Robert Brooks (November 1, 1945 – October 11, 1994) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

player who appeared in 55 games in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

over parts of four seasons for the Oakland Athletics (– and ) and California Angels (). An

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

and native of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, he threw and batted

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

and was listed as tall and . Brooks entered pro baseball in 1965 when he was chosen by the Athletics (then in Kansas City) out of

Los Angeles Harbor College Los Angeles Harbor College (LAHC) is a public community college in Wilmington, California. It is one of two community colleges serving the South Bay region of Los Angeles. LAHC serves mainly students from Harbor City, Carson, San Pedro, Ga ...

in the 15th round of the first-ever MLB June amateur draft. He earned his first big-league call-up in September 1969 after an All-Star season in the Double-A Southern League, when he led the circuit in runs scored (102) and home runs (23), and tied for the league RBI title (100). Brooks appeared in 29 late-season games for Oakland in 1969, starting 21 as a corner outfielder, smashed three homers and drove in ten runs,

batting Batting may refer to: * Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs * Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ...

.241. But that would be his most extensive big-league trial: over the next four years, he appeared in only 26 total

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

games, and spent all of 1971 and the bulk of the other three seasons in Triple-A. He finished his professional career in 1975 after two years in the

Mexican League The Mexican League (, ) is a professional baseball league based in Mexico and the oldest running professional league in the country. The league has 18 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games each season. Five te ...

. Brooks collected 33 hits in his 55 major-league games, 11 of them for extra bases—six doubles and five homers—along with 20 runs batted in. He batted .231 lifetime. In retirement, Brooks became an active youth baseball coach in his community,

Harbor City, California Harbor City is a highly diverse neighborhood in the Harbor region of Los Angeles, California, with a population upward of 36,000 people. Originally part of the Rancho San Pedro Spanish land grant, the Harbor City was brought into Los Angeles as ...

; a baseball diamond there is named Bobby Brooks Field.Ayers, Thomas, ''Bobby Brooks,''

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...

Biography Project He died of complications from multiple sclerosis on October 11, 1994, at the age of 48.

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External links

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Retrosheet
1945 births 1994 deaths African-American baseball players American expatriate baseball players in Mexico Baseball players from Los Angeles Birmingham A's players Burlington Bees players California Angels players Cañeros de Los Mochis players Neurological disease deaths in California Deaths from multiple sclerosis People with multiple sclerosis Dorados de Chihuahua players Iowa Oaks players Los Angeles Harbor Seahawks baseball players Major League Baseball outfielders Modesto Reds players Oakland Athletics players Peninsula Grays players Rieleros de Aguascalientes players St. Cloud Rox players Salt Lake City Angels players Tiburones de La Guaira players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Toledo Mud Hens players 20th-century African-American sportspeople Los Angeles Harbor College alumni {{US-baseball-outfielder-1940s-stub