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Weekly UpdatesWhile Arkansas has produced some of professional baseball's all-time greats, none defined his position more than Little Rock native Brooks Robinson.
Robinson played 23 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles and won a record (for his position) 16 Gold Gloves.
Though the Little Rock High School graduate played his last game on August 13, 1977, his name still is still synonymous with spectacular over-the-shoulder grabs or extra-base robbing dives.
"I'm in Washington [D.C.] doing some things for the Hall of Fame [at a National Press Club luncheon] and we had to get up and answer some questions," the 72-year-old said to ArkansasSports360.com in a recent telephone interview. "Someone asked me if I enjoyed hearing on TV when someone makes a great, great play and they'll say, 'That was a Brooks Robinson play,' and I said, 'You bet I love it.'"
He added with a laugh, "I tell them I can still dive and catch it, but I can't get up anymore."
Not bad for young kid that grew up playing at Lamar Porter Field and idolizing the St. Louis Cardinals and Stan Musial--he would later play against Musial a couple of times in Major League All-Star games.
"The only game we really got in town was the Cardinal game on the radio," the lifetime .267 hitter said. "They used to play the Chicago White Sox in an exhibition game [in Little Rock] ... so I got out of school a half day every time they came in and went with my dad to watch the game."
With no high school baseball in Little Rock at the time, Robinson excelled for the Little Rock Post No. 1 American Legion team and the Tiger basketball team, earning a basketball scholarship offer from the University of Arkansas.
After high school, Robinson had to make a decision take the scholarship or sign with the Orioles or Cincinnati Reds (his two finalists among the eight or nine teams that wanted him in the pre-amateur draft days).
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"It wasn't an easy decision ]turning the scholarship] but I talked [his family] into it," he said of signing a major league contract. "More or less this is what I wanted to do but I told them I'll come back and go to school, so that's always your answer when they say you better take the four-year ride to college."
The Orioles and Reds were the only two teams to offer a major league contract. The Orioles had lost 100 games the year before and were on their way to losing another 100 games the year he signed (1955), "I figured this was the quickest way to the major leagues."
Though Robinson did return briefly to his hometown and attend what was then Little Rock University (now the University of Arkansas at Little Rock), there was no need for college once he became entrenched at the "hot corner."
He would go on to 15 consecutive All-Star games from 1960-74, was named American League Most Valuable Player in 1964 and World Series Most Valuable Player in 1970, and set major league career third baseman records for games, putouts, assists, chances, double plays and fielding percentage. His total of 268 career home runs was the American League record for third basemen when he retired. He was selected on the first ballot into baseball's Hall of Fame in 1983.
"As a youngster growing up, you always dream about signing a professional contract ... getting to the major leagues, winning a pennant, getting in a World Series and winning," he said. "I can just remember saying, 'Boy, if that could ever happen to me there would be nothing that could top that."
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RELATED ARTICLE: Robinson, Kell had special bond.
Though he grew up idolizing St. Louis Cardinals outfielder STAN MUSIAL, BROOKS ROBINSON knew and followed all the players from Arkansas who were playing in the major leagues.
One of those in particular, GEORGE KELL would later become his mentor when the two played together briefly in the later part of Kell's career, which coincided with Robinson's beginning in Baltimore.
"George kind of took me under his wing," Robinson said. "Went to my first stage play in New York with George and his wife and I've always been an admirer of his."
Kell died earlier this year.
"He was always a guy that when the season was over he headed for Swifton, Arkansas, as soon as you could do it," Robinson said. "He loved Arkansas, FRANK BROYLES, and the Razorbacks. He was just Arkansas through and through."
But so is Robinson, who read off a who's who list of former major league Arkansans who he followed, such as LON WARNEKE, PREACHER ROE, JOHNNY SAIN and DIZZY DEAN. He also stays on top of the Arkansans playing today, like Benton's CLIFF LEE, North Little Rock's A.J. BURNETT and Pine Bluff's TORII HUNTER.
"I'm thrilled every time I read about someone from Arkansas doing well," he said.
So is there bond that Arkansans in the major leagues have?
"Absolutely," he said. "I married a girl from Canada so Baltimore was really were I stayed most of the time, but I'm from Arkansas."
RELATED ARTICLE: Robinson battles, wins fight against cancer; stays busy.
Baseball Hall of Famer and Little Rock native BROOKS ROBINSON recently disclosed at an American Cancer Society luncheon in his adopted hometown of Baltimore that he was diagnosed very early with prostate cancer. He told the group that after undergoing 39 radiation treatments, he was "healthy and fine."
With the kind of schedule he still keeps at age 72, healthy is a good thing. Robinson says he stays busy making speaking appearances, working as the president of the Major League Baseball Alumni Association and is part of a group that owns four independent league teams: Camden, N.J.; Lancaster, Pa.; York, Pa.; and Southern Maryland.
Robinson said he still manages to return to his home state about four or five times a year. He'll be back in July at Fayetteville for a golf tournament to benefit The First Tee.
"1 still have good friends there," he said recently by phone. "I love to come back home. That's one of my favorite things is just getting back home and running around to the old haunts that I used to go to."--By Philip Seaton
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