Ex-minor leaguer with familial ties steered Orioles to Brooks Robinson in pre-draft era

The third day of Major League Baseball's amateur draft is today. The first year of the draft was 1965, and it was established so that the rich teams couldn't buy up all the talent.

Before the draft, players were scouted and recruited in the same manner that college recruiters used to go after high school athletes.

But some players, such as Orioles great Brooks Robinson, who was elected to Cooperstown in 1983, had to find other ways to get noticed. Robinson wasn't followed by scouts as an American Legion player in Little Rock, Ark., during the 1950s. But that all changed, thanks to a friend his dad had made at church.

Robinson tells the story:

"My dad (Brooks Sr.) was a good friend of Lindsey Deal, who played minor league ball for the Atlanta Crackers, and got to play a few games with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1939. They got to know each other at Capitol View Methodist Church in Little Rock. It was named that because it had a great view of the (state) capitol. Deal was a deputy sheriff and when he had to go pick up prisoners to transport, my dad would ride with him. They got to know each other well.

"Lindsay wrote a letter to the Orioles' GM (Paul Richards) and told him that they should come out and see me play. I think he told them that I have good hands and that I hit well, but don't run well. The Orioles sent out a couple of scouts to see me play. I owe it all to Lindsey. The Orioles didn't know who I was or even where Little Rock was.

"I had six or seven teams interested in me, including the Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers and Reds. One of the Yankees scouts took me squirrel hunting. But it came down to two teams, the Orioles and the Reds. I chose the Orioles simply because Paul Richards told my dad, 'We are not very good team. We lost 100 games (in 1954) and your son is going to get to play quickly.'

"I signed the day after my high school graduation from Little Rock Central. I was thinking about the Orioles all during the graduation ceremony. The next day, the Orioles' assistant general manager (Arthur Ehlers), who had flown to Little Rock, signed me. I got $4,000 (the maximum), packed my bag and flew to Baltimore with Ehlers. I was nervous. It was my first time on a plane.

"The Reds filed a complaint with the commissioner, Ford Frick. Mr. Frick asked me if I had gotten any money under the table, which was common back then. I got $4,000 and I told him that. I played second base my first year and then they moved me to third base. In 1955, I played with the Orioles when I was 18. I went 2-for-4 in my first game and then 0-for-18. I learned these guys were a long way ahead of me.''

Robinson played 23 seasons for the Orioles and retired after the 1977 season. Known as the Human Vacuum Cleaner, Robinson won 16 Gold Gloves at third base. He was an 18-time All-Star and finished with 2,848 hits and 268 home runs. He played in four World Series and was the MVP in 1970 when the Orioles beat the Reds. He was also the 1964 AL MVP.