Any player can have a bad day. Even a future member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Brooks Robinson won 16 Gold Gloves during his 23-year career with the Baltimore Orioles from spanned from 1955-77.
In 1971, Brooks needed a pick me up from teammate Frank Robinson and he got it on July 28 in Memorial Stadium.
The Orioles were entertaining the Oakland A’s as the two squads were in a scoreless battle heading into the top of the fifth inning.
With former Cy Young Award winner Mike Cuellar on the mound for the Orioles, Oakland starting pitcher Blue Moon Odom walked to set the stage for a historic fielding breakdown.
Gold can eventually become tarnished and Brooks found out quickly that bad things can happen to anyone even if you are nicknamed the Human Vacuum Cleaner because of your defensive prowess.
Brooks fielded a bunt by Bert Campaneris and the third baseman fired the ball past first baseman Boog Powell.
Things then got worse. Brooks had trouble grabbing a grounder off the bat of George Hendrick and then tossed the ball into Oakland’s dugout. Two errors on the same play, which followed the first miscue.
Three errors in one inning for a guy who had 16 total for the 1971 season.
According to an article in the Baltimore Sun the next day by Jim Elliot, the Orioles fans gave Brooks a positive reception when he stepped into the batter’s box in the seventh inning. The support didn’t help as he hit into a double play for the second time in the contest as the Orioles still trailed 2-0.
It took until the bottom of the ninth before another Robinson took care of everything with one swing.
Odom had given up three hits as the ninth began. Don Buford and Merv Rettenmund both singled to start the game-winning rally.
Oakland manager Dick Williams called his future Cooperstown inductee Rollie Fingers from the bullpen.
It took just one pitch for Frank to deposit a walk-off homer over the left field fence as the Orioles won 3-2.
In a different story in the Baltimore Sun by Lou Hatter, Frank said Brooks found him as they ran off the field to celebrate.
“You know what Brooks told me,” Frank said. “It’s about time you were doing something.”
Frank continued, “Fingers has a good sinker and I was trying to stay out of the double play, trying to make him get the ball up. It was right down the middle.”
There were a lot of happy people in Memorial Stadium, but no one was more thilled than Brooks.
“Man, oh man, I am glad this thing is over,” he told Hatter.
The Orioles were on top of the American League East with a five-game lead over the Boston Red Sox. Baltimore would finish the season by winning the division title by 12 games over the Detroit Tigers.
Baltimore swept the A’s in the AL Championship Series before the Orioles dropping the World Series in seventh contest.
An 18-time all-star, Brooks won the Gold Glove and finished fourth in the Most Valuable Player voting behind Oakland’s Vida Blue and Sal Bando. Frank, who was a 14-time all-star, finished third in the balloting for MVP.
Frank was the first of the two Robinsons to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982. As with Frank, Brooks was enshrined on the first ballot a year later.