Robin Yount

Robin R. Yount debuted for the Milwaukee Brewers on April 5, 1974, at 18 years old, drew a walk off Luis Tiant in his first plate appearance, and then stayed in the same uniform for 20 seasons. He collected 3,142 hits, won the American League Most Valuable Player award as a shortstop in 1982 and again as a center fielder in 1989, led the Brewers to their only pennant, became the third youngest player to reach 3,000 hits after Ty Cobb and Hank Aaron, and never played a game for another franchise. Nolan Ryan said of facing him, "He was only 18 but he choked up and stood up on the plate. You couldn't intimidate him." The BBWAA elected Yount to the Hall of Fame in 1999 with 77.5% of the vote, alongside Ryan and George Brett.

Woodland Hills

Yount was born on September 16, 1955, in Danville, Illinois. His father Phil worked as an aerospace engineer at Rocketdyne, testing rocket engines, and the family moved to Woodland Hills, California, in the San Fernando Valley within a year of Robin's birth. His older brother Larry pitched briefly in the majors for the Houston Astros. Robin attended Taft High School, batted .455 as a senior, and earned All-Los Angeles City Player of the Year honors. Scouts from all 24 teams came to Woodland Hills to watch him. The Brewers selected him third overall in the 1973 draft, and he withdrew his letter of intent to attend Arizona State.

Yount spent one season in Single-A ball at Newark, hitting .285 in 64 games on a team that went 15-70, and earned All-Star honors as the player most likely to reach the majors. Milwaukee brought him straight to the big leagues the following spring. He was the youngest player in the American League.

Milwaukee

Yount hit .250 with three home runs in 107 games as an 18 year old before tendinitis in his feet ended his rookie season in August. By September 14, 1975, he set a major league record with his 242nd game as a teenager, breaking Mel Ott's longstanding mark. The defense took longer. Yount committed 44 errors at shortstop in 1975, the most in the majors, while learning a position at a level that most players his age were still working through in the minors.

A contract dispute in 1978 sent Yount home from spring training. He considered quitting baseball to pursue professional golf. He returned in May, signed a contract worth $2.3 million over five years, and batted .293 with 71 RBI the rest of the season. The Brewers won 93 games.

Yount's first All-Star selection came in 1980, when he hit .293 with 23 home runs and led the majors with 49 doubles. He reached his 1,000th hit on August 16 at 24, the sixth youngest player in history to do so. His batting stance looked unorthodox. He crouched low, drew his right foot back, lifted his left heel, pointed his left toe inward, and twisted his hands slightly on the bat. It looked like a reaction built from instinct rather than instruction, and it worked because Yount recognized pitches early and let the ball travel deep before committing.

1982

Yount's 1982 season is the finest in Brewers history. He batted .331 with 210 hits (most in the majors), 46 doubles (most in the majors), 29 home runs, 114 RBI, and a .578 slugging percentage that led the league. He received 27 of 28 first-place MVP votes and won his only Gold Glove. During July he hit .410 over a 28 game stretch with eight home runs and 24 RBI. He was the first American League shortstop to lead the league in total bases and slugging since Honus Wagner and Ernie Banks had done it in the National League.

The Brewers won the American League pennant and faced the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Yount went 12-for-29 (.414) with a home run and six RBI. He collected four hits in Game 1 and four hits in Game 5, the first player to produce two four hit games in the same World Series. Milwaukee won both of those games but lost Games 6 and 7 in St. Louis, and the Series with them.

The Position Change

A ruptured disc in 1983 began the deterioration of Yount's throwing shoulder. He played through bone spurs and tendon damage in 1984, underwent two arthroscopic surgeries within 10 months, and could no longer make the throw from deep shortstop. The Brewers moved him to the outfield in 1985. "If the operation didn't work," Yount said, "I would have said, 'It's been nice.'"

By 1986, pain free for the first time in three years, Yount played center field and led American League outfielders with a .997 fielding percentage. On April 15, 1987, he made a diving catch off Eddie Murray to preserve Juan Nieves' franchise record setting no hitter. He reached his 2,000th hit on September 6, 1986, the seventh youngest player to do so.

1989

Yount won his second MVP in 1989, batting .318 with 21 home runs, 103 RBI, and a .511 slugging percentage. He joined Hank Greenberg and Stan Musial as the third player in major league history to win MVP awards at two different positions. The Brewers finished 81-81 and Yount became the first American League MVP whose team did not finish with a winning record.

3,000

Yount collected his 3,000th hit on September 9, 1992, at County Stadium against the Cleveland Indians. Jose Mesa threw a pitch that Yount singled into right center field. He was the 17th player in major league history to reach the milestone and the third youngest, behind Cobb and Aaron. Bob Uecker made the call from the broadcast booth.

Yount played one more season, batting .285 in 1993, his 20th year in Milwaukee. After his final home game he drove a motorcycle around the field. He had raced motorcycles since age 11, competed on off road courses throughout his career, and once crashed a Sports 2000 race car at 120 mph before deciding auto racing was "not for me."

Yount finished with 3,142 hits, 583 doubles, 251 home runs, 1,406 RBI, 271 stolen bases, and a .285 batting average across 2,856 games and 11,008 at bats, all of them in a Brewers uniform. The franchise retired his number 19 in 1994. His 77.4 career WAR stands 17 points higher than any other player in Brewers history. Scout Gordon Goldsberry, who recommended drafting him in 1973, called Yount, "the best athlete I've ever been associated with." Tom Flaherty of the Milwaukee Sentinel called him "the most modest superstar in sports." Yount's own assessment was simpler. "I'm just a human being with the ability to play baseball," he said. "I'm nothing special."