Tom Brookens
| Tom Brookens | |||||||||||||
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| Third baseman | |||||||||||||
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Born: August 10, 1953 Chambersburg, Pennsylvania |
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| MLB debut | |||||||||||||
| July 10, 1979, for the Detroit Tigers | |||||||||||||
| Last MLB appearance | |||||||||||||
| September 30, 1990, for the Cleveland Indians | |||||||||||||
| MLB statistics | |||||||||||||
| Batting average | .246 | ||||||||||||
| Home runs | 71 | ||||||||||||
| Runs batted in | 431 | ||||||||||||
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Thomas Dale Brookens (born August 10, 1953) is a former third baseman in Major League Baseball who played for the Detroit Tigers (1979–1988), New York Yankees (1989), and Cleveland Indians (1990). Brookens was on the Tigers coaching staff from 2009 to 2013, serving as first base coach and later third base coach. He was replaced as third base coach prior to the 2014 season by Dave Clark.
On January 9, 1975, Brookens was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the first round (fourth pick overall) of the 1975 amateur draft. In 12 major league seasons, Brookens played 1,065 games at third base, 162 games at second base, and 119 games at shortstop. Tigers radio announcer Ernie Harwell nicknamed Brookens "the Pennsylvania Poker", a play on the song "Pennsylvania Polka".
Brookens batted .246 in his 12-year career, with 71 home runs and 431 runs batted in (RBIs) in 1,336 games. His range factor (putouts and assists per game) was well above league average. He did lead American League (AL) third basemen in errors twice, in 1980 and 1985, but that was largely because he was getting to so many more grounders than other fielders; his range factor, which measures the number of plays a fielder makes, was consistently above league average. Brookens also has the dubious honor of sharing (with 21 others) the AL record for the most errors in a game by a third baseman, four, on September 6, 1980.
Traditionally an infielder, Brookens found himself behind the plate in a game against the Texas Rangers on July 20, 1985. With regular catcher Lance Parrish hurt and Bob Melvin and Marty Castillo removed from the game in favor of pinch-hitters, Brookens (who had never caught a pro game before, even in the minors) filled the role and wound up catching five innings (11th through the 15th) before Detroit finally won the game.
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