Eddie Brinkman was involved in one of the most one-sided trades...Eddie Brinkman ... was another big favorite of the 1972 Eastern Division Champs. Eddie was known as just about the best shortstop around... best arm, best range... set records for errorless games. Steady Eddie couldn't hit much, but still knew how to help with the bat in the clutch... and his biggest moment, a cult classic, was when he was interviewed right after the Tigers clinched the '72 championship- more about that later! Brinkman was signed right out of a Cincinnati high school and broke into the bigs at age 19... got a big signing bonus too, over 60 large, and played for some pretty bad Washington Senators teams (quick- what team is the Senators now?). Brink's only really good years with the bat were under the hand of Ted Williams... Teddy ballgame got him to stop hitting the ball in the air so much... instead to start slapping it around... his power went down, but he hit in the .260s in 1969 and 1970. Never got close to that again! He was part of one of the most ONE SIDED TRADES IN BASEBALL HISTORY in the fall of 1970. The Tigers sent a washed-up Denny (31-6) McLain to the Nats along with the Coyote (Don Wert) and Elliott Maddox for.... get this ... Ed Brinkman, Joe Coleman, Aurelio Rodriguez and a reliever, Jim Hannan. Any ONE of the first three would have made that a great deal, but we got a great shortstop, a gold-glove 3rd baseman, and a guy who won 20 games. Biggest rip-off in years.... Washington never recovered from that one and ended up moving to the great state of Texas a couple of years later. An old manager in Washington had said "A contending club could carry Brinkman for his glove and never worry about his bat." Eddie proved it in spades as he led the Tigers to that division championship... named Tiger of the Year while hitting just .203! That's the kind of leather he threw! Ed was known as a great needler, always picking on Frank Howard, Norm Cash, Dick McAuliffe ... a great clubhouse guy... 72 games in a row without an error from a guy with great range. Northrup said after it was broken "The Brink-o-Meter has finally stopped running." Oh yeahhh... After the '72 clincher, Larry Osterman was interviewing Eddie LIVE on the Tiger TV network, only Eddie didn't know it was live. "What do you think of this Tiger team, Eddie,' Larry asked... "It's the best ****ing bunch of guys I've ever played with" was his off-color reply... INSTANT LEGEND STATUS! Years later I heard a gentleman at an exhibition game in Florida joking with Brinks... "Hey Eddie, Do you still use those words on TV?" Not missing a beat he laughed and said "Not since my kids know what they mean!"
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