Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
Best fielder perhaps but overall there are at least several better third basemen than Brooks.
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+1
I'm admittedly not from Baltimore so I have never understood the "Brooks is the greatest 3rd Baseman of All Time" argument as it doesn't hold water when you check out the statistics (Schmidt, Brett, Matthews, Boggs, etc. all are superior in most statisticians estimations).
He was also among the best "fielding" 3rd basemen of all time, but fans are very selective about fielding statistics because other great "fielding" players are largely discounted and deemed not worthy of enshrinement by the same people touting Brooks' exploits (see Bill Mazeroski, Omar Vizquel (not yet in), Luis Aparicio, etc.). There is a bit of a cult following for him as he is one of Baseball's truly "Good Guys" and I honestly think that has far more to do with it than anything else. You get someone like Frank Robinson which was a FAR superior (and truly underrated) baseball player BUT he isn't a warm human being and was never a fan favorite like Brooks and his cards while perhaps being priced similarly just don't sell as well.