3 George Brett (Kansas City Royals 1973-1993)

A Royal Curiosity

     Unlike most of the athletes on this list, George Brett played for one team and one team only. In fact, more than forty years after they picked him in the 2nd round of the 1971 draft, Brett still works for the Kansas City Royals as vice president of baseball operations. I love this about George Brett; the continuity and loyalty. But there is so much more.
     George Brett was a great hitter. This was apparent as early as 1976, when he won his first batting title. But I didn’t take a real interest in him until 1979. That season, he did things with a baseball bat that had not been done in my lifetime (okay, I was only 14, but keep reading...).
     I told myself when I decided to write about my favorite athletes that I would avoid talking about statistics whenever possible (turns out, I will fail, often). All my favorites put up impressive numbers, but statistics can be boring and sometimes misleading and these tributes are about more than statistics. Having said that, I’m going to talk about statistics here because, well, this is baseball, and baseball is about statistics and I don’t believe George Brett’s 1979 season has ever gotten the attention it deserves.
     Brett hit 20 triples in 1979. At the time, I remember thinking, What kind of player hits 20 triples? In all of baseball history, there have been 113 instances in which a major leaguer hit 20 triples in a season. Sounds like a lot, but a quick breakdown shows that 48 of those instances occurred before 1900, and 105 took place prior to 1947 (1947 is THE most substantial demarcation line in baseball history. Dead Ball Era? Steroid Era? Please). So, since the color barrier was broken, 67 years ago, only 8 major leaguers have hit 20 triples and George Brett is one of them, and in 1979, it had not been done in 22 seasons (Willie Mays, 1957). Big deal, right?
     There’s also this...
     Brett’s 1979 season gained him admission into a much more exclusive club than the 20 Triples Club. That season, he became only the 4th major leaguer to hit 20 doubles, 20 triples and 20 homers in a season. At the time, Baseball Digest called the 20-20-20 Club “the most exclusive club in the majors.” Again, Brett was the first to achieve the feat in my lifetime (Mays, ’57) and only Curtis Granderson and Jimmy Rollins (both in 2007) have done it since. Add to those historic numbers, 212 hits, 119 runs scored, 107 RBI and .329 batting average, and Brett’s ’79 season compares favorably to his much-talked-about 1980 MVP season (.390 average, highest since Ted Williams, 118 RBI in 117 games, first to average one-RBI-a-game in 30 seasons).

     Okay, enough stats. I knew it would be dangerous for me to start down the numbers road. The point is, George Brett was doing things that I—and many other baseball fans—had never seen before. And while Fred Lynn (we’ll get to him further down the list) was my favorite baseball player at the time, I couldn’t help being curious about George Brett of the Kansas City Royals.

     Another thing I liked about Brett was the way he always battled those great Yankees teams of the late-70s. Seemed like every year, after the Red Sox got eliminated, the Yankees would then beat Kansas City in the ALCS. It happened in 1976, ‘77 and ‘78. But Brett always played great, batting .375 over those three postseasons, including 3 homeruns against Catfish Hunter in Game Three in 1978. But like the Red Sox, they still lost.

     And then came 1980.

     The Red Sox were floundering in 5^th place in July when they traveled to West-leading Kansas City for a three-game series with the Royals. George Brett had been making headlines as his batting average had risen nearly 50 points since June. But it was a particular at-bat—in which game, I don’t recall—that got me thinking about Brett as a potential successor to Fred Lynn as my favorite player should Lynn be traded or leave town in free agency as many seemed to think he would.

     It was a hard hit ball to the outfield, a single for 99% of Major Leaguers. But Brett did not slow down as he rounded first base; he sped up, and slid into second ahead of the throw. And as he brushed the dirt from his uniform, I thought, That’s the type of player who hits 20 triples.

     The high average was only part of George Brett’s story. All hits count the same when calculating batting average; singles, doubles, triples, homers. All the same. It’s what did not show up on paper that defined Brett. If the question of an extra base came up, he’d answer it with his hustle. Singles became doubles. Doubles became triples. If the fielder took a lazy first step or slightly bad angle, Brett was off and running, forcing opponents into mistakes with the threat of his determination.

     After that, I pretty much rooted for George Brett the way I rooted for Guy Lafleur. Whenever he played Boston, I hoped for a 4-for-4 performance from Brett and a Red Sox victory. The difference was, the Kansas City Royals were never a natural enemy of Boston the way the Montreal Canadiens were, so I rooted for the Royals against every other team, and especially against the Yankees. For me, the Royals represented a second line of attack against an army of oppression. And in the fall of 1980, the Yankees dominance of the Royals came to an end when Brett hit a mammoth, 3-run homer into the third deck at Yankee Stadium off of the great Goose Gossage to complete a 3-game sweep and to clinch Kansas City’s first American League Pennant. They lost the World Series to the Phillies, but won it five years later against the Cardinals (thanks in large part to Don Denkinger), and George Brett remained my favorite baseball player right up until his retirement in 1993.

     During the Brett Era, the Royals played a different offensive style than the Red Sox, who loaded their lineup with power to take advantage of the Green Monster and short right field fence at Fenway Park. Kansas City played their home games on the Astro Turf of Royals Stadium and designed their lineup accordingly with speed at the top, power in the middle and more speed at the bottom.

     In the mid-70s, Brett spent time in different spots at the top of the lineup before settling into the 3^rd slot, where he would remain for most of his career. He would be joined in the middle of the lineup by several power hitters over the years including first basemen John Mayberry, Willie Mays Aikens and Steve Balboni and outfielder Danny Tartabull, as well as some outstanding all-around hitters in Hal McRae, Darrell Porter and Al Cowens. The speed—and there was plenty of it—was supplied early on by Amos Otis and Freddie Patek, then Willie Wilson (12^th all-time in steals, 21 triples in 1985), UL Washington and John Wathan (Wathan's 36 steals in 1982 still stand as the major league record for a catcher).

     Over the course of his 21-year career, George Brett was the mainstay amongst all of that offensive talent. His potent blend of speed, power, hustle and toughness made him one of baseball’s great all-around players. Early in his career, the Royals style of play proved a perfect fit for Brett’s talents; then, his talent realized, he proved himself the perfect player to build a team around. 

     It’s an overused cliché, but George Brett always played the game the right way. He always played hard, never showed anyone up (okay, he did make an ass of himself during the Pine Tar Incident, nobody’s perfect), always came up big in big moments, and remained loyal to his team—and they to him—for his entire career. There may be no other player in the history of baseball who is so obviously his franchise's greatest player.

     George Brett: Mr. Royal. My favorite baseball player of all-time.