George Brett
George Howard Brett is an American former professional baseball third baseman, designated hitter, and first baseman who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Kansas City Royals.
Brett's 3,154 career hits are second most by any third baseman in major league history and rank 18th all-time. He is one of five players in MLB history to accumulate 3,000 hits, 300 home runs, and a career.300 batting average. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 in his first year of eligibility, and is the only player in MLB history to win a batting title in three different decades. He was also a member of the Royals' 1985 World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Brett was named the Royals' interim hitting coach in 2013 on May 30, but he stepped down from the position on July 25 to resume his position of vice president of baseball operations. In 2015, he won his second World Series ring when the Royals won the series in 5 games over the New York Mets.
Early life
Brett was born in Glen Dale, West Virginia, the youngest of four sons of a sports-minded family. Ken, the second oldest, became a major league pitcher who pitched in the 1967 World Series at age 19. Brothers John and Bobby had brief careers in the minor leagues. All of George's brothers were born in Brooklyn.Jack and Ethel Brett then moved the family from the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia to the Midwest, and three years later to El Segundo, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, just south of Los Angeles International Airport. George grew up hoping to follow in the footsteps of his older brothers. He graduated from El Segundo High School in 1971 and was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the second round of the 1971 Major League Baseball draft. He was high school teammates with pitcher Scott McGregor.
Playing career
Minor leagues
Brett began his professional baseball career as a shortstop, but had trouble going to his right defensively and was soon shifted to third base. As a third baseman, his powerful arm remained an asset, and he remained at that spot for more than 15 years. Brett's minor league stops were with the Billings Mustangs for the Rookie-level Pioneer League 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.Kansas City Royals (1973–1993)
1973
The Royals promoted Brett to the major leagues on August 2, 1973. He made his major league debut that day against the Chicago White Sox, going 1-for-4 as the starting third baseman. He played in 13 games, and hit.125.1974
Brett won the starting third base job in 1974, but struggled at the plate until he asked for help from Charley Lau, the Royals' batting coach. Spending the All-Star break working together, Lau taught Brett how to protect the entire plate and cover up some holes in his swing that experienced big-league pitchers were exploiting. Armed with this knowledge, Brett developed rapidly as a hitter, and finished the year with a.282 batting average, two home runs and 47 RBI in 113 games.1975–1979
Brett topped the.300 mark for the first time in 1975, hitting.308 with 11 home runs and 90 RBI in 159 games. He finished the season leading the league in hits and triples. He then won his first batting title in 1976 with a.333 average, seven home runs and 67 RBI in 159 games. The four contenders for the batting title that year were Brett and Royals teammate Hal McRae, and Minnesota Twins teammates Rod Carew and Lyman Bostock. In dramatic fashion, Brett went 2-for-4 in the final game of the season against the Twins, beating out his three rivals, all playing in the same game. His lead over second-place McRae was less than.001. Brett won the title when a fly ball dropped in front of Twins left fielder Steve Brye, bounced on the Royals Stadium AstroTurf and over Brye's head to the wall; Brett circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run. McRae, batting just behind Brett in the line up, grounded out and Brett won his first batting title.From May 8 through May 13, 1976, Brett had three or more hits in six consecutive games, a major league record. A month later, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated for a feature article, and made his first of 13 All-Star teams. The Royals won the first of three straight American League West Division titles, beginning a great rivalry with the New York Yankees—whom they faced in the American League Championship Series each of those three years. In the fifth and final game of the 1976 ALCS, Brett hit a three-run homer in the top of the eighth inning to tie the score at six—only to see the Yankees' Chris Chambliss launch a solo shot in the bottom of the ninth to give the Yankees a 7–6 win. Brett finished second in American League MVP voting to Thurman Munson.
A year later, Brett emerged as a power hitter, batting.312 while clubbing 22 home runs and recording 88 RBI in 139 games, as the Royals headed to another ALCS. In Game 5 of the 1977 ALCS, following an RBI triple, Brett slid into third and was called safe then was kicked in the head by Graig Nettles, after which Brett stood and threw a punch at Nettles, igniting a bench-clearing brawl.
In, Brett batted.294 with nine home runs and 62 RBI in 128 games, helping the Royals win a third consecutive AL West title. However, Kansas City once again lost to the Yankees in the ALCS, but not before Brett hit three home runs off Catfish Hunter in Game 3, becoming the second player to hit three home runs in an LCS game.
Brett followed with a successful 1979 season, in which he finished third in AL MVP voting. He became the sixth player in league history to have at least 20 doubles, triples and homers all in one season and led the league in hits and triples while batting.329, with an on-base percentage of.376 and a slugging percentage of.563.
1980
All these impressive statistics were just a prelude to, when Brett won the American League MVP and batted.390, a modern record for a third baseman. He was also named The Sporting News Sportsman of the Year. Brett's batting average was at or above.400 as late in the season as September 19, and the country closely followed his quest to bat.400 for an entire season, a feat which has not been accomplished since Ted Williams in.Brett's 1980 batting average of.390 is second only to Tony Gwynn's average of.394 for the highest single season batting average since 1941. Brett also recorded 118 runs batted in, while appearing in just 117 games; it was the first instance of a player averaging one RBI per game since Walt Dropo thirty seasons prior. He led the American League in both slugging and on-base percentage.
Brett started out slowly, hitting only.259 in April. In May, he hit.329 to get his season average to.301. In June, the 27-year-old third baseman hit.472 to raise his season average to.337, but played his last game for a month on June 10, not returning to the lineup until after the All-Star Break on July 10 due to him tearing a ligament in his foot while trying to steal second.
In July, after being off for a month, he played in 21 games and hit.494, raising his season average to.390. Brett started a 30-game hitting streak on July 18, which lasted until he went 0-for-3 on August 19. During those 30 games, Brett hit.467. His high mark for the season came a week later, when Brett's batting average was at.407 on August 26, after he went 5-for-5 on a Tuesday night in Milwaukee. He batted.430 for the month of August, and his season average was at.403 with five weeks to go. For the three hot months of June, July, and August 1980, Brett played in 60 American League games and hit.459, most of it after a return from a monthlong injury. For these 60 games, he had 14 home runs and 69 RBI.
Brett missed another 10 days in early September and hit just.290 for the month. His average was at.400 as late as September 19, but he then had a 4-for-27 slump, and the average dipped to.384 on September 27, with a week to play. For the final week, Brett went 10-for-19, which included going 2-for-4 in the final regular season game on October 4. His season average ended up at.390, and he averaged more than one RBI per game. Brett led the league in both on-base percentage and slugging percentage on his way to capturing 17 of 28 possible first-place votes in the MVP race. Since Al Simmons also batted.390 in 1931 for the Philadelphia Athletics, the only higher averages subsequent to 1931 were by Ted Williams of the Red Sox and Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres.
More importantly, the Royals won the American League West, and would face the AL East champion New York Yankees in the ALCS.