Brooks Robinson, 2005 Upper Deck Origins #139

I’m always happy to share good news about Brooks Robinson. Today he was in attendance at MLB’s winter meetings in Dallas, where he was one of 16 voters on the Veteran’s Committee that finally elected Cubs great Ron Santo for enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Brooksie was a contemporary of Santo, who was kept out of Cooperstown for decades despite a .362 on base percentage, a 125 OPS+, 342 home runs. He hit 337 of those as a third baseman, which was second only to Eddie Mathews at the time of his retirement. He was also an excellent defensive player by all accounts, and it seems as though his candidacy suffered due to his comparatively short career (15 seasons) and his association with the perennial losing efforts on the North side of Chicago. I'm glad that Robinson had some part in righting this wrong, although it sadly came one year too late for Santo to enjoy it with his friends, fans, and family.

In news more directly related with Brooks, he reports that his health is improving all the time. He still needs to have hernia surgery this winter, but Roch Kubatko confirms that #5 looks much stronger and more robust than he did six weeks ago when his new statue was unveiled in Baltimore. He's also clearly taken a great interest in the on-and-off-field fortunes of the Orioles, and particularly in the front office shakeup, remarking: "I think we need some new blood there. This has gone on long enough."

Amen to that.