Monster Card Monday: 1980 George Brett

The Monster Card Monday for this week belongs to George Brett’s famous .390 hitting card he received for his 1980 card.

Brett’s story for his run for .400 in ‘80 is quite interesting.  He actually started out relatively slow for the year.  In April, he only hit a miserable .259.  He improved in May with a .329 average but it still wasn’t close to his season average.  It wasn’t until June when he stroked .467 did he find his groove.  Unfortunately, June was a short month for Brett.  By June 10, he was out for a month with injuries.  He came back with a vengeance and finished July with a .494.  It was on July 18th when Brett started a 30 game hitting streak that would not cease until August 19th.  During the streak, he hit .467. 

Brett was hitting .400 as late as September 19.  Injuries were getting the best of him, though.  He missed another week in early September (interestingly, Brett qualified for the title in 1980 but only played in 117 games).  For the month of September, he only hit .290 bringing his average down to .384 with a week left to go.  Brett gave it a valiant effort.  He finished the season going 10-19 in the last week but that was enough to put him at .390.

Not only did Brett finish as the batting champion but he also led the AL in slugging percentage AND on-base percentage.  He was also the first player to have one rbi per game since Walt Dropo in 1950.   And why yes, George Brett was elected as the AL MVP in 1980.

Looking at George Brett’s 1980 card, there isn’t much not to like.  You can start with his 3B-5.  Offensively, he’s got plenty of extra base power with 1-3-5-6-6 numbers.   Of course, he’s got hit numbers galore.  Not only does he have two 7s but he also has an 11 plus four 8s.  That puts his last 9 at 61.

If that weren’t enough, Brett has three 31s in case anyone is tempted to hit and run (and throw that 33-5 away).

Any reference of George Brett on this website gives me a opportune chance to mention my “Lou” story.  For all of his career, Brett was known as “Mullet” to us APBA fans.  I found out that at least in the latter part of his career, Brett was instead known as “Lou” to his teammates.  How do I know this?  He scribbled that on my 1990 George Brett APBA card that he autographed for me.  A couple years ago, I posted a story about it and included a scanned image of the card.

See other Monster Card Monday selections