All is Right in the World!

[Guest Sores]

On Oct. 21, 1982, the day after the Milwaukee Brewers lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, Robin Yount made a memorable entrance into County Stadium on a motorcycle, thrilling thousands who had gathered to honor the club.

 

 

Yount isn’t likely to repeat that daring dash this morning at Miller Park, but his return to the club is no less dramatic.

 

After a couple of years of prodding, Brewers manager Ned Yost finally succeeded in talking Yount into joining his coaching staff. The first Brewers player to be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame, Yount will be introduced at an 11:30 a.m. news conference as the club’s new bench coach.

 

Ever since Yount retired in February 1994, the Brewers have tried to get him to return to the club in some fashion. He usually cited family concerns in Phoenix for turning down those overtures, but about to become an empty-nester, Yount, 50, finally decided to rejoin the club.

 

When the Brewers fired third-base coach Rich Donnelly and bench coach Rich Dauer at the end of the 2005 season, Yost resumed his quest to get Yount to join his staff. It certainly didn’t hurt when former Brewers shortstop Dale Sveum was named a couple of weeks ago as the new third-base coach. Yount and Sveum are extremely close and live near each other in the Phoenix area.

 

It will be the second major-league coaching stint for Yount, who served on Bob Brenly’s staff with the Arizona Diamondbacks for 2½ seasons, beginning in 2002. After two years as Arizona’s first-base coach, Yount assumed the role of bench coach in 2004.

 

After the Diamondbacks fired Brenly on July 2, 2004, however, Yount resigned out of loyalty to his manager and has remained out of baseball since. The youngest of Yount’s four children, Jenna, a budding figure skater, is a high school senior and her graduation next spring probably played a role in his decision to return to Milwaukee.

 

Yount played his entire 20-year major-league career with the Brewers, debuting in 1974 as an 18-year-old shortstop. He immediately was dubbed “The Kid,” a moniker he carried throughout his career.

 

Yount played 2,856 games with the Brewers, batting .285 with 251 home runs and 1,406 runs batted in. He remains No. 1 on the club’s all-time list in games played, home runs, RBI, at-bats (11,008), hits (3,142), runs scored (1,632), doubles (613) and triples (126).

 

On Jan. 5, 1999, Yount was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, along with good friend George Brett and Nolan Ryan. He was inducted in a ceremony on July 25 of that year in Cooperstown, N.Y., in front of a then-record crowd of some 50,000.

 

Yount was named most valuable player of the American League in 1982, when he led the Brewers to their only World Series appearance. He won that award again in 1989 as a centerfielder, becoming only the third player in major-league history to be named MVP at two positions.

 

 

 

[Chavez]

Robin back in a Brewer uni (even if it's a different color and logo) is LONG overdue.