ANNIVERSARY: George Brett Sets Record for Consecutive 3-Hit Games

Forty years ago George Brett set a bit of an odd record. He logged 3 or more hits in six consecutive games.

1977 Topps #231 Record Breaker George Brett 

I am a little amazed that in the pre-BigData era that anyone (probably Elias in this case) was able to research this record. The Streak began on May 8 1976 in Baltimore where Brett recorded 3 hits in the last two games of a three game set. The Royals then returned home to face the Twins, Brett collected 3 hits in each of the three games of that series and then he was able to repeat the feat for one game versus the White Sox.

During the six games Brett went 18 for 26 and added a pair of Walks for an average of .692 and an OBP of .714. His long hits were a Double and a Homer for a slugging number of .846.

The Royals went 5-1 during the streak.

Brett's Victims
May 8 vs Orioles - Ken Holtzmanman (2), Doyle Alexander (3rd Hit in 8th inning),
May 9 vs Orioles - F Jim Palmer (2), Ross Grimsley,
May 10 vs Twins - HoF Bert Blyleven (3, Double, 3rd Hit in 8th, but batted in 9th),
May 11 vs Twins - Jim Hughes (2), Tom Burgmeier
May 12 vs Twins - Joe Decker (2), Vic Albury
May 13 vs White Sox - Bart Johnson (2, HR), Francisco Barrios (3rd Hit in 8th Inning

During the streak Brett saw his average rise from .277 to .396. Pretty good for mid May.

 1977 Topps #231 Record Breaker George Brett (b-side)

According to Baseball-Ref the record still stood as of 2009. Although B-Ref also mentions a streak by Dodgers second baseman Ted Sizemore in 1970 that is overlooked by Topps. 

1976 All-Star Game
We ran a column on George Brett and the 1976 ASG previously, just wanted to take this opportunity to post a couple of screenshots and addendums to that post:

George Brett introduced himself as "Ken Brett's baby Brother"

During his first At Bat ABC put up his stats and it is easy to see why Brett made the All-Star game.

Brett tailed off a bit but still ended up leading the league in batting with a BA of only .333. He also led the league in Hits, Triples, Total Bases and Offensive WAR. For a more detailed discussion of the 1976 AL MVP voting check the post from last month. 

Sources and Links
1976 All-Star Game Index
1977 Topps Record Breakers Index
George Brett HoF Index
Baseball-Ref
YouTube - 1976 ASG
Baseball Almanac

Opening Day...Night!

MLB Opening Day/Night is happening in Kansas City this evening. To mark the occasion we are publishing the second posting in our series on the 1976 All-Star Game. Who better to Rep the Royals than Hall of Famer George Brett

1982 Topps/Kmart 20th Anniversary #34 George Brett

Brett made his first All-Star team in 1976, the first of xx times he would receive the honor. During the ’76 contest he went 0-2 with a walk. The BB came off NL Starter Randy Jones, one of the outs was a Fly Out v fellow HoF Tom Seaver.

aWARds – 1976 MVP
There is an argument that George Brett should have won the MVP award in 1976. He finished 2nd in the voting to Yankees Catcher Thurman Munson. Brett Clearly won the WAR +7.5 to Munson’s +5.3, Both were on division winners, although the Yankees won 7 more games than the Royals (while playing three fewer games). For folks that are only interested in oWAR Brett wins that battle as well – His +7.1 number led the AL while Munson clocked in at +5.3. Munson’s most compelling argument is that he was the captain of the first Yankees squad to make the post season since the Mantle Years.

As far as traditional stats are concerned…
Brett led the AL in Batting Average, Hits and Total Bases during the 1976 season while Munson's big offensive grey number was finishing 2nd on the circuit in RBI to the Orioles Lee May. Munson was as always among the top 5 catchers in several defensive categories.

It should be noted that Yankees Third Baseman Graig Nettles all AL batters in WAR with a nice +8.0 number (finished 16th in the MVP voting) but the overall League leader was Rookie Phenom Mark Fidrych (+9.6) who ended up 11th in the MVP and 2nd in the Cy Young balloting behind Jim Palmer (+6.6) - The Bird did take home the Rookie of the Year Award.

1980 AL MVP George Brett

 

1982 Topps/Kmart 20th Anniversary #34 George Brett (b-side)

Brett eventually did get an MVP award in 1980. In addition to leading the league with a .390 BA, tops since Ted Williams .406 in 1941 he also put up superlatives in the SABRmetric stats +9.4 WAR and +8.5 oWAR numbers led all AL players. 

The Kmart Retro card is a reprint of the Brett's 1980 Topps #450 card.

Sources and Links
1976 All-Star Team
George Brett HoF index
aWARds Index
Baseball-ref
Baseball Card Database

Does Topps Really Short Print all the SuperStars in Heritage?

I am not here to debate the merits/issues of Short Printed cards, not tonight anyway.

But I would like to discuss the number of Star players that are among the Short Printed Cards

2016 Topps Heritage #479 Lorenzo Cain

It has been mentioned that there are a disproportionately large number of stars among 2016T Heritage cards which run from #426-500 and can only be found at a rate of 1:3 packs.

If your favorite player is Mike Trout and he is in the SP range, you may be upset at how hard his card is to find. That doesn’t necessarily mean that more stars are short printed.

While there are many Stars in the high range there are plenty in the base set, Andrew McCutchen, Adam Jones, Jose Bautista and Kris Bryant among them.

How do we go about figuring out if the Stars are backloaded into the Short Print Range?

What is a Star?

For purposes of our study we picked the 2015 All-Star teams.

I admit the way the All-Star team is composed is a complicated process subject to the whims of a popularity contest. Regardless, every player that makes the squad is a star at some level, even if it is because of strong public persona or due to the mandatory rep for each team clause.

The 2015 All-Star teams gave us a sample of 76 players that were chosen for the two squads. Of those players 74 were issued 2016 Topps Heritage cards. The retired AJ Burnett was skipped which makes sense, but I have no idea why Alex Gordon was omitted (perhaps it was an allusion to the 2006 Topps debacle)

How many Star Players should be Short Printed?

12

Why Twelve? You may want to check my math on this one - here goes: there are 75 SP cards 2016 Heritage. This makes up 15% of the 500 card set (75/500 = 0.15)

There are 74 All-Stars in Heritage and 15% of 74 = 11.1

To give Topps some extra room we rounded up.

How many Stars are SP in 2016T Heritage?

31

THIRTY-ONE!?!!

That is just a shy of 42% close to Three-Times the expected number. Among the first 425 cards 43 are Stars just a tad more often than 1 in 10. The final 75 cards include 31 Stars, that is more than 1 in 3.  

The Numbers
The Chart below lists all of the 2015 All-Stars in Topps Heritage Numerical Order. The red notes the High Numbers that start at card 426 - Clayton Kershaw. 
 

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2016 Heritage	2015 All Star	Team
7	Alcides Escobar (1)	Kansas City Royals
11	Francisco Rodriguez (6)	Milwaukee Brewers
14	Jhonny Peralta (3)	St. Louis Cardinals
30	J.D. Martinez (1)	Detroit Tigers
36	Carlos Martinez (1)	St. Louis Cardinals
38	Adrian Gonzalez (1)	Los Angeles Dodgers
70	Kris Bryant (1)	Chicago Cubs
73	Jonathan Papelbon (6)	Philadelphia Phillies
74	Brock Holt (1)	Boston Red Sox
79	Jose Iglesias (1)	Detroit Tigers
80	Aroldis Chapman (4)	Cincinnati Reds
84	Yasmani Grandal (1)	Los Angeles Dodgers
89	Trevor Rosenthal (1)	St. Louis Cardinals
90	Sonny Gray (1)	Oakland Athletics
100	Adam Jones (5)	Baltimore Orioles
125	Zach Britton (1)	Kansas City Royals
128	Mike Moustakas (1)	Kansas City Royals
130	Zack Greinke (3)	Los Angeles Dodgers
131	Russell Martin (4)	Toronto Blue Jays
146	Kelvin Herrera (1)	Kansas City Royals
156	Mark Melancon (2)	Pittsburgh Pirates
157	Manny Machado (1)	Baltimore Orioles
160	Joc Pederson (1)	Los Angeles Dodgers
195	Nolan Arenado (1)	Colorado Rockies
210	Michael Wacha (1)	St. Louis Cardinals
247	Hector Santiago (1)	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
251	Yadier Molina (7)	St. Louis Cardinals
254	Dee Gordon (2)	Miami Marlins
293	Wade Davis (1)	Kansas City Royals
297	Joe Panik (1)	San Francisco Giants
300	Glen Perkins (3)	Minnesota Twins
302	Salvador Perez (3)	Kansas City Royals
310	Chris Sale (4)	Chicago White Sox
320	Madison Bumgarner (3)	San Francisco Giants
322	Giancarlo Stanton (3)	Miami Marlins
325	Matt Holliday (7)	St. Louis Cardinals
331	Brad Boxberger (1)	Tampa Bay Rays
339	Darren O'Day (1)	Baltimore Orioles
340	Mark Teixeira (3)	New York Yankees
382	Brett Gardner (1)	New York Yankees
400	Andrew McCutchen (5)	Pittsburgh Pirates
419	DJ LeMahieu (1)	Colorado Rockies
425	Gerrit Cole (1)	Pittsburgh Pirates
426	Clayton Kershaw (5)	Los Angeles Dodgers
427	Brian Dozier (1)	Minnesota Twins
430	Dallas Keuchel (1)	Houston Astros
431	Jose Bautista (6)	Toronto Blue Jays
433	Prince Fielder (6)	Texas Rangers
435	Chris Archer (1)	Tampa Bay Rays
444	Anthony Rizzo (2)	Chicago Cubs
445	Justin Upton (3)	San Diego Padres
446	Troy Tulowitzki (5)	Colorado Rockies
447	Brandon Crawford (1)	San Francisco Giants
450	Bryce Harper (3)	Washington Nationals
451	Stephen Vogt (1)	Oakland Athletics
457	Nelson Cruz (4)	Seattle Mariners
458	Jason Kipnis (2)	Cleveland Indians
459	Max Scherzer (3)	Washington Nationals
460	Buster Posey (3)	San Francisco Giants
461	Felix Hernandez (6)	Seattle Mariners
462	Dellin Betances (2)	New York Yankees
464	Shelby Miller (1)	Atlanta Braves
465	Paul Goldschmidt (3)	Arizona Diamondbacks
466	A.J. Pollock (1)	Arizona Diamondbacks
470	Jose Altuve (3)	Houston Astros
472	Todd Frazier (2)	Cincinnati Reds
477	David Price (5)	Detroit Tigers
478	Miguel Cabrera (10)	Detroit Tigers
479	Lorenzo Cain (1)	Kansas City Royals
481	Albert Pujols (10)	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
483	Josh Donaldson (2)	Toronto Blue Jays
495	Jacob deGrom (1)	New York Mets
496	Ryan Braun (6)	Milwaukee Brewers
500	Mike Trout (4)	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
na	Alex Gordon (3)	Kansas City Royals
na	A.J. Burnett (1)	Pittsburgh Pirates

Exploring these numbers a bit further uncovers greater violations.

The parenthetical numbers associated with the player names indicate the number of times the player has been an All-Star. The total number of games for Hi-Numbers 104 versus 98 for Base. Yes among last years All-Stars the 31 players that fall among the 75 short prints account for more All-Star appearances than the 43 that fall in the first 425 cards.

Sources and Links
2016 Heritage/1967 Topps Index
Baseball Almanac
Sports Collectors Daily