How Brooks Robinson Helped a Father & Son Bond Over Baseball

With the O’s on the verge of a division title, the organization was shattered yesterday with the news that Hall of Famer and legend, Brooks Robinson, had passed away.

The city of Baltimore has had its fair share of all time greats that have stayed with one organization their whole careers, but it’s the connection to the city and its fans that has a uniqueness about it rarely seen in any other city. Whether it’s Ray Lewis or Jim Palmer or Cal Ripken or Brooksie, these are athletes that transcended the city and organization and are revered long after they retire.

Earlier today, I watched the video of the last game at Memorial Stadium. Brooks was the first to come out in the post-game festivities. He stood at third base for a few moments all alone. The crowd went nuts. One by one, the revered stars came out and it ended with Cal, as the last player to come out. Do yourself a favor and go back and watch that video and you can feel the reverence this town has for these players.

As a sportswriter once famously said, in New York they name candy bars after their stars. In Baltimore, they name their children after Brooks. That tells us so much about Brooks in just one statement. A lot of us have our stories about watching Brooks play or the moment that we met him and how he impacted our lives.

For me, I am too young to have seen Brooks play. I was born a few years after he retired. Like everyone else, I have seen all the highlights, talked to older fans who got to see him play and just tried to understand the greatness they saw.

However, like so many people, Brooks impacted my life off the field and long after he retired. Growing up, I was really the only member of my family into sports. My dad, a history buff infatuated by the Civil War, was never really into sports despite his father playing semi pro baseball and being a huge baseball fan.

My dad became a baseball fan because of me. He took me to baseball card shows and games and eventually, he got into it as well. My father was the type of person that could walk into a room of strangers and come out with 10 new friends. This leads me to Brooks.

Years ago, WBAL used to run an auction for Center Stage (many of you may remember this). One year, my parents bid on a package where you could go out to lunch with Brooks. We were unable to win the bid, so they “settled’ for getting me the Norman Rockwell Brooks Robinson print (I feel like every O’s fan either has this or can immediately picture what it looks like) and Brooks was going to sign it and personalize it. When we received the print in the mail, Brooks had accidentally misspelled my last name.

My dad called WBAL about this and they informed us that they would send us a new print and that Brooks happened to be doing an appearance at an electronics store in Catonsville called Stansbury. The day came to go to the store and when we got there, the only people in the room were my dad, myself, Brooks and the workers at Stansbury. Seeing as we were the only ones there, Brooks didn’t mind chatting it up with my dad and me. As I said, my dad could make friends with anyone, and they found some common ground as both of them were into the Civil War.

In the midst of the conversation, my dad mentioned that we had bid on the lunch and were unable to get, it but we were grateful to get the print, get him to sign it and be able to meet and talk with him (we talked to him for about 45 minutes and no one else ever came in). So, Brooks being who he was said, well if you want to go lunch, let’s go to lunch. Over the course of the next few years, we went to lunch with Brooks three or four times. Every time, we went to Burkes, which was a restaurant located in the city. It was a frequent establishment for Brooks. We would sit there and listen to his stories (it always stuck out to me that he told me the best team he ever played on was the 1969 team even though they didn’t win the World Series) and he talked to us like we were friends with him for 25 years.

Over time, my dad’s relationship with him grew more. They would occasionally chat on the phone, send letters (remember, this was before email) and Brooks even came to our annual family Christmas party, that my parents hosted at our house, one year. The impact Brooks had on my dad really grew his love for the sport and that is where Brooks really affected me.

Going to lunch with him and being able to talk baseball with him was an incredible experience, but his effect on my dad and the way that drew him further into the sport was monumental, because growing up, the Orioles and baseball in general, were everything to me.

Baseball was constantly on my mind. Whether it was playing, watching, studying stats or going to baseball card shows, it was just what I did and being able to do so many of these things with my dad and having those memories is something I will always cherish.

And while those memories likely exist with or without Brooks Robinson, what he did to change my Dad’s mind about baseball made those memories greater because it was no longer my dad doing those things because it’s what I wanted to do, but because now he wanted to do it too. He was no longer “just a fan.” He was immersed in the game and had jumped in with both feet.

My dad passed away shortly before I turned 17. I think about him all the time, but yesterday was a day where a lot of memories flooded back into my mind. The impact Brooks had on his life and therefore on my life flooded over me the moment I heard the news.

Yesterday, we lost a great player who was an even better person and for those of us who watched him or got to meet him, we are all better for it.

RIP Brooksie, you will be missed and, more importantly to me, thank you for the impact you had on my life.