Brooks Robinson has passed away

Malike

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A true loss for the sport. He was a fantastic human being and just a human vacuum at 3B.
 
azsoxpatsfan

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I always hate when the greats die. I never got to watch him, but I saw highlights and my god what a fielder. Arenado is the only third baseman I’ve seen live who comes close
 
Petagine in a Bottle

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Damn. Incredible player and a better human being. A big loss for the sport, we’ve lost so many legends in the last few years. Almost makes me want to root for the Orioles.
 
pedro1918

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When I was a kid, my father took me to Fenway a couple times a year. We saw the Brewers and he pointed out Henry Aaron as someone I should remember. When we saw the Orioles, he pointed out Brooks.

Glad I saw him play.
 
jacklamabe65

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I was so blessed to see Brooks play many times in person. As a kid, I would listen to MLB games at night and loved the Orioles announcing team of Chuck Thompson and Bill O'Donnell on WBAL. They invariably did Yeomans' work describing Brooks' clutchness as a hitter and as a master defensive player. RIP to one of The Greats.
 
bankshot1

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Just a brilliant fielding 3rd baseman. Nothing ever seemed to get by the guy. IMO the best ever. It was impossible to ignore his artistry with leather.

RIP Brooks
 
staz

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The cradle of the game.
azsoxpatsfan said:
I always hate when the greats die. I never got to watch him, but I saw highlights and my god what a fielder. Arenado is the only third baseman I’ve seen live who comes close
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Same here. The list of living all-timer greats I was too young to see play is now very short.

R.I.P. #5
 
mauidano

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As good as there ever was. We have seen some great ones play that Hot Corner. Nettles, Schmidt, Boggs, Rolen etc.

Brooks was the best.
 
Eagle3

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Malike said:
Orioles on MASN on X: "Jim Palmer reflects on the legacy of Brooks Robinson. https://t.co/2UlvMt5gBd" / X (twitter.com)

Watching Palmer break down is tough to watch.
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I met Brooks at a charity banquet several years ago. Two things Palmer mentioned in that video are totally true: 1. He was the nicest player I've ever met. 2. He definitely has a big signature. Takes up half the ball. Which is fine because I'd never want to put anything else on that ball anyway.

Definitely the best fielding 3b I've ever seen
 
Norm Siebern

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Living in the mid Atlantic I have a number of friends who are Oriole fans, and whom had the pleasure of meeting Brooks. To a person, they all rave about how he was the nicest, most decent man. I've never read or heard of anyone saying a negative comment about Brooks Robinson. When I taught, it was common each year to have one of my students named Brooks; I never had to ask where they got their name. One of the few pieces of baseball memorabilia I own is a Brooks Robinson autographed baseball.

The greatest fielding third baseman I ever saw, by a long shot. And by all accounts an even better person. RIP and Godspeed Brooksie.
 
grsharky7

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Back in 2016 my wife and I went to a Red Sox-Orioles game at Camden Yards. She was about 7 months pregnant at the time and we both had Red Sox gear on. The usher was taking us to our seats and was making small talk about how the baby needed to be an O’s fan and I laughed and said well he won’t be, but you’ll like the name. He asked if the name was going to be Cal and I chuckled and told him that the name was going to be Brooks.

That was the last time I saw Papi in person and he belted a HR into the right center bleachers.
 
Deweys New Stance

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Saw him play at the old pre-renovation Toilet in 1973 at this game as a kid. He was past his prime, but still an integral part of a very good, deep team.

8.1 WAR in his MVP 1964 season.

Eagle3 said:
I met Brooks at a charity banquet several years ago. Two things Palmer mentioned in that video are totally true: 1. He was the nicest player I've ever met. 2. He definitely has a big signature. Takes up half the ball. Which is fine because I'd never want to put anything else on that ball anyway.

Definitely the best fielding 3b I've ever seen
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Yeah I also met him at a black tie charity banquet in the mid-90's. He was sitting at the table next to mine. Stan Mikita was sitting at our table, and he was also very nice and engaging with everyone, but as the evening went on people were just sort of gravitating towards Brooks' table. Just a really fantastic guy.

Edit: I don't know how I forgot to mention this, but I just recalled that I attended his Hall of Fame induction in 1983 back when my family used to go up for the Hall of Fame game and the ceremonies most summers.
 
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I’ll echo the praise of him as a person (3rd hand). A guy I did business with over the years has an older brother who was a visiting clubhouse attendant at Fenway back in the 60’s. Brooks Robinson was by far the nicest visiting player to these guys, and a really generous tipper.
 
bob burda

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I saw him play many times on TV in the early 70s, saw him live as a 7 and 8 yr old but I mostly only recall two Orioles guys with “ Robinson” on their backs w/different initials, and as little Sox fans we were being taught to fear them.

Watching some of the highlight reels, the thing that gets me is the throws - it is this classic 3/4 to overhead delivery that is so fluid as to be beautiful, reminiscent of Brady, or maybe prime Tom Seaver. It is a treasure of highlight plays that he left us for all time.
 
loshjott

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grsharky7 said:
Back in 2016 my wife and I went to a Red Sox-Orioles game at Camden Yards. She was about 7 months pregnant at the time and we both had Red Sox gear on. The usher was taking us to our seats and was making small talk about how the baby needed to be an O’s fan and I laughed and said well he won’t be, but you’ll like the name. He asked if the name was going to be Cal and I chuckled and told him that the name was going to be Brooks.

That was the last time I saw Papi in person and he belted a HR into the right center bleachers.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/09/26/brooks-robinson-legacy-baltimore/

To have grown up in Baltimore in the last quarter of the 20th century was to have known a hundred Brookses. The scrappy kid on your Little League team who insisted on wearing No. 5. Your schoolyard buddy from three stoops down. The cut-up in your fifth-grade class: Brooks, Brooks, Brooks. Even now, though Cals eventually came to outnumber them on the playgrounds of Charm City, you still meet an occasional Brooks, and the name still brings a knowing smile.

“Around here, nobody’s named a candy bar after Brooks Robinson,” Baltimore-based sportswriter R. Gordon Beard said in 1977, referring to the confection named for New York Yankees slugger Reggie Jackson. Instead, he said, “We name our children for him.”
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Max Power

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bob burda said:
I saw him play many times on TV in the early 70s, saw him live as a 7 and 8 yr old but I mostly only recall two Orioles guys with “ Robinson” on their backs w/different initials, and as little Sox fans we were being taught to fear them.

Watching some of the highlight reels, the thing that gets me is the throws - it is this classic 3/4 to overhead delivery that is so fluid as to be beautiful, reminiscent of Brady, or maybe prime Tom Seaver. It is a treasure of highlight plays that he left us for all time.
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https://open.substack.com/pub/joeposnanski/p/brooksie?r=19our9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Dad’s favorite ballplayer was born left-handed. Think about that for a minute: Brooks Robinson, the best who ever played the hot corner, was born with the one physical quality that should have prevented him from ever playing third base. All his life he would do everything else left-handed — he shot a rifle lefty, he played tennis and ping pong lefty, he signed autographs left-handed.

When Davey Johnson saw his hero sign an autograph left-handed, he decided to try writing left-handed too, hoping it would make him into the same sort of heavenly defender.

It did not. But how could it?

When Dad’s favorite ballplayer was in the second grade, he broke his left arm and collarbone in an accident. Neither Brooks Jr. nor his father, Brooks Sr., had time to wait for the injury to heal. There was baseball to play! So Brooks Sr. put a ball in his son’s right hand and taught him how to throw right-handed. He put a sawed-off broomstick in his right hand and taught him how to swing right-handed. By the time the injury did heal, Brooks Jr. was uninterested in relearning the game as a lefty.

And, anyway, lefties don’t play third base.
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joe dokes

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I played 3B in little league. I kind of hated it, until I saw the 1970 WS. My first "real" glove was a Brooks Robinson Rawlings.

I have a vague memory of seeing him live in one of his last seasons throwing out some Yankees on consecutive charge/barehand plays. Might have been the 1st "new" YS or maybe during their Shea Stadium interregnum.
 
Plantiers Wart

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Brooks was my first favorite player. Back in 2nd grade, we had to write a letter to someone asking for an autograph. I wrote Brooks. He sent a signed photo back. My older sister, as usual tormenting me, took the photo and in front of me dropped it between the bathroom vanity and the wall. Gone forever. Flash forward many years. Meeting my sister at Mickey Mantle's in NYC for drinks. Who should walk into the bathroom while I was using a stall but Brooks. I tell him the story and ask him to sign a menu for my sister. I request he sign "Don't f=&8ing lose this one..." but he says he cannot sign that for a lady. We settle on "keep this one out of the bathroom". He ends up having a drink with us at the bar, and I end up with a much better ending to the autograph story.

RIP, Mr. Hoover
 
canderson

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I'm too young to have watched him play, but have always been amazed at his career and how humble he is. I've had the opportunity to meet him over the years (he started a somewhat local independent baseball team) and he was always extremely gracious, kind and not wanting to be praised.
 
Ale Xander

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Is a cause of death known? It seems also reported that his wife died yesterday too

Car accident?
 
Lose Remerswaal

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Plantiers Wart said:
Brooks was my first favorite player. Back in 2nd grade, we had to write a letter to someone asking for an autograph. I wrote Brooks. He sent a signed photo back. My older sister, as usual tormenting me, took the photo and in front of me dropped it between the bathroom vanity and the wall. Gone forever. Flash forward many years. Meeting my sister at Mickey Mantle's in NYC for drinks. Who should walk into the bathroom while I was using a stall but Brooks. I tell him the story and ask him to sign a menu for my sister. I request he sign "Don't f=&8ing lose this one..." but he says he cannot sign that for a lady. We settle on "keep this one out of the bathroom". He ends up having a drink with us at the bar, and I end up with a much better ending to the autograph story.

RIP, Mr. Hoover
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Great story!
 
patinorange

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I was lucky enough to see him many times at Fenway. Those Orioles teams were something. Cool unis also.
Loved watching Boog Powell hit batting practice and watching Brooks Robinson warming up and playing an incredible third base.
I remember that 1970 WS. Wow.
RIP
 
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