Outside The Confines: A legendary glove, a legendary man

We don’t want to talk about the Cubs this morning. So here is your chance to check out other baseball news.

• Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson died at 86. Jake Rill has a recap of his extraordinary career, of which he spent all 23 years in Baltimore.
• Members of the Orioles community offer their thoughts on his passing.

• Tim Kurkjian offers his praise of Robinson, whom he called the “single kindest person I’ve met in covering 45 years of baseball.”
• This is definitely the most famous moment in Robinson’s career and possibly the most famous defensive play of all time. (Although Willie Mays might disagree.)

• This first ran in 2020, but Dan Connelly has an oral history of Brooks Robinson and the 1970 World Series. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Terry Francona is retiring after 23 years managing the Guardians and Red Sox, although he doesn’t want to make a big deal of it. Still, Mandy Bell has the story of the impact that Francona has had on the game. Anyone remember Francona’s season as a Cub? I do.
• Zack Meisel has a detailed story of Francona’s life in baseball, how he doesn’t have plans for what’s next and how he’s just fine with that. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Marla Ridenour thanks Francona for making baseball in Cleveland relevant again. You may recall he almost won a World Series there.
• After getting his 200th career win last week, the Cardinals announced that Adam Wainwright will not pitch again. They did say he might get an at-bat so that the fans in St, Louis can say goodbye on the field.
• Katie Woo writes that Wainwright is at peace with his impending retirement. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Bradford Doolittle ranks the World Series contenders on how much pressure they are under to win it all this year. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• R.J. Anderson has four players who could have a coming-out party in the playoffs this year.
• Dan Szymborski looks at which playoff teams are built to succeed in October.
• Gabe Lacques writes that team cohesion is the secret recipe for the Braves’ success.
• Mike Petriello notes that cutting down on his strikeout rate has been the key to Ronald Acuña Jr.’s tremendous season.
• Of course, Acuña is in a battle with Mookie Betts for the National League MVP. Jay Jaffe writes that Betts’ defensive versatility gives him a strong case for the award.
• AJ Cassavell thinks Padres hurler Blake Snell may just have wrapped up the Cy Young Award.
• Hannah Keyser wishes that Shohei Ohtani spoke to the media more, even while she acknowledges that he doesn’t have to.
• Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he’s not thinking about his job security.
• Giants ace Logan Webb says the team needs to make big changes next year in order to win. Dayn Perry writes that while Webb didn’t say what the Giants needed, it’s clear that they need better hitters.
• Anthony Castrovince has ten “bonkers” stats from 2023.
• Michael Baumann thinks Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering may be one of the team’s best pitchers, despite having just one major league inning to his name.
• Here are the hardest hit home runs this season.
• And here is each team’s all-time hardest-hit home run. Or at least the hardest hit home run of the Statcast era, which means since 2015.
• Adam McCalvy asks “Just how much sleep do the Brewers get?”
• Adding to the “50th anniversary of hip-hop” stories that are everywhere, Matthew Ritchie examines how the White Sox’s 1990 re-brand changed hip-hop fashion.
• Craig Goldstein rips apart a nonsensical Fox Sports baseball infographic. (free reg. req.) A must-read for any graphic designers out there.
• Eno Sarris and his son asked several major leaguers what their favorite animal is. (The Athletic sub. req.) But also three other interesting questions that an 11-year-old has for major leaguers.
• And finally, we don’t know if Joey Votto is going to retire or not, but he did write this fascinating piece on riding the buses when he was a lowly minor leaguer.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.