Colorado Rockies: Comparing David Dahl, Paul Molitor, and George Brett

Brett’s injury history

George Brett had established himself a bit more when the injury bug started biting him. He and Bud Black were teammates on the Royals from 1982 through 1988 and many of the injuries were during that time.

Brett made his MLB debut in 1973 but became an everyday player in 1974. In 1979, he started the season on the disabled list after fracturing his thumb in a charity basketball game. In 1980, he suffered from a few different nagging injuries but still nearly hit .400 (he won the MVP as he led the AL in average, OBP, and slugging percentage with a .390/.454/.664 slash line). To date, that is the closest that a player has come to hitting .400 since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.

The Royals made it to the World Series for the first time in their short franchise history but Brett had to be removed from Game 2 to have surgery … because he had severe hemorrhoids. He was able to return just hours after the surgery, though, to play in Game 3 but it was still the biggest story of the World Series. If not for the Pine Tar incident in 1983, George Brett himself said that he thinks he would have been remembered for having hemorrhoids if not for the Pine Tar Incident.

During that 1983 season, he missed some time due to a few different injuries. One of them was breaking his toe after rushing from his laundry room to the living room to try to see an at-bat by Bill Buckner on TV.

In 1984, he spent 43 days on the disabled list and throughout, he missed around 300 games due to injuries.

However, both he and Molitor were Hall of Fame players even with their injury history. Another Hall of Famer that had his fair share of injuries was Larry Walker but that comparison may come soon.

Obviously, Dahl, the Rockies, and Rockies fans would love if he could be a Hall of Fame-like player playing every day but if Black’s comparison to Molitor and Brett is true (and you can see the similarities in injuries and talent both), the Rockies will still have a great player patrolling the outfield for years to come.

All injuries for Molitor and Brett came from their profiles on SABR.