Playing career Robin Yount

1 playing career

1.1 years
1.2 1982 season
1.3 later career

playing career
early years

yount third pick overall in june 1973 major league baseball draft, 1 slot ahead of fellow hall of famer , 3,000 hit club member dave winfield. yount made major league debut following april, @ eighteen years old. after going hitless in first 4 games, yount hit game-winning home run in sixth. yount last 18-year-old hit home run in major leagues (andruw jones , bryce harper 2 current teenagers have hit major league home runs, did 19-year-olds). on september 14, 1975 (two days before 20th birthday), yount broke mel ott s 47-year-old record games played in major leagues before turning 20.

yount courted controversy in winter of 1978. threatened retire game , take professional golf rather underpaid or moved outfield brewers. in season, paul molitor called brewers class affiliate major league team because of yount s absence. yount s demands met; when returned team, molitor moved shortstop second base make room yount.

he proponent of weight training – uncommon in baseball – , 1980 yount s power hitting had improved, particularly shortstop. yount all-star in 1980, 1982, , 1983. no other brewer voted starter in consecutive years until ryan braun started each year between 2008 , 2011.

1982 season

yount led american league 210 hits in 1982. 1982 al east race tied on final day of season, race coming down winner-take-all game between brewers , baltimore orioles. title on line, yount hit home runs in each of first 2 at-bats against orioles starter jim palmer. yount finished four-hit game, brewers won 10-2. in addition 200-hit season, registered career highs 29 home runs, 114 rbi, , .331 batting average (.001 behind league leader, willie wilson). yount finished .578 slugging percentage , .957 ops on way gaining 367 total bases – leading major leagues in 3 categories. slugging percentage second highest ever shortstop, , 129 runs set record position.

that year, yount won gold glove award , first valuable player award. performance garnered 27 of 28 possible first place votes in 1982 mvp balloting. year ended brewers making world series appearance. although yount became player in history have 2 4-hit games in 1 world series, milwaukee lost st. louis cardinals in 7 games. yount batted .414 in series, 1 home run , 6 rbi s.

later career

in 1985, shoulder problem forced yount move outfield. after splitting time between center field , left field, yount became brewers regular center fielder in 1986. played more 1,200 games in outfield in career, .990 fielding percentage. made game-ending, diving catch preserve no-hitter juan nieves in 1987 season.

yount narrowly won second mvp award in 1989, making him third player win mvps @ 2 positions, joining hank greenberg , stan musial (alex rodriguez later join group). yount first al player win multiple mvp s in on twenty-five years, since yankees roger maris (1960 & 1961) , mickey mantle (1956, 1957, , 1962). yount collected more hits (1731) in decade of 1980s other player.

after 1989 season, yount free agent , spoke several teams contract offers. california angels prepared make serious offer, yount signed three-year contract brewers worth $9.6 million in february 1990. in 1991, yount briefly on disabled list (dl) kidney stone, second stint on dl in career; first 1 in 1978.

on september 9, 1992, yount collected 3,000th career hit, becoming 17th player (and third youngest) reach mark. announced retirement after 1993 season. brewers retired number next year. yount elected wisconsin athletic hall of fame in 1995. elected baseball hall of fame in 1999, first year of eligibility. same year, included in balloting major league baseball all-century team, finishing fifth among shortstops.

yount holds brewers career records games, at-bats, runs, hits, doubles, triples, rbis, total bases, walks , strikeouts. last active major leaguer have been teammate of hank aaron (1975–1976). posted career .285 batting average 251 home runs, 1632 runs scored , 1406 runs batted in. 11,008 career at-bats seventh-most in major league baseball history, , ranks 17th on all-time hit list. 3 all-star appearances tied ferguson jenkins second-fewest of hall of famer post-all-star game era, , won second mvp award in 1989 without making all-star team.