A Review of Brooks: the Biography of Brooks Robinson

Brooks Robinson.  Brooks is in large part Baltimore and Baltimore is Brooks.  It is hard to believe that a figure that is so loved that he has two statues of himself within a one minute walk of each other in Baltimore, along with a third in York, Pennsylvania, has so little written about him over the years.  Try as you might, but if you wanted to sit down next to the fire up in Maryland, or down in the bleachers in Sarasota, you would be a bit hard pressed for anything recent or comprehensive.  To my knowledge, Brooks' books include:

The Brooks Robinson Story (1967) Jack Zanger
Putting It All Together (1971) by Brooks Robinson
Sports Hero: Brooks Robinson (1972) by Marshall Burchard
Third Base is My Home (1974) by Brooks Robinson
Brooks Robinson (1991) by Rick Wolff and Jim Murray
and now
Brooks: the Biography of Brooks Robinson (2014) by Doug Wilson  

As I read through Wilson's book I came to realize why so little has been written about Brooks.  He is pretty vanilla.  I imagine a large number of books have been started to be written about him, but simply there is nothing that resembles any modern day hook.  There are no great tragedies.  No philandering, drug use, mid-career crises.  Brooks came from a strong home with two dedicated parents.  He was a solid member of the community in Little Rock and had a strong social network.  He was a friend to many and often hung out with kids from the local schools of the deaf and blind.  I think a major obstacle in writing the story of Brooks' life is that he does not have any axes to grind nor does anyone else have an ax to grind with him.  He is one of those guys who you adore and aspire to be, but are never really excited to hear a story about him because if he has had any struggles, they are kept behind a veneer.

Now, that may come off as a strong reason not to read this book, but I would suggest you not to take it that way.  Although it is a struggle to write a book like this, I think Wilson does a great job taking what he can from second parties (e.g., new interviews, past works) to develop the life and character of Brooks Robinson.  In a way, it reads as an accompaniment to a Buttercream Gang movie.  The character is so good and pure that it is somewhat laughable because it seems so unreal and peculiar to what we currently expect from our players a half a century later, but as far as I can tell from my own connections to people around Brooks...it is a rather genuine portrayal.

Brooks comes from that generation that matured right before the social challenging of the 1960s.  It was a demographic strongly influenced by the troubles their parents had during the depression and a youth heavily shaped by the Second World War.  An era that was largely marked with personal dedication to and faith in church, family, and country.  Any transgressions, ever so slight, were things to be acknowledged, if asked, but never ruminated or reasonably explained.  This is not to say that all people growing up in this time were calm, stoic, and of great social responsibility.  It is to say that this demographic did exist and, for all appearances, Brooks is a shining example of that.

For instance, the failures of Brooks' commercial investment in a sporting company smells ripe of trouble and a juicy story.  However, much is done to downplay the situation.  Brooks and his wife note that trouble arose because his playing made him an absent co-owner of the venture and that he trusted his friend's management of the business.  The friend said that there were reasons he did not wish to get into and that he was viewed unfairly by the press and public.  Both men declare that the past is the past and they have amicably moved on.  Nothing descriptive, just acknowledge without elaboration.

Perhaps the most contrarian episode to the legacy of Brooks Robinson is mentioned towards the end of the book, describing the oncoming of free agency.  Brooks had the misfortune of his playing ability eroding significantly just as free agency came into being.  Baltimore was obviously going to go in a different direction than have Brooks start and the team gave him their blessing to search for a starting position elsewhere.  He was almost dealt to the Milwaukee Brewers, but the deal fell apart on his alleged insistence for a two year deal.  Being born post-Brooks, I had no idea this happened and it really surprised me.  I do not think it diminishes his legacy, but does put a human touch to the end of his career.

After finishing the biography, I found myself with greater respect for Robinson and a better idea of who he was and is.  It is true that I like a good downfall and resurrection story, but I was still interested in the shoulder to the grindstone story laid out here.  It is a sweet, pleasant story and a good item to carry in tow as an example to young readers on good character as well as to us older folks who sometimes forget that there were and are players out there who do not seek the limelight, who play the game fair, and simply do their job.

Brooks: the Biography of Brooks Robinson (2014) by Doug Wilson is available for pre-order at Amazon and will be released March 4, 2014.

Brooks vs. Adrian: Who's the Better Glove?

The other night during the Orioles' one game Wild Card Showdown against the Rangers, Cal Ripken, Jr., who was doing color commentary, mentioned that he thought Texas slugger Adrian Beltre was the best fielding third baseman he had even seen. When Ernie Johnson, the play-by-play man, questioned whether Beltre was even better than Brooks Robinson, Cal hesitated a bit, then responded in the affirmative. Yes, Cal Ripken, Jr. believes that Adrian Beltre is a better defensive third baseman than Brooks Robinson.

But is it actually true? In my opinion, it's impossible to reliably compare defense across eras but we can try. Using Baseball-Reference.com's Defensive WAR calculations (based on Sean Smith's Total Zone rating), we can at least see how dominant each player's defense was compared to their peers and see how it shakes out.

Brooks Robinson was a major league regular three years before Cal Ripken was born and was well on his way to his first Gold Glove when Cal was born in 1960, the first of 16 consecutive Gold Gloves that Robinson would win. While I'm certain that young Calvin Edwin was watching Orioles baseball all his life, he probably couldn't be a good judge or even recall much of those early years watching Brooks man the hot corner. Most of Cal's recollections are likely from the time his age hit double digits. Cal would have been 10 at the beginning of the 1971 season so we can start from there. Brooks played full time and at a high level from 1971-1975. In 1976 and 1977, he played sporadically and poorly. So for the sake of this post, I will assume Cal's memories of Brooks as a great player come mostly from the 5 season span from 1971-1975.

We will compare those 5 seasons to Adrian Beltre's most recent five seasons and see how they stack up.

Here are the top 10 third basemen in terms of Fielding Runs over the last 5 seasons as reported by Baseball-Reference.com:

                                           
Rk            Player Rfield From   To   Age
1      Adrian Beltre     91 2008 2012 29-33
2      Evan Longoria     71 2008 2012 22-26
3        Scott Rolen     46 2008 2012 33-37
4    Placido Polanco     39 2008 2012 32-36
5      Jack Hannahan     36 2008 2012 28-32
6       Brett Lawrie     34 2011 2012 21-22
7     Ryan Zimmerman     34 2008 2012 23-27
8       Brandon Inge     28 2008 2012 31-35
9     Kevin Youkilis     27 2008 2012 29-33
10         Joe Crede     26 2008 2009 30-31

By this measure, Beltre is the best and it's not even close. Even if you assume what Evan Longoria could've done if he'd been healthy this season, Beltre likely would beat him by 10 fielding runs. (By the way, how good is Brett Lawrie's glove? He's right in the middle of this list despite only 168 major league games under his belt.)

Here are the top 10 third basemen in term of Fielding Runs from the 5 season spanning 1971-1975:

                                             
Rk              Player Rfield From   To   Age
1      Brooks Robinson     90 1971 1975 34-38
2        Graig Nettles     83 1971 1975 26-30
3         Mike Schmidt     38 1972 1975 22-25
4              Ron Cey     36 1971 1975 23-27
5           Buddy Bell     35 1972 1975 20-23
6        Darrell Evans     31 1971 1975 24-28
7    Aurelio Rodriguez     29 1971 1975 23-27
8       Eric Soderholm     26 1971 1975 22-26
9         Ken McMullen     16 1971 1975 29-33
10        Jerry Kenney     16 1971 1973 26-28

It's Hall of Famer Robinson and Graig Nettles (who probably should be in the HoF) and nobody else. For the 5 season spans for each player:

                    Rfield   rTZ
Adrian Beltre         91      42
Brooks Robinson       90      83

So it could be argued that Beltre was a wee bit better than Brooks over the two 5-year spans in question. Although, in terms of Total Zone, a Gold Glove caliber defender will score a TZ of 15 or more in a season. Brooks had 4 out of 5 of those seasons with a TZ of 15 or more. Beltre had none.

And as you my have noticed, these were Beltre's age 29-33 seasons; Robinson's were from his age 34-38 seasons. If we look at Robinson's 5 seasons from the same age span, he has an Rfield of 97 and three seasons over 15 rTZ, all over 20 and two over 30. Beltre's never had quite that kind of run.

Athletes get better as the years go by. It is very possible that if you took Beltre back to the 1960's he would have been Brooks' superior with the glove. But since we have to judge these things in the context of the eras they played, you have to compare their relative dominance to their peers. And given all that, I'd have to respectfully disagree with Cal. Adrian Beltre may be the best defensive third baseman of his generation but I don't think he's any match for Brooks Robinson.