George Brett hit .305 with 3,154 hits and 317 home runs during his Hall-of-Fame career. But does anyone really remember that?
Brett is most known for his role in the infamous "Pine Tar Game" between the Yankees and Royals, which took place almost 30 years ago on July 24, 1983.
Brett, now the Royals' hitting coach, was at Yankee Stadium Tuesday and reminisced about the pine-tar incident before his team faced the Yankees.
"That's what I'm known for. It could be worse," he said before the Royals' 3-1 win Tuesday night. "People know the All-Star games and 3,000 hits. This is just a little asterisk next to go with it, and I'm fine with that."
The legend began with the Yankees holding a 4-3 lead going into the ninth inning. Brett hit a two-run home run with two outs off Goose Gossage to give the Royals a 5-4 lead. But Yankees manager Billy Martin complained to umpire Tim McClelland that Brett's bat had too much pine tar on it.
After inspecting the bat by measuring it against home plate, the umpires ruled it had more than the legal 17 inches of pine tar on it, and Brett was called out, the third out of the inning, giving the Yankees a 4-3 win.
Brett, furious, came sprinting out of the dugout toward McClelland and was restrained by his teammates in one of baseball's most famous images.
"I said, 'If they call me out for using too much pine tar, I'll go out there and kill one of those SOBs. As soon as I said that, Tim McClelland starts looking for me and he points at me and calls me out," Brett said. "I had never heard any rule about excessive pine tar on a bat."
But it didn't end there.
The Royals filed a protest with the league. American League president Lee MacPhail reviewed the rules, and said Brett did not intentionally "alter the bat to improve the distance factor" of the ball. He overturned the call and ruled it a valid home run.
The game was resumed on Aug. 18 from the point of Brett's home run, with the Royals taking a 5-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning. Brett — along with Royals manager Dick Howser and Gaylord Perry, who gave the bat to a ball boy to hide before anyone had a chance to investigate it — were also ejected for their actions. Brett didn't even travel with the team to the resumed game.
"I got kicked out of the game for some reason," he said jokingly. "I don't know why I was kicked out."
In the resumed game, Don Mattingly was used at second base, because Bert Campaneris was injured, and pitcher Ron Guidry played center field since Jerry Mumphrey, the Yankees center fielder at the time of the first game, had been traded.
Twenty-five days after it began, the Yankees lost the game after they went down in order in the bottom of the ninth. Thirty years later, Brett is still surprised at how often the play and game come up.
"Right after the game I didn't think that much of it. I remember after the game getting to my hotel room, calling one of my brothers to tell him what happened," Brett said. "He said, 'I know. I was watching another game on TV and they broke in and showed that.' I thought it was going to just be over with, but it's amazing how much play this one at bat, or this one hit has gotten over the years."
The bat now lies in the Hall of Fame, but it almost didn't make it there. Brett used it in a game after the incident before Perry told him of its value.
"Gaylord Perry said, 'You're crazy for using that bat. That bat's worth a lot of money whole. It's not worth a lot of money broken in two.' So I used it two at-bats and finally came to my senses and ended up giving that bat to the Hall of Fame."
david.satriano@nypost.com
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