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George Brett

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

George Brett is one of the finest baseball players who hold the honor of being inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. Brett was born on May 15, 1953 in the Glen Dale city of West Virginia. He was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on August 2, 1973 with the Kansas City Royals baseball team. As a player, he listed a height of 6 feet with a weight of 200 pounds.

Brett claimed to the title of The Franchise in Kansas City and played his entire career for the Royals, leading them to six American League Championships and two World Series in their peak of the late 1970s and early 1980s. He batted 0.281 over three seasons in the minors. He led the California League in errors at third base in his second professional season. He compiled only 0.125 in his first major league call up in 1973 and hit two home runs with 47 runs batted, in his first full season with Kansas City in 1974.

Brett soon learned to adapt to what pitches offered instead of waiting for fastballs. Hal McRae, acquired by the Royals the year Brett came up, taught him resolute baserunning. The results spoke for themselves in his second full season, when Brett led the American League in hits and triples while batting 0.308. Brett flirted with the 0.400 batting mark throughout the summer of 1980.

Brett’s honors include a batting crown, and the American League Most Valuable Player award. Despite his best efforts in the World Series the Royals fell to the Phillies four games to two. It was not until 1985 that Brett had another chance at a title. During the regular season he was on fire, hitting 0.335 with 112 runs batted in and a career high 30 homers. He was a massive player who could strike the ball through long distances and even at higher speeds.

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