George Brett

Apart from his superior clutch hitting, George Brett also skillfully administered “tackle” baseball whenever the situation demanded, during that generation of players who actually understood and worked on “The Prevention of Outs”.

We were treated nightly to some pretty amazing acrobatics. Almost all we had to do was point the camera somewhere out towards the field and the stage show would take care of the rest: easy as pie, right? Players from both teams would end up in a pile of cleats and dirt, seeming more like a rugby match at times.

Due to the aggressive slides of the Royals’ Hal MacRae, the league permanently ruled against play like this and formed what became known as the “Hal MacRae Rule” – basically, to NOT wipe out the second baseman of the opposing team with cleats flying and bodies rolling….