Robin Yount won the American League MVP in 1982 and helped lead the Brewers to the World Series. Credit: Associated Press

By of the

Robin Yount was born to be a baseball player.

He was blessed with superlative hand-eye coordination, a lithe and athletic body, foot speed, arm strength and vision - tools wielded by a man who loved the game, a man who could not have cared less about his personal statistics but who was all-in when it came to his team.

No wonder he's in the Hall of Fame.

Yount broke into the big leagues as an 18-year-old shortstop with the Milwaukee Brewers, played 20 years in the same city and ran as hard on the last ground ball of his career as he did on the first.

"What can you say that hasn't already been said?" former Brewers teammates Charlie Moore once said. "If he had played in New York or Los Angeles, he would have been God."

Instead, he played in Milwaukee and was simply "The Kid."

In 1982, at age 26 and in his ninth season, Yount had the kind of year all players dream about but an infinitesimal number achieve.

Playing shortstop and batting second in perhaps the best lineup in baseball, he put up remarkable numbers en route to sweeping American League most valuable player, Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards and leading the Brewers to the World Series.

Yount's '82 season was voted the sixth-best single-season performance by an athlete in Wisconsin sports history (post-World War II) by a panel of eight state sports experts commissioned by the Journal Sentinel.

Statistically, Yount was off-the-charts good that year. He batted .331, smashed 29 home runs, scored 129 runs and drove in 114. All were career highs. He led the league in hits (210), doubles (46), total bases (367) and slugging percentage (.578).

He also led AL shortstops with 489 assists and teamed with second baseman Jim Gantner to lead the major leagues in double plays.

Yount saved his best performance for the final regular-season game. The Brewers and Baltimore Orioles were tied with 94-67 records and squared off at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The winner would go on to the American League Championship Series. The loser would go home.

Against Orioles ace and future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, Yount homered in his first at-bat, added a second home run and a triple later in the game, scored four runs and led the Brewers to a 10-2 romp.

Had Yount gotten one more hit - Dennis Martinez hit him with a pitch in the ninth inning - he would have won the AL batting title, too.

The Brewers beat the California Angels in the ALCS and then took the St. Louis Cardinals to Game 7 of the World Series before losing. All Yount did in the Series was twice collect four hits and bat .414.

Though the Brewers lost the World Series, they were treated like conquering heroes when they returned home.

"Fans still talk about the postseason celebration at County Stadium after the Brewers lost to the Cardinals, when 'The Kid' raced his motorcycle around the track with one fist in the air," said panelist Bud Lea, a retired sports columnist for the Milwaukee Sentinel.

Yount would go on to win the AL most valuable player award again in 1989, this time as a centerfielder, and finish his career with 3,142 hits, 1,632 runs scored and 1,406 RBI. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.

"Well, what do you say? He's the best ballplayer I ever saw," said former teammate Gorman Thomas. "Other people have their own opinions and they talk about different players. That's because they didn't see this guy. I saw this guy every day for 10 years.

"Home to second, first to third, nobody was better. Had the greatest range to his left of anybody I've ever seen. Hit for average. Hit for power. Great defensive player. He was the perfect package."

ROBIN YOUNT, 1982

Robin Yount led the majors in hits, doubles, slugging percentage and OPS (on-base plus slugging) in 1982:

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OPB SLG OPS 156 635 129 210 46 12 29 114 14 3 54 63 .331 .379 .578 .957