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Brooks Robinson - Hanging It Up

On August 21, 1977, the Orioles dropped Robinson from their roster. Rick Dempsey, coming off the disabled list, filled into the space and Robinson decided it was time to retire. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983, on the first ballot. It was a landslide election.

Chronology

1937 Born May 18 in Little Rock, Arkansas, to Brooks Calbert and Ethel Mae Robinson
1951 Plays baseball with local church team because high school has no baseball team
1955 Plays for the first time with the Orioles baseball system
1956-57 Attends Little Rock University (now University of Arkansas at Little Rock)
1958 Hits into first triple play of a record four for his career
1960 Goes 5-5, hitting for the cycle
1960 Marries Constance Louise Butcher on October 8
1962 Becomes 6th major leaguer to hit grand slams in back to back games
1963 Benched for poor hitting, streak of 463 straight games playing third base comes to a halt
1967 Plays in longest All-Star game, 15 innings (three hours and 41 minutes)
1970 Hits 2,000th major league hit, a three-run homer
1971 Ties World Series record by reaching base five straight times on three hits and two walks
1977 Retires from baseball
1978 Becomes color commentator for Orioles games
1979 Takes position as assistant to management for Crown Central Petroleum Corporation
1979 Works with Shapiro & Robinson, a consulting firm
1979 Becomes vice-president of Baltimore Orioles
1983 Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame in landslide election

For fifteen straight seasons, Robinson was the American League's starting All-Star third baseman. He led American League third basemen in assists eight times, and led in fielding eleven times. Robinson holds almost every lifetime record for third basemen, often by a large margin. He holds the records for most games played, for best fielding percentage (.971), most putouts (2,697), most assists (6,205), most chances (9,165) and most double plays (618).

His uniform, #5, was officially retired on opening day 1978. In 1999, Robinson was named to the ESPN All-Century Team, honoring the best twenty-five players in baseball during the 20th century.

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