George Brett Goes to Cooperstown

A television camera roving the crowd at Fenway Park during the 1967 World Series happened upon an excited 14-year-old with a wide grin and a fabulous destiny.

“Hello, I’m Ken Brett’s little brother, George,” America heard him say.

And now — 31 years, 3,154 hits, three batting titles, two World Series appearances and one notorious wad of pine tar later — Ken Brett’s little brother is saying hello again — to Cooperstown.

“George Brett clearly deserves a special place in the annals of major league baseball history,” said American League president Gene Budig, a close friend. “Very few were as gifted and tenacious as George.”

He was elected to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday with Nolan Ryan and Robin Yount. Brett, 13th on the career hits list with 3,154, made it with 98.19 percent of the vote, the fourth-highest total ever.

“I was flabbergasted,” Brett said of his vote total. “It just knocked me on the floor.”

The best player in the history of the Kansas City Royals was not even supposed to be the best in his family. That distinction belonged to Ken, five years older and a can’t-miss prospect with a dominating fastball when the Red Sox brought him up in 1967.

But Ken’s little brother was an instant success after the Royals elevated him to stay in 1974 as a wide-ranging third baseman who threw right and batted left. A devoted student of hitting coach Charlie Lau, he batted .333 in 1976 to win his first batting title and begin a string of 13 straight All-Star appearances.

When he retired in 1994, he had a .305 lifetime average and, reflecting his uncanny knack for rising to the occasion, a .337 postseason mark.

“He would get out there and work so long and hard, he had blisters on his hands,” said Denny Matthews, the Royals’ radio voice since 1969. “He would be out there at 2:30 in the afternoon working in the hot sun. Then he’d go 3-for-4 and people would say, ‘Gee, what a natural hitter.”

One of the great clutch hitters of his era, Brett’s statistics over 20-plus years, all with the Royals, project an elegant symmetry with more than 5,000 total bases, 3,000 hits, 1,500 runs, 1,500 RBIs, 1,000 extra-base hits, 600 doubles, 300 home runs, 200 stolen bases and 100 triples.

“Hard work and mental toughness are what made George Brett great,” Royals general manager Herk Robinson said.

In the history of major-league baseball, no other man had 3,000 hits, 300 home runs, 600 doubles and 100 triples while also stealing 200 bases. Besides Brett, only Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Carl Yastrzemski, Al Kaline, Eddie Murray and Dave Winfield combined 300 homers with 3,000 hits.

Pete Rose is the only player with more doubles than Brett’s 665 who’s not in the Hall of Fame. And Aaron and Mays are the only others with 3,000 hits, 300 home runs and 200 stolen bases.

Brett stands alone as the only man to win batting titles in three decades (’76, ’80, ’90). And his .390 average in 1980 — just five hits shy of .400 — is the highest in the majors in 57 years.

“He stands as an icon in Kansas City and throughout the Midwest where there is a legion of Royals fans,” Budig said.

Brett’s most brilliant year and game may have come in 1985 when he won his first Gold Glove, finished second in the batting race with a .335 average, led the league with a club-record .585 slugging percentage and came within two intentional walks of tying Ted Williams’ AL record.

Then, after the Royals fell behind Toronto two games to none in the seven-game playoffs, Brett kept his team alive in game three with two home runs, a double, a single and a spectacular defensive play as the Royals rallied 6-5.

“That was the most amazing game for any position player I’ve ever seen,” Matthews said. “George simply willed the Royals to win.”

His most famous game was on a July afternoon in Yankee Stadium in 1983 when New York manager Billy Martin howled that the bat he’d just used to hit a go-ahead home run off Rich Gossage had pine tar too far up the handle.

Umpires called him out. But later, AL president Lee MacPhail upheld the Royals’ protest. When he’s inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, the pine tar bat will be there waiting for him.

Associated Press