KC Royals: Anniversary of George Brett’s 3rd batting title

Winning multiple batting titles is not an easy feat to accomplish.  This KC Royals Hall of Famer did it in three different decades.

In October of 1990, I was in my first month of high school, songs by Nelson, Phil Collins and Bell Biv DeVoe were at the top of the charts. Ghost, Goodfellas, and Marked for Death were box office hits.  On the 3rd day of that month, George Brett was wrapping up his third and final batting title for the KC Royals.  The 2020 season is the 30th anniversary of this historic accomplishment.

Several players have won more titles overall than Brett including those you would expect like Tony Gwynn, Ty Cobb, Rod Carew, and Ted Williams.  But he did join a club with only two other players who won three or more batting championships without doing it consecutively.

A list of all-time Royals batting leaders is dominated by Brett as he put in 21 seasons with the Kansas City franchise.  Some of those include games played, doubles, triples, home runs, base on balls and for us Sabermetric nerds, offensive wins above replacement (WAR), and win probability added (WPA).

Much had changed for the Royals from 1976 to 1990.  In the late ’70s through the mid-80s Kansas City was a consistent winner and earned multiple trips to the playoffs including trips to the World Series in 1980 and 1985, winning the latter.  Sadly the team had finished 19 1/2 and seven games behind the division leader the previous two years and would fall a depressing 27 1/2 behind first in ’90.  But one consistent was that Brett was always in the lineup creating havoc with his bat.

We will take a look at all three seasons in which Brett led the American League in hitting as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of his last one.

An ankle injury almost cost the KC Royals third baseman a shot at history.

In order to keep integrity in calculating percentage statistics like batting average and earned run average (ERA), baseball rules set a minimum number of plate appearances (PA) or innings pitched (IP) to determine the best in the league.  Officially rule 10.22(a) specifies a player in order to qualify, must register at least 3.1 times at the dish per game during each of a team’s regular seasons games. For a typical 162 game year, that equates to 502 plate appearances.

During the summer, Brett missed 35 games with an ankle injury.  He finished with 515 plate appearances, just barely surpassing the limit. What a magical ride it was though.  As late as May 21st he was only hitting .247.  He then went on a 35-for-73 tear (.479) that pushed him to .337 before the injury derailed him.

He picked up were in left off when he returned, batting a crazy .494 in July and .430 in August.  The pinnacle was August 27th where Brett’s average stood at .407 after a game in Milwaukee.  As the calendar turned September a “slump” began and his average would last see the .400 mark on September 19th.

When the regular season ended Brett led the majors in average (.390), OBP (.454), SLG (.664), OPS (1.118) and OPS+ (203).  Not surprisingly he captured his only MVP award and first Silver Slugger.

More importantly, the Royals finally beat the Yankees in the postseason to advance to the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.  They swept New York and who else would lead the way but Brett.

While the Phillies bested the Royals, Brett was still in top form hitting .375 with a home run and 3 runs batted in along with two doubles and a triple in the World Series.

The last batting title was one I followed as a teenager who had grown to love the Royals and, of course, #5 was my favorite player.  It was fun to see the aging veteran with bad legs still take us on one more exciting ride.

What made this title historic is that Brett would become the first, and still only, player to win a batting title in three different decades.

By this point in his career, Brett was regulated to first base and designated hitter primarily, having relinquished the hot corner to Kevin Seitzer.  Three of the previous four seasons Brett had not eclipsed the .300 mark and he would not do so again his final three.

Another crazy aspect of this story is that Brett was hitting .248 as late as May 25th but went on a tear the second half of the season producing a nearly .400 clip.  It was a pretty close race as he edged Rickey Henderson who would finish with a .325 average. On top of the best hitter in the American League, he also led the majors in doubles with 45.

It would be the last season that Brett led the league in any category and his finest year since that 1985 season that brought the World Series trophy to Kansas City. A seventh-place finish in the MVP race, the fifth time he was in the top 10 in this voting, capped the otherwise disappointment that was the Royals season.

The 1990 season probably saved his career average to stay above the .300 mark.  If he would have collected roughly 30 fewer hits and batted closer to how he did the last three years he may have finished at .298 or .299.  Not that takes away the Hall of Fame career, but that is a nice resume builder.

Brett would go on to eclipse 3,000 hits in 1992 and had a nice final year swatting 19 home runs and finishing his career in a game against another legend, Nolan Ryan.  Chances are he will stand alone in winning a batting title in three different decades and that is a fitting tribute to the longevity and greatness of King George.