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Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
TIMESTAMPS
The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20181011122038/http://www.baseball-almanac.com:80/players/player.php?p=brettge01
George Brett was born on Friday, May 15, 1953, in Glen Dale, West Virginia. Brett was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on August 2, 1973, with the Kansas City Royals. His biographical data, year-by-year hitting stats, fielding stats, pitching stats (where applicable), career totals, uniform numbers, salary data and miscellaneous items-of-interest are presented by Baseball Almanac on this comprehensive George Brett baseball stats page.
"George Brett could fall out of bed on Christmas morning and hit a line drive." - Former Kansas City Royals General Manager John Scherholz in George Brett: A Royal Hero (KC Star, Sports Publishing, 06/01/1999, Page 28) [George Brett Quotes]
Did you know that George Brett is a member of the 3,000 Hits Club and his 3,154 career hits are the most by any third baseman in Major League history (plus top-twenty in Top 1,000)? Join Baseball Almanac as we take a look at some additional numbers of interest as they relate one of the best third baseman in Major League history:
3 - George Brett is the only player in Major League history with a batting championship in three different decades (.333 in 1976, .390 in 1980 & .329 in 1990).
4 - George Brett is one of four players to have 3,000+ hits, 300+ home runs and a .300+ batting average - the other three are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays & Stan Musial.
5 - George Brett had his number (#5) retired by the Kansas City Royals on April 7, 1994. It was the second number retired in Royals history, preceded by former Manager Dick Howser (#10) in 1987.
24 - George Brett had more than 24 inches of pine tar (rule states no foreign substance on a bat can extend any further than 18 inches from the knob) on his bat, July 24, 1983, resulting in one of the most famous altercations in big league history and legendarily known now as "The Pine Tar Incident."
55 - George Brett was ranked by The Sporting on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players ever as the fifty-fifth best in baseball history.
98.2 - George Brett was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999, receiving 98.2% of the votes, the fourth-highest voting percentage in Hall of Fame history at the time, trailing only Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan and Ty Cobb.
George Brett hit for the cycle on May 28, 1979. George Brett hit for the cycle on July 25, 1990. George Brett holds the Major League
record for longest times between cycles (11 years, 57 days). Baseball Almanac likes to take a look "beyond the stats" and we hope you enjoy the following George Brett biographical information written by Dennis E. Yuhasz:
GEORGE BRETT BIOGRAPHY
He was a part of a scenario we seldom see in baseball anymore, a top contending team identified by one player. It happened often through history until the coming of free agency in the 1970's. In the 20's it was Ruth and the Yankees, in later decades Williams and the Red Sox, DiMaggio and the Yankees, Musial and the Cardinals, Mays and the Giants, Aaron and the Braves and Mantle and the Yankees. In the 70's and 80's it was the Kansas City Royals and George Brett. The Royals of that time were bonafide contenders year after year and if you were going to beat them your best chance was to stop their Superstar Brett who won batting titles, played stellar defense and was one of the top clutch players of his time. "When the game was on the line, we all wanted George at the plate," said KC's John Wathan.
George Brett's career did not get of to a quick start as the Kansas City third baseman batted just .282 and drove in a mere 47 runs in 1974. He blossomed the next season when, after applying the hitting style taught to him by hitting Coach Charlie Lau, he hit .308, stroked 195 hits, had 89 RBI and used all fields to hit 13 triples. He won his first batting title in 1976 with a .333 average and had his first season of 200 hits (215) while helping the Royals win the American League's Western Division. In the ALCS he batted .444 and slugged a game tying Game Five three run home run only to see KC finally lose in heartbreaking fashion to the Yankees on a Chris Chambliss homer in the bottom of the ninth. The pattern continued for Brett and the Royals the next two seasons as they mad it three consecutive AL West Titles and three straight defeats to the Yankees despite fine performances by their now perennial All-Star third baseman. In the 1977 ALCS he batted .300 but KC blew a late inning fifth game lead and lost, and in 1978 they went out in four games even losing Game Three with Brett slamming three home runs off Catfish Hunter.
The Royals and Brett finally overcame all their frustration at the hands of the Yankees in a storybook 1980 season. Brett fought off various injuries to come closer than anyone at that time to bat .400 for the first time since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. At one point during the season he hit safely in 30 straight games and he was at the coveted .400 mark as late as September 20 before finally finishing with a league leading .390. He also drove in a career high 118 runs and despite missing 45 games was voted American League MVP. "If God had him no balls and two strikes, he'd still get a hit," marveled American League Umpire Steve Palermo.
In the ALCS against their old nemesis the Yankees, Kansas City jumped out on New York taking the first two games at home but trailed 2-0 going to the seventh inning of Game Three at Yankee Stadium with New York's ace reliever, Rich Gossage poised to get the final outs and put the Yanks back in the series. But Brett saw to it that that this season would be different as he drove a Gossage fastball into the upper deck in right field to put the Royals in the lead and propel them to a sweep over their arch rival. However, despite Brett's .375 average Kansas City fell to the Phillies in a six game World Series.
Brett led the Royals to another Al West Title in 1984 and the following season the Royals made it back to the World Series defeating Toronto in a seven games series with Brett homering three times and batting .348. This time KC reached the mountain top as they overcame a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Cardinals in seven games for the franchises first and only World Title. There would be no more post season play for George Brett after 1985 but he continued his stellar play despite injury plagued seasons. In 1987 he moved from third base to first base and maintained his offensive prowess despite the switch. In 1990 he won his third Batting Crown hitting .329 making him the first hitter to win batting titles in three different decades and led the AL in doubles tying his career best of 45. In 1992 he joined the exclusive 3000 hit club in grand style with four hits in a 4-0 Royals win over the Angels and went on to finish with a career total of 3154.
George Brett ended his playing days with a .305 batting average. He is the first player to total 3000 hits, 600 doubles, 100 triples, 1500 RBI and 200 stolen bases for a career. Brett batted .340 in 27 ALCS games with 35 hits and 22 runs scored. He holds ALCS records for slugging (.728), and OPS (1.128). Brett holds overall LCS marks in homeruns (9, tied with Bernie Williams) and triples (4), and is second with 75 total bases and 18 extra base hits League Championship Play. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1999.
George Brett | National Baseball Hall of Fame Plaque | Class of 1999 (HOF)
In 1999, George Brett was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot, receiving 98.19% of the possible votes, the fourth-highest voting percentage at the time - trailing only Tom Seaver (98.84%), Nolan Ryan (98.79%), and Ty Cobb (98.23%).