George Brett | |||
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Brett batting in 1990
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Third baseman / Designated hitter / First baseman | |||
Born: Glen Dale, West Virginia |
May 15, 1953 |||
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MLB debut | |||
August 2, 1973, for the Kansas City Royals | |||
Last MLB appearance | |||
October 3, 1993, for the Kansas City Royals | |||
MLB statistics | |||
Batting average | .305 | ||
Hits | 3,154 | ||
Home runs | 317 | ||
Runs batted in | 1,596 | ||
Teams | |||
Career highlights and awards | |||
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Member of the National | |||
Baseball Hall of Fame | |||
Inducted | 1999 | ||
Vote | 98.2% (first ballot) |
George Howard Brett (born May 15, 1953), is a retired American baseball third baseman and designated hitter who played 21 years in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals.
Brett's 3,154 career hits are the most by any third baseman in major league history and 16th all-time. He is one of four players in MLB history to accumulate 3,000 hits, 300 home runs, and a career .300 batting average (the others being Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Stan Musial). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 on the first ballot and is the only player in MLB history to win a batting title in three different decades.
Brett was named the Royals' interim hitting coach in 2013 on May 30, but stepped down from the position on July 25 in order to resume his position of vice president of baseball operations.
Born in Glen Dale, West Virginia, Brett was the youngest of four sons of a sports-minded family which included Ken, the second oldest, a major league pitcher who had pitched in the 1967 World Series at age 19. Brothers John (eldest) and Bobby had brief careers in the minor leagues. Although his three older brothers were born in Brooklyn, George was born in the northern panhandle of West Virginia.