Celebrating Robin Yount's birthday with 60 facts about the Brewers Hall of Famer
Robin Yount, who spent his entire 20-year career with the Milwaukee Brewers, turned 60 years old on Sept. 16.
To celebrate the milestone birthday, here are 60 facts about the greatest player in franchise history.
1. Drafted No. 3 overall in 1973 draft. Texas took pitcher David Clyde at No. 1 and Philadelphia selected catcher John Stearns at No. 2. Pick No. 4 was Dave Winfield by San Diego.
2. Played just 64 games in the minors for Newark of the Class-A New York-Penn League in 1973, batting .285 with a .370 on-base percentage and .409 slugging percentage.
3. Milwaukee manager Del Crandall was the one who pitched Yount playing for the Brewers as an 18-year-old in 1974. Crandall: "The first time I even looked at him -- I hadn't even noticed him, you know he only had 60 games, I think, to his credit in rookie ball -- and so I just happened to be standing behind the batting cage one day and looked out and one of the coaches was hitting him fungoes at shortstop. I looked out and I saw this lanky kid and he had good range and good hands and we had a terrible field and that ball would bounce up and hit him in the shoulder and he'd go over and pick it up and toss it in and get another one. And so I went over to the coach and said let me hit him some. Robin was about at the end of his workout and I hit him some more ground balls and he just looked like he that had the great makeup and obvious talent. He could throw, he had good range and like I say he had good hands. And nobody knows whether they can hit or not until they get the opportunity. So I went to my general manager, who was Jim Wilson, and I asked him if there was any reason why an 18-year-old kid could not start on our ballclub. And he says, 'Look, we don't have much. What do you want to do?' And I said I want to play him. I think we had about 15 games left on our spring training schedule. I said I want to play him every day and see how he handles the 0-for-4s and how he handles the boots and he handles some adversity. And he was just tremendous. He had just great, great makeup. So he started the season with us. It was just that obvious that he could play, and then it was just a matter of could he play at a major-league level enough so he could gain confidence and help the ballclub, and he could do that."
4. Was the youngest player in the major leagues in both 1974 and 1975.
5. Was Milwaukee's starting shortstop on opening day, April 5, 1974 at County Stadium. He batted ninth and was 0 for 1 with a walk while starting a double play on defense (he had one putout and four assists). In his first major-league plate appearance he walked against Boston's Luis Tiant.
6. Felipe Alou pinch-hit for Yount in the sixth inning of that debut game.
7. Didn't get his first hit until his fifth game, a single off Baltimore's Dave McNally in the fifth inning in Milwaukee on April 12, 1974.
8. He also committed his first two major-league errors in that game.
9. His first home run came the next day, April 13, 1974, off Baltimore's Ross Grimsley, a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth which broke a 2-all tie (the Brewers would win 3-2).
10. His second home run was also off Grimsley, but didn't occur until June 22, 1974.
11. Broke Mel Ott's record set from 1926-28 for most games played by a teenager with 243.
12. According to a Sporting News survey in its April 23, 1977 edition, Yount was to make $80,000 in 1977.
13. Hit the first of his six career walk-off home runs on June 11, 1978 in the second game of a double header off Toronto's Tom Murphy. He led off the inning to give the Brewers a 5-4 win.
14. Hit first leadoff home run of his career on Sept. 14, 1978 at home off Baltimore's Scott McGregor.
15. Yount started a game batting leadoff 265 times.
16. Hit the first of six inside-the-park home runs on June 1, 1979 at Kansas City against Larry Gura.
17. Made his first of three All-Star Games in 1980. He also played in 1982 and 1983.
18. Was 0 of 7 in All-Star games with a run, an RBI, two walks and two strikeouts.
19. In 1980, won the first of his three Silver Sluggers (also in 1982 and 1989).
20. Four of his six inside-the-park home runs were hit against Kansas City and three were hit at Royals Stadium.
21. His first of three career grand slams came on May 4, 1980 at Chicago off the White Sox's Rich Wortham.
22. Batted over .300 for the first time in 1982 when he hit a career-high .331. Also did it in 1983 (.308), 1986 (.312), 1987 (.312) and 1989 (.318).
23. Batted .414 with a .621 slugging percentage and six RBI in the 1982 World Series.
24. Won MVP in 1982, receiving 27 or 28 first-place votes. Reggie Jackson got the other.
25. At the time was only the fourth shortstop to win an MVP.
26. In 1982, he won his only Gold Glove.
27. Hit career home run No. 100 off Minnesota's Albert Williams at the Metrodome on May 1, 1983.
28. Moved from shortstop to the outfield in 1985. He never played even one inning at shortstop again.
Former Brewer Robin Yount signs autographs before a spring training game against the Dodgers in Phoenix.
29. In his career, he played 1,479 games at shortstop, 1,150 games in center field, 137 games at designated hitter, 69 games in left field and 12 games at first base.
30. Led the league in triples at age 32 in 1988 with 11.
31. Hit career home run No. 200 on July 31, 1989 at County Stadium off Cleveland's Scott Bailes.
32. Won the MVP again in 1989. At the time he was just the third player to win an MVP at two different positions.
33. Was the majors' highest paid player in 1990 at $3.2 million.
34. Got hit No. 3,000 on Sept. 9, 1992 with a single off Cleveland's Jose Mesa in the seventh inning. It was Milwaukee's last game before embarking on a road trip.
35. He was the 17th player to amass 3,000 career hits.
36. Hit career home run No. 250 at County Stadium off Boston's Danny Darwin on July 27, 1993.
37. Hit his final home run (No. 251) at California on Aug. 19, 1993 off the Angels' Mark Langston.
38. Was the Brewers' all-time leader in home runs with 251 before Ryan Braun surpassed him this season.
39. He never hit three home runs in a game.
40. The most home runs he hit in an opposing ballpark was 15 at Tiger Stadium.
41. The highest slugging percentage he had at a ballpark was .503 both at the original Comiskey Park and Royals Stadium.
42. The team he hit the most home runs against was Toronto with 25.
43. His highest batting average vs. a team was .330 against Toronto.
44. His highest batting average at a ballpark was .332 at both Royals Stadium and Arlington Stadium.
45. He hit the most home runs off Larry Gura with six.
46. Faced Frank Tanana more than any other pitcher with 139 plate appearances (and batted 309/388/439 with three home runs).
47. His highest batting average vs. any pitcher is Fred Holdsworth at 1.000. Yount batted 1.000 against many pitchers, but of those he faced Holdsworth the most -- three times (single, double, sacrifice hit).
48. His highest batting average vs. a pitcher with a minimum of 10 plate appearances is .600 against Dave Fleming -- 6 for 10 with two doubles and three walks.
49. His highest batting average vs. a pitcher with a minimum of 25 plate appearances is .526 vs. Dave Lemanczyk (40 PA)
50. His highest batting average vs. a pitcher with a minimum of 50 plate appearances is .443 vs. Mike Flanagan (87 PA). He had eight doubles, two triples and four HR off Flanagan for a .747 slugging percentage.
51. His highest batting average vs. a pitcher with a minimum of 100 plate appearance is .320 vs. Dave Steib (116 PA), with a .510 slugging percentage.
52. Stole at least 10 bases in season in 16 of his 20 seasons.
53. With the exception of the 1981 strike season, he never played fewer than 107 games -- and that came in his rookie season. He played in at least 140 games in 15 of his 20 seasons.
54. Yount's career slash line at home: 288/347/435. On the road: 283/338/425.
55. Yount's career slash line vs. righties: 285/337/430. Against lefties: 286/354/429.
56. Larry and Robin Yount were briefly teammates. Houston traded Larry to the Brewers on March 30, 1974, with the brothers both in spring training with Milwaukee for a short period of time. His brother, Larry, "appeared" in one major-league game, for Houston on Sept. 15, 1971. Larry Yount was injured while warming up and never threw a pitch.
57. His son, Dustin, was taken in the ninth round of the 2001 draft by Baltimore. He played in the minors from 2001-10.
58. Had his No. 19 retired by the Brewers on May 29, 1994.
59. First player to make the Hall of Fame as a Brewer. He was inducted July 25, 1999.
60. In 1999, was one of eight shortstops named to MLB's All-Century team.
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