George Brett

Full Name: George Howard Brett	Primary Position: 3B,DH,1B
Height/Weight: 6' 0"/185	First Game: August 2, 1973
Birthdate: May 15, 1953	Final Game: October 3, 1993
Birthplace: Glen Dale, West Virginia	MLB Experience: 21 years
Bat/Throw: Left/Right

Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999

Biography[]

George Brett played his entire 21-year MLB career with the Kansas City Royals. In 1985, he and the Royals won the World Series title, beating the St. Louis Cardinals. George won the AL MVP Award in 1980 and was selected to 13 All-Star Game appearances during his career. He retired in 1993 with 3,154 hits and a lifetime batting average of .305.

Brett was selected to the Hall-of-Fame in 1999 with an impressive 98% of the votes.

The "Pine Tar" Incident[]

On July 24, 1983, Brett and his Kansas City Royals were in New York to take on the Yankees.

With the Royals down 4-3 in the top of the ninth inning, Brett came to the plate with 2 outs and a runner on against Yankees closer Goose Gossage. Brett took Gossage deep, bringing two runs home to take the lead against the Yanks.

After Brett crossed home plate and took a seat in the dugout, Yankees' manager Billy Martin came out of the home dugout to talk to home plate umpire Tim McClelland. After a brief conversation with Martin, the rest of the umpiring crew was called in and joined McClelland at home plate for a conference. After the discussion, McClelland measured the pine tar on Brett's bat against the front side of home plate and found that it actually violated Rule 1.10(b) of MLB's Official Rulebook. As a result, McClelland turned to the Royals' dugout and called Brett out, nullifying his home run, 2 RBI, and Kansas City's lead.

In one of the most famous turns of events in baseball history, an infuriated Brett went berzerk, and rushied from the dugout, arms flailing, and headed full speed at McClelland and Martin. Fortunately, he ended up being restrained by his teammates. Brett was immediately tossed from the game. And despite Kansas City manager Dick Houser's arguments, the call was upheld and the Yankees were awarded the win.

The Royals filed an official protest with the league office. American League President Lee MacPhail upheld Kansas City's protest, claiming that George Brett's pine tar did not violate the "spirit of the rule" and ordered the game to be finished from the point that George Brett crossed home plate.

Three weeks and four days later, the "Pine Tar Game" was resumed. As a protest of MacPhail's reversal, Martin played Yankees pitcher Ron Guidry in centerfield and first baseman Don Mattingly at second. After a mere 12 minutes, Royals' closer Dan Quisenberry shut the door on the Yanks to preserve Kansas City's victory, ending one of history's most infamous baseball games.

He is the brother of Ken Brett.

Statistics[]

Batting Stats[]

Year	Team		G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	2B	3B	BB	SO	HBP	SH	SB	IBB	GDP
1973	KC	A	13	40	2	5	0	0	.125	.125	.175	2	0	0	5	0	1	0	0	0
1974	KC	A	133	457	49	129	2	47	.282	.313	.363	21	5	21	38	0	6	8	3	9
1975	KC	A	159	634	84	195	11	89	.308	.353	.456	35	13	46	49	2	9	13	6	8
1976	KC	A	159	645	94	215	7	67	.333	.377	.462	34	14	49	36	1	2	21	4	8
1977	KC	A	139	564	105	176	22	88	.312	.373	.532	32	13	55	24	2	3	14	9	12
1978	KC	A	128	510	79	150	9	62	.294	.342	.467	45	8	39	35	1	3	23	6	6
1979	KC	A	154	645	119	212	23	107	.329	.376	.563	42	20	51	36	0	1	17	14	8
1980	KC	A	117	449	87	175	24	118	.390	.454	.664	33	9	58	22	1	0	15	16	11
1981	KC	A	89	347	42	109	6	43	.314	.361	.484	27	7	27	23	1	0	14	7	7
1982	KC	A	144	552	101	166	21	82	.301	.378	.505	32	9	71	51	1	0	6	14	12
1983	KC	A	123	464	90	144	25	93	.310	.385	.563	38	2	57	39	1	0	0	13	9
1984	KC	A	104	377	42	107	13	69	.284	.344	.459	21	3	38	37	0	0	0	6	11
1985	KC	A	155	550	108	184	30	112	.335	.436	.585	38	5	103	49	3	0	9	31	12
1986	KC	A	124	441	70	128	16	73	.290	.401	.481	28	4	80	45	4	0	1	18	6
1987	KC	A	115	427	71	124	22	78	.290	.388	.496	18	2	72	47	1	0	6	14	10
1988	KC	A	157	589	90	180	24	103	.306	.389	.509	42	3	82	51	3	0	14	15	15
1989	KC	A	124	457	67	129	12	80	.282	.362	.431	26	3	59	47	3	0	14	14	18
1990	KC	A	142	544	82	179	14	87	.329	.387	.515	45	7	56	63	0	0	9	14	18
1991	KC	A	131	505	77	129	10	61	.255	.327	.402	40	2	58	75	0	1	2	10	20
1992	KC	A	152	592	55	169	7	61	.285	.330	.397	35	5	35	69	6	0	8	6	15
1993	KC	A	145	560	69	149	19	75	.266	.312	.434	31	3	39	67	3	0	7	9	20
Total			2707	10349	1583	3154	317	1595	.305	.369	.487	665	137	1096	908	33	26	201	229	235

Fielding Stats[]

Year	Team		POS	G	GS	INN	PO	A	ERR	DP	TP	AVG
1973	KC	A	3B	13	9	96	9	28	1	2	0	.974
1974	KC	A	SS	1	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1974	KC	A	3B	132	128	1134.2	102	279	21	16	0	.948
1975	KC	A	3B	159	159	1423.1	131	355	26	27	0	.949
1975	KC	A	SS	1	0	2	1	1	0	0	0	1.000
1976	KC	A	3B	157	157	1398.2	140	335	26	22	0	.948
1976	KC	A	SS	4	2	28.2	6	15	0	1	0	1.000
1977	KC	A	DH	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1977	KC	A	SS	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	.000
1977	KC	A	3B	135	134	1184	115	325	20	33	0	.957
1978	KC	A	SS	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1978	KC	A	3B	128	128	1102.1	104	289	16	25	0	.961
1979	KC	A	DH	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1979	KC	A	3B	149	148	1287.1	129	373	30	28	0	.944
1979	KC	A	1B	8	5	51	47	5	1	6	0	.981
1980	KC	A	1B	1	1	8	4	0	0	1	0	1.000
1980	KC	A	3B	112	112	994.2	103	256	17	28	0	.955
1981	KC	A	3B	88	87	758.1	74	170	14	7	0	.946
1982	KC	A	LF	12	11	99	24	1	0	1	0	1.000
1982	KC	A	OF	12	11	99	23	1	0	1	0	1.000
1982	KC	A	3B	134	132	1150	107	294	17	22	0	.959
1983	KC	A	1B	14	12	99	104	3	1	9	0	.991
1983	KC	A	LF	6	6	51	12	1	0	0	0	1.000
1983	KC	A	OF	13	12	107	21	1	0	0	0	1.000
1983	KC	A	DH	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1983	KC	A	3B	102	97	817.2	85	188	24	25	0	.919
1983	KC	A	RF	7	6	56	7	0	0	0	0	1.000
1984	KC	A	3B	101	101	789.1	59	201	14	18	0	.949
1985	KC	A	3B	152	152	1339.2	107	339	15	33	0	.967
1985	KC	A	DH	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1986	KC	A	DH	7	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1986	KC	A	SS	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1986	KC	A	3B	115	115	990	97	218	16	17	0	.952
1987	KC	A	DH	21	21	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1987	KC	A	3B	11	11	89.1	7	19	3	3	0	.897
1987	KC	A	1B	83	83	720.1	798	50	6	69	0	.993
1988	KC	A	DH	33	33	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1988	KC	A	SS	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1988	KC	A	1B	124	124	1075	1126	70	10	105	1	.992
1989	KC	A	DH	16	16	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1989	KC	A	OF	2	0	5	2	0	0	0	0	1.000
1989	KC	A	1B	105	105	901.1	896	80	2	71	0	.998
1989	KC	A	LF	2	0	5	2	0	0	0	0	1.000
1990	KC	A	3B	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1.000
1990	KC	A	1B	102	100	877	865	66	7	89	0	.993
1990	KC	A	RF	7	7	53	9	0	0	0	0	1.000
1990	KC	A	DH	32	31	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1990	KC	A	LF	2	2	16.1	5	1	0	0	0	1.000
1990	KC	A	OF	9	9	69.1	14	1	0	0	0	1.000
1991	KC	A	DH	118	118	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1991	KC	A	1B	10	10	84	87	5	1	6	0	.989
1992	KC	A	DH	132	131	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1992	KC	A	1B	15	15	133	137	12	2	9	0	.987
1992	KC	A	3B	3	3	26	2	5	1	1	0	.875
1993	KC	A	DH	140	139	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Total			DH	505	500	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Total			RF	14	13	109	16	0	0	0	0	1.000
Total			1B	462	455	3948.2	4064	291	30	365	1	.993
Total			LF	22	19	171.1	43	3	0	1	0	1.000
Total			SS	11	2	39.2	7	16	1	1	0	.958
Total			3B	1692	1673	14582.1	1372	3674	261	307	0	.951
Total			OF	36	32	280.1	60	3	0	1	0	1.000

Transactions[]

Selected by Kansas City Royals in the 2nd round of the free-agent draft (June 8, 1971).

Trivia[]

Brett was the first player in MLB history to compile 3,000 hits, 300 home runs, 600 doubles, 100 triples, 1,500 RBI, and 200 steals over the course of a career.
Won the AL MVP Award in 1980. His .390 batting aveage that year was the highest single-season mark since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.
Won the 1985 ALCS MVP Award.
Won the 1985 Gold Glove Award at third base.
Finished 2nd in MVP voting twice: (1976 and 1985).
Finished 3rd in MVP voting in 1979.
Won three Silver Slugger Awards: (1980, 1985, and 1988).
Won three Batting Titles: (1976-.333, 1980-.390, 1990-.329).

Led the AL in:

OBP once (1980)

SLG three times (1980, 1983, 1985)

OPS three times (1980, 1983, 1985)

At Bats twice (1975, 1976)

Hits three times (1975, 1976, 1979)

Total Bases once (1976)

Doubles twice (1978, 1990)

Triples three times (1975, 1976, 1979)

Singles once (1976)

Extra Base Hits once (1979)