Nov. 18, 1964 - Brooks Robinson, the Orioles’ sensational third baseman whose explosive bat and magnetic glove carried Baltimore to the threshold of the 1964 pennant, was named today the American League Most Valuable Player in a landslide.
The 27-year-old Robinson, who drove in a league-leading 118 runs and slugged 23 homers on a second-best .317 batting average while topping all rivals at his position defensively for a fifth straight season, won 18 of a possible 20 first-place votes of a special committee of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Mickey Mantle, who spearheaded the Yankees’ late spurt to the flag which third-place Baltimore missed by two games, corralled the other two first-place ballots and finished second.
“I feel wonderful — really happy!” exclaimed the elated Robinson when advised at his Lutherville, Md., home that he was only the second third baseman ever to be so honored.
Al Rosen, onetime third baseman for Cleveland, was a unanimous selection in 1953.
“I felt I had a pretty good chance, but I thought the vote would be a lot closer than that,” Robinson added. “This is an award every player would like to win, but few ever do.
“The main thing is that everybody on our ballclub played well, and we had a good season. That’s what made it possible.
“If we had finished low in the standings and out of the pennant race, I couldn’t have had a chance. All of the players helped me in this respect.”
“If they gave it to anybody else, it would’ve been a crying shame,” Baltimore manager Hank Bauer stated by telephone from his Prairie Village, Kansas, home today. “I can’t think of anybody more deserving. He did everything a ballplayer or a manager would want a guy to do.”
Joseph A.W. Iglehart, chairman of the Oriole board of directors and a cheerleader who seldom misses a home game, was ecstatic. He said: “I think it’s wonderful. Let me just say if I could have a son like Brooks Robinson, I would be the happiest person in the world. I just wish every ballplayer in America could be like this fellow. He’s just great, this boy, and a heck of a ballplayer.”
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