Imagine owning Picasso’s paint brush, Yo Yo Ma’s cello, or Harry Potter’s wand. Here’s your chance to acquire the baseball world’s equivalent— a Brooks Robinsongame-used glove or one of his 16 Gold Glove awards for best defense at 3d base, a record for a position player — in a Heritage auction that is running November 5th through the 7th. His dazzling defense earned him immortality as “Mr. Impossible” and the “Human Vacuum Cleaner.” On top of that, he is not just a kind gentleman for a baseball player; he is a kind gentleman for a human being.
So it seems like vintage Brooks, 78, that he decided to auction off his entire collection of baseball memorabilia, except his Hall of Fame induction ring, and to donate 100 percent of the proceeds to launch the Constance & Brooks Robinson Charitable Foundation run by his four children. “I don’t think that there is any question that Brook’s reputation as one of the nicest guys to play the game is going to help the value,” says Chris Ivy, the director of Heritage Auction’s sports division, who visited Robinson’s home outside Baltimore to survey the collection. “The most refreshing thing that I can say after working with Brooks and his family that his reputation is whole-heartedly deserved.”
A few years ago during an in-person interview he told me with his trademark modesty that “Bench hit the ball so hard that it curved back towards me,” Robinson told me, with his trademark modesty, a few years ago during an in-person interview. “It was just a reflex.”
At the time I was in the midst of an extensive reporting and research project about him, reading old biographies and yellowed magazine clips and interviewing his teammates, manager, and opponents. “You can’t practice diving,” he added. “The only time I practiced diving was in Spring Training. They were trying to get a photo shot of me diving for a ball. I had to do it 15 times before they got what they wanted.”
