Brooks Robinson Biography

[freddfish]

I'm reading a bio of my childhood hero, Brooks Robinson, wtitten by Doug Wilson....entitled simply "Brooks", a birthday present from my wife.

Great book! Although my opinion probably isn't 100% objective, it is still a good read, very informative and well written. (and funny as hell in parts)

Example: Lots of the players would do the dinner/speech circuit in the off-season, which was a bigger deal back then, as it gave people the opportunity to actually meet up-close the men whose careers they so avidly followed, and allowed the players to pick up some needed off-season money. Of course, the staple of a good after-dinner speech is a funny story or joke, and there was one making the rounds concerning Brooks.

Seems the top batters in the American league were tired of seeing their batting averages suffer because of Robinsons phenomenal glove, so they all pitched in and hired a hit-man to go out and shoot him. Shortly afterward, the hit-man, looking dejected, returned to the hotel room where they were all waiting.

"Well? did you shoot him?" they asked.

"Yep. 4 times," the hit-man mournfully reported.

"So what happened?

"Well, he fielded the first 3 bullets, and turned the fourth for a double play!"

[zander]

I need to find that book. I still have a copy of his book "Third Base is my Home", which was written in 1974.

[freddfish]

Here you go!

www.amazon.com/Brooks-The-Biography-Robinson/dp/1250033047/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396547439&sr=8-1&keywords=doug+wilson+brooks+robinson

Relatively new book, so it is still only in hardcover. But it is one well-written and researched book, and worth the money. This guy is a pretty good sportwswriter, and he has a good sense of the time in which he was writing about. Full of interesting facts about that era, and not all just about Brooks.

One thing I found interesting though...Robinson was left-handed in his younger years, but learned to play ball right handed. Some say that is why he had such great accuracy in the field, as his glove hand was actually dominant. (Even though his right one functioned very well too!)

Man, great book. Read it and enjoy, there's my advice.