Montreal Slugger Brooks Making ’84 Trade Look Good

The National League’s newest slugger is getting so adept that he’s now hitting home runs with one hand. Never mind getting his hips into one, things are going so well for this guy that all he has to do is reach out and touch one.

Meet Hubie Brooks, the Montreal Expos’ shortstop.

Mark Thurmond met him with the bases loaded in the first inning Sunday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. Thurmond ran the count to 2-and-0 and then threw him a change-up.

Brooks, who bats right-handed, reached out and hit the pitch into the left-field seats, his right hand flying away from the bat upon contact. It was Brooks’ league-leading 10th home run of the season and third career grand slam.

How do you do!

Brooks is hitting .354 and not only leads the league in home runs but also in RBIs (32) and slugging percentage (.700).

Upon hearing all of this, Expos Manager Buck Rodgers just shook his head.

“What more can I say to add to all of that?” Rodgers said. “He’s coming up with every kind of hit in every kind of situation.”

But a .700 slugging percentage?

“Yeah, that’s not bad for a shortstop,” Rodgers said. “In fact, it’s not bad for anybody.”

Not at all. Babe Ruth, baseball’s greatest slugger, had a career slugging percentage of .692. Of course, what’s done in 22 years is hardly comparable to what Brooks has done in the season’s first 34 games. But Brooks’ mark isn’t anything to scoff at.

“I’ve been hot before, but never for this long,” Brooks said. Two years ago, when Brooks arrived in Montreal in a controversial trade that saw Gary Carter leave for New York, all that Expo fans noticed was that Brooks couldn’t play shortstop.

Now, he’s improving. Brooks came up as a third baseman and has had to make the adjustment to shortstop over the last two seasons. “There’s a lot more ground out there to cover,” Brooks said. “I’ve been working on my footwork and I’ve been studying the hitters more. The best thing you can do is get yourself in the right position before the ball is hit.”

He’s almost always been in the right position to hit. Brooks hit .307 as a rookie with the Mets in 1981 and finished eighth in the league in batting. He hit .354 with runners in scoring position in 1983 and moved to shortstop the final month of the ’84 season.

In December, 1984, he was traded, along with Floyd Youmans, Mike Fitzgerald and Herm Winningham, to the Expos for Carter. People in Montreal were annoyed by the trade and especially annoyed by the Expos’ decision to start Brooks at shortstop.

Now, they love him. He knocked in 100 runs last season, becoming the first shortstop to knock in that many since Ernie Banks in 1960. And he’s on his way to equaling or bettering that mark this season. With Youmans--Sunday’s winning pitcher--doing well, and Fitzgerald and Winningham contributing the Expos’ fast start this season, Expo fans are now applauding the trade.

“Last year, people were asking me about whether or not we got the best of the trade,” Rodgers said. “Now, they ask me if I would trade Brooks for Carter straight up.”

Well?

“Not right now, I wouldn’t,” Rodgers said.