Do Wah Diddy Diddy: The George Brett Thread

I hated Brett for what he did to the Jays in '85, especially in game 4. But obviously he was a great player. In a way he was the Ty Cobb of the modern era, hypercompetitive and angry most of the time, each fueled by the other. Brett could be downright nasty.

i'm team brett altho that is mostly "fuck the phillies" coming thru
https://mlbcomparisons.com/mike-schmidt-vs-george-brett-comparison/

wonder how ken brett's career would have played out in a different era
https://www.mlb.com/news/ken-brett-two-way-phenom-c269367600

friends (or more) with Rush Limbaugh

Limbaugh worked for the Royals in the '70s; I'd be happier not knowing they're friends, but there's at least a foundation there that goes beyond cartoon Limbaugh (i.e., I assume Limbaugh wasn't Limbaugh when they met).

I'd add Carew to Earl's list. (And I guess Ichiro.)

i saw someone asked who they'd want, of everyone all-time, in a key situation that required a hit; he was the answer

I thought I might be able to construct a case that he was the exception to the rule, the one demonstrably provable clutch hitter, but, as usual, mixed evidence. The best argument is his post-season performance--he only had half as many PA as Ortiz because of his era, but he was even better overall, and more consistent. All post-season series:

Brett - .337/.397/.627
Ortiz - .289/.404/.543

Ortiz was up and down; Brett was good-to-awesome in seven of the nine series he played in. World Series:

Brett (2) - .373/.439/.529
Ortiz (3) - .455/.576/.795

Big advantage to Ortiz there.

When you start looking at Brett's career splits, he was best in high-leverage situations:

Low: .304/.368/.483
Med: .297/.359/.483
High: .321/.394/.508

Smaller sample, though--as with the post-season--so I don't how significant that is.

On the other side of the ledger, his "clutch stats" box shows little variance across the board from his overall totals. Monthly, he peaks in July/August; Sept. is a normal month.

My memories of him as a hitter are obviously disproportionately influenced by two things:

1) What he did to the Yankees in '76 and '78: 36 AB, 4 HR, 8 RBI, .417/.425/.846, highlighted by his massive 3-HR game in '78;
2) What he did to the Jays all through his career: .321/.402/.551. The first was his second-best mark against any one team; the other two his best. He killed the Jays year-in and year-out, back when I actually watched a lot of regular-season baseball.

No new news...but the entire pine-tar game is online, if you're interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvu_1JMY36k

(Best thumbnail ever.)

Wasn't sure where to put this, problem solved...Not sure if I knew this or not (if I did, I'd forgotten):

In 1980, the year Brett made a run at .400, he went 0-6 on May 21, dropping his average to .247. The rest of the way: .427/.484/.716.