I still respect him: More stories of Brooks Robinson and the 1970 World Series

Maybe we should call this “Brooks Week” at The Athletic Baltimore, sort of like Shark Week on the Discovery Channel but without the underwater videos and carnage-inducing teeth.

Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the day Orioles Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson had four hits, including a homer, in Game 4 of the 1970 World Series, the only one of the five contests the Orioles dropped to the Cincinnati Reds.

After his defensive display in the first three games — 20 total chances, including several are-you-kidding-me highlights — Robinson sewed up the Series MVP Award with his Game 4 showing at the plate (OK, maybe he already had it in the bag, but the 4-for-4 didn’t hurt).

Thursday is the golden anniversary of Game 5, when the Orioles won the Series, and we’ll honor it with an exclusive Q&A with Robinson about his career, his life and baseball in 2020.

Early next week, I’m writing about an offshoot of that World Series, another moment when Robinson’s heroics came rushing back onto the big stage.

But for now, I wanted to share some nuggets that didn’t make it into my recent oral history of the ’70 Series.

I know, hard to believe that I left anything out of that opus. But when you get a chance to talk to nine former All-Stars — including four Hall of Famers — about a memorable, long-ago time in their careers, you milk it a little and let the stories and quotes flow.

I love this stuff. And, from the responses I get when I write these history pieces, many of you do as well.

So, consider this an emptying of my digital notebook. Quotes and anecdotes about baseball and that Series I couldn’t fit elsewhere but thought were too interesting to just toss away.

Another unforgettable play of the 1970 World Series

In the oral history, I glossed over one of the most memorable plays in that Series because Robinson wasn’t directly involved. But the bang-bang misplay at home plate in Game 1 is deeply entrenched in World Series lore.

With one out in the bottom of the sixth and the score tied 3-3 — three batters after Robinson’s all-time snag of Lee May’s grounder behind the third-base bag — the Reds had runners on the corners and Reds manager Sparky Anderson decided to pinch-hit Ty Cline for Woody Woodward to face Hall of Fame right-hander Jim Palmer.

Cline hit a high chopper in front of the plate, which catcher Elrod Hendricks grabbed. Home plate umpire Ken Burkhart, a former big-league pitcher, ran from behind the plate to determine whether the ball was fair. But instead of throwing to first, Hendricks whirled to get Reds baserunner Bernie Carbo dashing in from third. Hendricks knocked over Burkhart accidentally, then tagged a sliding Carbo with his catcher’s mitt with the baseball in his right hand.

(Associated Press)

With his back to the play, Burkhart ruled out Carbo and didn’t ask for help from the other umpires. Anderson was furious, and so was Carbo, who incidentally never touched home plate until he was arguing and the play was dead. The Orioles scored on a Robinson solo homer in the top of the seventh, winning the game, 4-3.

“The biggest play was in the first game when Bernie Carbo didn’t touch home plate, Elrod didn’t touch him and the umpire didn’t see the play,” said Reds infielder Tommy Helms, who was running from first to second. “Who knows what would have happened and if that could have turned things around? That was a screwy play. Brooks then homered later against Gary Nolan, and it just all went down from there.”

“I don’t really recall too much about that game other than Burkhart’s play at the plate when Hendricks had the ball in his bare hand and he tags him with the glove,” said Nolan, Cincinnati’s Game 1 starter. “But it’s all part of the game. And I remember it was a very, very exciting time, especially for us as a team and for Cincinnati and the fans.”

Said Robinson: “I guess Elrod tagged him with the glove and he had the ball in his hand. But Bernie didn’t touch home plate, and the umpire didn’t see it. And so, they called him out. That was the good news. But, yeah, it was a strange play.”

The kinship between Bench and Brooks

One of my goals for the oral history was to get Johnny Bench’s take on the whole Series and all those hits that Robinson famously stole from arguably the greatest catcher who ever lived.

What I didn’t know — though it doesn’t surprise me — is that the two baseball greats have developed a deep friendship over the years.

“I still respect him to this day as much as I ever have,” Bench said. “I called him the other day, just to check on him, just, ‘How you doing? How you feeling?'”

Bench said when they see each other they always flash an open hand, signifying the No. 5 — their uniform numbers in their playing days. Bench said one of his favorite photos throughout his storied life occurred while three guys were chatting at a table during a gathering in Cooperstown, N.Y.: Bench, Robinson and fellow Hall of Famer George Brett.

“When you get to sit around with Brooks, he is even classier. Him and Connie have been really close friends to me. And we love to hold up our No. 5 when we see each other,” Bench said. “In fact, I have a great picture of Brett, myself and Brooks at the Hall of Fame, before we went out to an induction, and we are sitting at the table and we are all holding up 5.”

Two plays at the plate

Two cool moments during these interviews: Listening to Bench and Robinson discuss separate plays at the plate that stand out in each man’s mind. One happened with Robinson running from third to home toward Bench. The other was with Bench waiting for the 6-foot-4, 250-plus-pound Boog Powell barreling toward the plate. Separate plays, equal fear.

Robinson’s play unfolded in the third inning of Game 4. It was notable because of who was involved. Hendricks hit a single to right, scoring Frank Robinson. Brooks Robinson attempted to score from second but was cut down on a perfect throw from right fielder Pete Rose to Bench. In one split second, three first-ballot Hall of Famers — both Robinsons and Bench — and Rose, who should have been, were intertwined.

What the slow-footed Robinson remembers most about that play was staring down at Bench. And being out on what was a less-than-textbook slide.

“I always tell people that (third-base coach) Billy Hunter told me, ‘Go ahead, but I don’t think you’re gonna make it,'” Robinson joked. “I always tell people that. (But) he gave me the go sign. It was a bang-bang play and (facing) Bench, it was like, ‘Oh, man, I wouldn’t want to run into him.’ So I slid and didn’t make it to home plate, I don’t think.”

Bench had a similar feeling in the third inning of Game 5, when Powell scored from second on a single to center by Merv Rettenmund.

“I still have the picture of him sliding in at home plate. That was the scary part of the series. Here was Boog lumbering around third to score. And I’ve got to figure out how in the hell I’m gonna stop this runaway train,” Bench said. “Fortunately, he collapsed. He was so tired, and he just collapsed at home plate, I think. And I was laying on top of him.”

(Bettmann / Getty Images)

Powell’s defense in the Series and overall

Powell was the AL MVP in 1970 and one heck of a ballplayer. He also provided plenty of humor for his teammates. He did that inadvertently in the first inning of Game 4, when Bench hit a foul pop toward the Reds dugout. Hendricks took off his mask and ran toward the ball while Powell thundered in from first.

Powell got to it first and reached toward the top of the dugout to catch the ball. It popped out of his glove, then he barehanded it for the out as he braced himself from falling into the dugout. Orioles Hall of Famer Chuck Thompson announced, “Yessir, that is a catch. It is a catch.”

“I thought it was the greatest catch I ever made. It was foul. Man, I got my foot on the top step of the dugout and reached in there and the ball went in my glove and then slipped out and there it was, right in front of me. Right in front of my face,” Powell said. “Oh, man, the look on Elrod’s face. Because Elrod was right there. The (astonished) look on his face, I thought that was pretty cool.”

Robinson said he remembers laughing about that snag.

“That was fun. That was interesting,” Robinson said. “I liked that one.”

It’s important to remember that Powell was a good defender at first base, Robinson stressed. And that Powell assisted Robinson throughout most of his career.

“He was really underrated. We had such great fielders at the other positions, and Boog was a good fielder, he was just big. And I think people didn’t know that he was kind of mobile and had a good glove and he could catch one-hoppers to him and everything,” Robinson said. “He always kept track of how many low throws I made. When the season was over, he’d say, ‘Hey, Brooks, you threw me 10 balls in the dirt, and I got them.’ He wouldn’t let me forget that he helped me.”

Robinson could wear it, too

When we think about Robinson, especially in that series, we remember how he seemingly gloved everything. But those who played with him for a long time say if he couldn’t get a glove on a ball, he’d still find a way to knock it down and make a play. That’s how quick his reflexes were.

But he’d pay for that physicality, too, according to Orioles second baseman Davey Johnson.

“He played balls off his chest, bullets. Third base, as far as I was concerned, was the toughest position to play because you didn’t have a chance to read hops and whatever. It would just come at you like a rocket,” Johnson said. “Brooksie would always have bruises and marks on his body. And he didn’t have what you would call a Frank Robinson physique, either. But I always felt like it would hit him there and he would just play it off his chest. He was just amazing.”

A difficult, poignant time for everyone

I spoke to Bench before the news hit that longtime Reds superstar Joe Morgan, a key cog in the Big Red Machine of the 1970s, had died. I’m sure that hit Bench pretty hard.

On the day I talked to Bench, he spoke poignantly about the fraternity of Hall of Famers, how several have died recently and how he has made it a point to keep in contact with many of the greats.

“It’s one of the toughest years I can ever remember, and this last month has been just horrible,” Bench said. “So you think about Brooks a lot. … You think about all the guys, really. And what we’re having to go through and the losses we’ve had.”

He then recounted a story from this spring, when he called Baltimore native and Detroit Tigers great Al Kaline. Days went by, and then he heard from Kaline, who later died April 6 at age 85.

“I talked to him three days or so before he passed,” Bench said. “He said, ‘John, I was in the hospital for 10 days. I couldn’t get your call.’ He said, ‘I appreciate it. I love you.’ And I said, ‘I love you, Al.'”

(Top photo: Bettmann / Getty Images)

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