plate appearances in 24 video games that season.
On April 19, nevertheless, supervisor Earl Weaver referred to as on Robinson to pinch hit for Larry Harlow with the Orioles trailing the Minnesota Twins 5-3 within the backside of the tenth inning. Robinson despatched a three-run house run hovering over the wall at Memorial Stadium to win the sport. It was his 268th and final profession house run.
“This was my biggest thrill in a long time,” a usually self-deprecating Robinson stated afterward. “It’s a day-to-day thing for me. I was lucky to get a contract this year.”
Baby chook breakout
Robinson’s first excellent season helped gasoline the Orioles’ first profitable season in Baltimore.
As a 23-year-old chief on supervisor Paul Richards’ “Baby Birds,” he gained his first Gold Glove, batted .294 and drove in 88 runs. The Orioles held first place as late as Sept. 14, earlier than a four-game sweep by the hands of the Yankees doomed their probabilities. But they completed 89-65, and Robinson completed third in MVP voting.
“We’d had a real good year, our first good year, and we felt there were more good things to come,” Robinson would inform writer John Eisenberg for his oral historical past “From 33rd Street to Camden Yards.”
“The Yankees were supposed to win. They were the kings at that time, and we didn’t feel bad. We felt like, ‘Well, you know, there’s next year.’”
1970 ALCS
His efficiency within the World Series overshadowed all, but when something, Robinson was even hotter within the Orioles’ three-game sweep of the Twins within the AL Championship Series.
He went 3-for-3 in a Game 1 blowout and 3-for-4 within the sequence clincher, setting the stage for what he would do in opposition to the Reds. Robinson had batted a strong .276 with 94 RBIs in the course of the common season, however he was essentially the most tough out on the planet that October.
“I never played with more focus in my career,” he would say later.
First recreation
Robinson was 18 years outdated when he debuted for the Orioles in 1955. The group misplaced 97 video games that yr after shedding 100 in its first yr in Baltimore. The teenager from Arkansas made a modest impression, batting .091 in 22 at-bats.
He knew find out how to make an entrance, nevertheless, smacking two hits — his solely two of the season — and driving in a run in his Memorial Stadium debut in opposition to Washington.
He would refer again to that day when he stated goodbye to Baltimore followers on the finish of the 1977 season. The Washington Post quoted his recollection of a name to his mom: “Mom, I got two hits and knocked in the big run today. I don’t know why I spent so much time at York [in the minor leagues]. I belong up here, this is my cup of tea.”
First house run
Robinson made simply 67 plate appearances his first two years and didn’t do a lot injury.
But in recreation No. 152 of the 1956 season, the younger third baseman lashed three hits in opposition to the Washington Senators. One of these went over the wall within the prime of the ninth inning for Robinson’s first profession house run and the Orioles’ solely run in a 7-1 loss.
Saying goodbye
Six years earlier than Baltimore celebrated Robinson in Cooperstown, 51,978 followers packed Memorial Stadium on Sept. 18, 1977, to say farewell to No. 5.
He waved from the again of a Cadillac convertible circling the sphere earlier than the Orioles performed the Boston Red Sox.
“For a guy who never wanted to do anything but put on a major league uniform, that goodbye comes tough,” he instructed the group. “I would never want to change one day of my years here. It’s been fantastic.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com