A month before he graduated from Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California in 1973, Robin Yount signed a national letter of intent to attend Arizona State University. Pat Kuehner, ASU assistant coach, said that Yount was the “best high school prospect in the nation.”
In the June 1973 MLB Draft, the first pick (by the Texas Rangers) was left-handed high-school pitching phenom David Clyde, who won 44 of his last 45 games for his team in Texas and had nine career no-hitters. The Philadelphia Phillies selected slugging college catcher John Stearns with the second pick.
With the third pick, the Milwaukee Brewers chose Yount.
Yount, who played mostly shortstop in high school, also did some relief work on the mound, striking out 17 batters in nine innings of work his senior year. Milwaukee scout Roland LeBlanc said that Yount was a “good defensive player with good hands and range, and above-average speed.” His bonus was an estimated $75,000.
Yount was assigned to short-season Class A ball at Newark, in the New York-Penn League. As a 17-year-old, Yount had a slash line of .285/.370/.409 across 242 at-bats. His 15 doubles ranked fifth in the league.
The next year in spring training, Yount opened the eyes of the Brewers’ management team.
“If he goes north with us, he’ll be our regular shortstop,” said manager Del Crandall.
Usually, when a manager says that about a player. they don’t go north with the team. Yount went north with the team and started the first game of the year, a chilly 40-degree day on Apr. 5, 1974, at Milwaukee County Stadium in front of 32,761 slightly frozen fans. Yount batted ninth and drew a free pass off Boston’s Luis Tiant in the bottom of the second inning.
In the top of the third, with Juan Beniquez on second and Cecil Cooper on first, Carl Yastrzemski hit a grounder to short. Yount fielded it clearnly, tagged the bag at second and leaped over a sliding Cooper to make the throw to first. Unfortunately, Cooper’s spikes clipped Yount’s shin, and the throw bounced to first, not in time to get Yastrzemski.
Yount learned an early lesson on how to make plays around second base.
“I turned it wrong,” Yount said. “I came across the bag when I should have stayed behind it. I was told afterward how to do it. I know now that I shouldn’t have done it that way.”
He led off the bottom of the fifth and flied to left field, and in the bottom of the sixth, he was pinch-hit for by Felipe Alou with the bases loaded and one out. Darrell Porter scored on a passed ball to cut Boston’s lead to 7-6, but then Alou struck out looking. Alou would only have two more at-bats in his illustrious career, which would later include managerial stints with the Montreal Expos and San Francisco Giants spanning 14 seasons.
Yount started the season hitless in his first 10 at-bats, before he singled to center in the fifth inning off Baltimore’s Dave McNally on April 12 at County Stadium. The next day, Yount got the first of 251 career home runs, a game-winner in the eighth off Ross Grimsley of the Orioles in a 3-2 victory. Otherwise, it was slow going for Yount in April; he ended the month with a batting line of .182/.220/.255.
Yount finally got the hang of major-league life in May. Keep in mind, he was only 18 for most of the season. In 23 games, he batted .324/.351/.423 across 71 at-bats in his second big league month.
The player who became ‘The Kid’ developed tendinitis in his left foot late in the year and only played in 107 games. His season totals of .250/.276/.346 were not a harbinger of things to come.
“I don’t think about how scared I should be because I’m in the major leagues at 18,” Yount told sportswriter Pat Jordan for his Sports Illustrated feature in 1974. “I just go out and play. When I’m at bat, I concentrate on hitting the ball, and when I’m in the field, I concentrate on picking it up.”
Yount would do just that for 20 years, winning MVP awards at both shortstop and center field, collecting 3,142 hits, and getting inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999, along with Nolan Ryan, Orlando Cepeda, and George Brett.
Other than Bob Uecker, one of the first people you think about when the Milwaukee Brewers are mentioned is ‘Rockin’ Robin.’
What are your favorite memories of ‘The Kid?’ Please add them in the ‘comments’ section.
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