George Brett

George Brett, born in 1953, American baseball player, who had 3,154 base hits during his career and led the American League (AL) in hitting three times. Brett was named to the All-Star team 13 times.

George Howard Brett was born in Glendale, West Virginia. The third baseman debuted with the Kansas City Royals in 1973 but only appeared in 13 games. After batting .282 in 1974, Brett emerged as one of the AL’s premier hitters in 1975, when he batted .308. The following year he hit .333 and won the AL batting title.

In 1980 Brett threatened to become the first player to bat .400 in a season since Ted Williams in 1941. Brett finished the season at a league-best .390 and earned the AL’s most valuable player award. In the postseason the Royals reached the World Series, but they fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.

In 1983 Brett was involved in the so-called pine tar incident, when a home run that he hit against the New York Yankees was nullified after an umpire ruled that Brett’s bat had too much pine tar on it. (Pine tar is a sticky substance used to help grip the bat.) Brett stormed out of the dugout in disbelief, protested the call, and was ejected from the game. The president of the AL, Lee MacPhail, later overturned the umpire’s decision. In 1985 Brett batted .335 with 30 home runs and 112 runs batted in (RBIs). In the postseason he led the Royals to the franchise’s first World Series title, a seven-game victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Brett led the AL in hitting a third time in 1990, batting .329. He retired after the 1993 season, having played all 21 of his major league campaigns with the Royals. For his career he batted .305 with 317 home runs and 1,595 RBIs. Brett was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.