Thursday, January 7, 2021

Brooks Robinson will save us all

 



I have this card from the 1975 NST set which I kind of like.  That is Brooks Robinson on the right and I think Earl Weaver on the left.  Shigeo Nagashima is the Giant and I don't know who the suit is.  

I like Brooks Robinson a lot.  Everybody does.  He's just a great all round guy that everyone can agree on.  Looking at the US from the outside these days it looks so violently divided along political, racial and economic lines I often wonder why Americans don't talk about Brooks Robinson more, because EVERY conversation I've ever had about him always ends up with me and the people I'm talking to smiling and feeling much more friendly towards each other, even if we didn't like each other much before we started talking about Brooks.  It seems to me Americans could use a lot more Brooks Robinson related chats. 

Such is the power of Brooks.  Watching the violence in Washington DC yesterday I wondered if they shouldn't have just flashed a big picture of Brooks Robinson where everybody could see it, then all the rampaging idiots would have been "Oh hey Brooks Robinson, he was so nice to me that time I asked him for an autograph" then they'd all drop their crap and leave.  Kind of like that scene at the end of the Naked Gun where Frank Dreben's speech has the same effect on the brawling Seattle Mariners and California Angels:


I met Brooks Robinson back in 1992 during my awkward teenage phase (which is to say during the entirety of my teenage years) at a card show in Toronto.  

He was just so damn nice.  He signed a photo of mine and a ball that my best friend Mike (on the right) had brought, both with personal inscriptions.  Then since the line wasn't long he chatted  with us, invited us behind the table to pose for pictures.  I'm pretty sure that if we had said we were hungry he would have said "Oh I make the best Rueben sandwiches.  You guys like Rueben sandwiches?  Wait here, I'll be right back, you are going to love these."  Then he would have gone off, somehow found the ingredients necessary to make Rueben sandwiches in the middle of a card show and a kitchen to make them in, made them for us, brought them back and then had lunch with us right there.  And his Rueben sandwiches would have been out of this world.  

Anyway, I'm glad that Brooks appears on Japanese cards too!




9 comments:

  1. Nice to hear of these great stories. Cool that he appears on Japanese cards too!

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    1. Yeah, I think he is on a couple of cards from this set.

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  2. That is definitely Earl on that card. There's at least three cards from that set showing Orioles on their 1971 Japanese tour. There's another card of Brooks and one with Boog Powell and Nagashima.

    I live near Baltimore and Brooks is a legend here. I used to enjoy his folksy color commentary on the Orioles broadcasts although it's been a long time since he was on them.

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    1. I can imagine he must be huge there. I'm not an Orioles fan but he's an all time favorite of mine.

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  3. What an awesome card. I don't remember watching Brooks Robinson play, but I've heard enough stories about him to know he's one of the greatest third baseman of all-time. As for Weaver... I loved watching him argue with umpires when I was a kid. Him and Billy Martin were the best.

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    1. I never saw him play either, but he is a class act. I liked watching Weaver yell too!

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  4. That's Earl? He looks too young. Every card I have of him, it looks like he's 70. He only looks like he's in his mid-50s in that picture. Huh.

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    1. That is what confused me too, I've never seen Earl look less than 70. I always assumed he was born looking old!

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  5. thanks for posting this -- its nice to be reminded of the through and through good guys --

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