Brooks Robinson had a lot of help as he journeyed through college ball and the minors on his way to becoming the best third baseman of all-time, but there was one guy who everyone seems to forget when talking about the development of Brooks. From 1956-1957, the Orioles were trying to leverage Robinson into becoming the next O’s third baseman for years to come. It had been a while since Baltimore had a franchise man at the hot corner, so to make sure Brooks had all the resources he could get; they acquired George Kell from the Chicago White Sox.
When discussing the greatest players to ever conquer the hot corner, many forget about the former Tiger superstar, George Kell. His last two seasons were with the O’s from 1956-1957, as he had bad knees, so a retirement at the age of 34 was the right decision. Despite making the all-star squad during his last campaign, still thrilling the majors was not the first thing on his mind. He was a key part of the development of his 1983 Hall of Fame Inductee classmate Brooks Robinson.
Kell was a soft-spoken man, but was wise beyond his years in the game of baseball. George may have been a great mentor to Brooks helping with the birth of Mr. Impossible, but how good of a player was Kell? Despite only playing 15 seasons, is George still considered one on of the greats?
His first few years in the league as a Athletic were hard, but once he arrived in Detroit, he thrived, as he batted .304 or better during his 6 years wearing a Tigers’ uniform. During those 6 seasons, he finished in the top 15 MVP voting every year, as a great contact hitter with an extremely high OB% (.392). Although, due to his knee problems that denied him entrance into WWII, held him back from ever playing in more than 135 games 3 or more times, as his career numbers would have been a lot higher. During his only 3 full seasons, he averaged to play in 152 games while collecting 199 hits, including 40 doubles. His fielding may not had been as good as his hitting, but it was still solid.
He had a decent fielding percentage of .970 and a range factor of 3.19, that was around league average. However, 92% of the balls that made their way towards him, resulted in outs (league average was 89%). If it wasn’t for the beginning of the second dead ball era, and reoccurring knee injuries, his numbers would have clearly been Hall of Fame worthy, but instead Kell had to wait for the Veteran’s Committee to vote him in. Quite possibly what Brooks picked up most from Kell, was the importance of being a player of quality, looking out for the team. Even when George got out, 46% of the time it was a productive out (league average 34%), showing Brooks that a legend is not all about own statistics.
