Angels’ Brooks Becomes Journeyman in Best Sense

In baseball, where players come to be known as “Old Reliable,” “Old Dependable,” and “Old Aches and Pains,” Hubie Brooks should probably be “Old Available.” Or, even, “Old Expendable.” His slogan should be, “Have bat, will travel. And travel.”

If Brooks were a movie star, he would be the sidekick. The hero’s best friend. He wouldn’t get the girl, he would get the horses.

Brooks always seemed a step away from stardom. He could be the third man in any outfield in the country and carry his load. But he can’t seem to get that star on the door.

He will hit you 16 to 20 home runs. He will bat .270 to .280 if he plays regularly. He drove in 100 runs once and 90 runs twice.

He played first base for the Angels the other night. He plays anywhere, any time. He has played three infield positions, all three outfield positions. He is no disgrace at any of them. He can throw, run and catch. He is a thorough-going major leaguer. His attitude is fine, he plays where he is asked, he is cheerful, always in shape.

But sometimes, it seems as if teams keep him on hand as much to trade him as to play him.

A case could be made that Brooks won the 1986 pennant for the New York Mets. He was traded to the Montreal Expos--along with another outfielder, a catcher and pitcher--for Gary Carter. Carter was the key to the pennant puzzle for the Mets that year.

Hubie played for Montreal until he gained free agency, then shifted to the Dodgers. He played creditably for them--20 home runs, 91 runs batted in--but they traded him back to the Mets. The Dodgers got Bob Ojeda for him. The Mets kept him until they got Bobby Bonilla. Brooks--and his salary--became superfluous. They traded him to the Angels.

Looking back, Brooks has always been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Given his skills, he would have made an ideal third man in any outfield. His role would have been comfortable. Baseball history is replete with the names of players who slipped into this niche and carved out distinguished careers. But Brooks is always catching a plane out.

Tommy Henrich, the original “Old Reliable,” patrolled right field for the Yankees when they had Joe DiMaggio in center and Charlie Keller in left. Henrich, as has Brooks, had been in and out of the lineup until that formation jelled.

Anybody could handle right field when you had Willie Mays in center and Monte Irvin in left. You not only got good pitches to hit, you didn’t have to catch anything in fair territory. Mays did it for you.

It is a melancholy fact that Brooks came up with the Mets when they had Darryl Strawberry and George Foster in the outfield. But alas! Brooks was an infielder at that time. And when he arrived in Montreal, they had an outfield of Tim Raines, Andre Dawson and Warren Cromartie. By the time Montreal shifted him to the outfield, Dawson was gone, Raines was trying to go and Brooks was playing alongside Herm Winningham, a proven .230 hitter.

Baseball--and Brooks--expected bigger things of him when he came out of Arizona State in 1978. Even though Bob Horner, who hit massive home runs when he hit anything at all, was drafted first, Brooks was drafted third, by the Mets, and it was his bat that had propelled the Sun Devils to the College World Series championship. He batted . 396, a team record for a college team that had had Reggie Jackson and Rick Monday on its rosters.

In his rookie year with the Mets, 1981, he batted .307 and was high in the balloting for rookie of the year, finishing third behind Fernando Valenzuela and Raines.

Soon, though, Brooks had more labels on his luggage than a secretary of state because he could never find the spot where he could remain and commit. Brooks acknowledges that he can’t carry a team. But he would be perfect at the third-man theme. He could, so to speak, perfect the Henrich maneuver.

“I’ve never been one to blow my own horn,” he said as he sat in a dugout at Anaheim Stadium the other night. “But I try to help the team. I’ve always been a No. 5 or No. 6 hitter. I know my numbers will be there at the end of the season if I play regularly. I try to do what the team wants. Or needs.”

When he joined the Dodgers, he sought a meeting with Manager Tom Lasorda. “I asked him, ‘What do you want from me?’ And he said, ‘I want you to drive in runs.’ So I drove in 91.”

Driving in runs can sometimes be as sacrificial as bunting or hitting behind the runner. You don’t just put the ball in play, you try to put it in the seats. You strike out 108 times that way.

But the Dodgers needed a left-handed pitcher and Brooks, as were the PT boats of World War II, was expendable. As he was when the Mets needed catcher Gary Carter.

Brooks is with the Angels now, and it’s an old story: He doesn’t look over and see DiMaggio and Keller, or Mays and Irvin, he looks over and sees a rookie and a collection of fill-ins. Not even Tommy Henrich could make a name for himself under those circumstances. Instead of being “Old Reliable” in that cast, he would be “Old ‘What’s His Name Again?’ ”