Robin Yount - Baseball Career

Baseball Career

Yount was the third pick overall in the June 1973 Major League Baseball Draft, one slot ahead of fellow Hall of Famer and 3,000 Hit Club member Dave Winfield. Yount made his major league debut the following April, at eighteen years old. After going hitless in his first four games, Yount hit a game-winning home run in his sixth. Yount is currently the last 18-year old to hit a home run in the Major Leagues (Ken Griffey Jr. and Bryce Harper are the two most current teenagers to have hit Major League home runs, but as 19-year olds). On September 14, 1975 (two days before his 20th birthday), Yount broke Mel Ott's 47-year-old record for most games played in the major leagues before turning 20. Yount courted controversy in the winter of 1978. He threatened to retire from the game and take up professional golf rather than be underpaid by the Brewers. His demands were met during spring training in 1978, and he played the full season; ultimately, Yount remained a Brewer for the rest of his 20-year career. Yount developed into an excellent hitter, eventually posting a career .285 batting average with 251 home runs, 1632 runs scored and 1406 runs batted in. His 11,008 career at-bats is the seventh-most in Major League Baseball history, and he ranks 17th on the all-time hit list. He was an early proponent of weight training – then uncommon in baseball – and by 1980 Yount's power hitting had improved, particularly for a shortstop. Yount was an All-Star in 1980, 1982, and 1983. No other Brewer was voted a starter in consecutive years until Ryan Braun in 2008-11. His three All-Star appearances are tied with Ferguson Jenkins for the fewest of any Hall of Famer from the post-All-Star Game era, and he won a second MVP Award in 1989 without making the All-Star Team.

Yount collected more hits in the decade of the 1980s than any other player (1731), leading the American League with 210 hits in 1982. The 1982 AL East race was tied on the final day of the season, with the race coming down to a winner-take-all game between the Brewers and the Baltimore Orioles. With the title on the line, Yount hit home runs in each of his first two at-bats against Orioles starter Jim Palmer. Yount finished with a four-hit game, as the Brewers won 10-2. In addition to his only 200-hit season, he registered career highs with 29 home runs, 114 RBI, and a .331 batting average (.001 behind the league leader, Willie Wilson). Yount demonstrated his remarkable power, especially unusual in a shortstop, with a .578 slugging percentage and .957 OPS on his way to gaining 367 total bases - leading the major leagues in all three categories. His slugging percentage was the second highest ever by a shortstop, and his 129 runs set the record for that position. That year, Yount also won his only Gold Glove Award and his first Most Valuable Player Award. His performance garnered 27 of 28 possible first place votes in the 1982 MVP balloting. The year ended with the Brewers making their only World Series appearance. Although Yount became the only player to collect four hits in two World Series games, Milwaukee lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

In 1985, a shoulder problem forced Yount to move to the outfield. After splitting time between center field and left field, Yount became the Brewers' regular center fielder in 1986. He played more than 1,200 games in the outfield in his career, with a .990 fielding percentage. He made a game-ending, diving catch to preserve a no-hitter by Juan Nieves early in the 1987 season.

Yount narrowly won a second MVP Award in 1989, making him only the third player to win MVPs at two positions, joining Hank Greenberg and Stan Musial (Alex Rodriguez would later join this group). Yount was the first AL player to win multiple MVP's in over twenty-five years, since the Yankees' Roger Maris (1960 & 1961) and Mickey Mantle (1956, 1957, and 1962).

On Sept. 9, 1992, Yount collected his 3,000th career hit, becoming the 17th player to reach the mark. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999, his first year of eligibility. That same year, he was included in the balloting for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, finishing fifth among shortstops.

Yount holds Brewers career records for games, at-bats, runs, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, RBIs, total bases, walks and strikeouts. He was the last active major leaguer to have been a teammate of Hank Aaron (1975–1976).

His brother Larry had one of the oddest, and shortest, careers in major league history. While taking his warmup tosses for his debut as a Houston Astros reliever in 1971, he experienced elbow pain. He never threw an official pitch in that game, or any other.