Kenneth Alven Brett (September 18, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher and the second of four Brett brothers who played professional baseball, the most notable being the youngest, George Brett. Ken played for ten teams in his 14-year MLB career.
Born in Brooklyn, Brett grew up in El Segundo, a suburb of Los Angeles just south of Los Angeles International Airport.
Baseball career
1967 World Series
Just out of El Segundo High School at age 17, Brett was the fourth overall pick in the 1966 Major League Baseball Draft, selected by the Boston Red Sox as a pitcher; the nineteen other MLB teams coveted him as a sweet-swinging center fielder. Fifteen months later, he was called up to the major leagues from Single-A ball, he participated in the final week of a heated American League pennant race in September . Boston won the league title by defeating the Minnesota Twins on the final day of the season, finishing a single game ahead of both Detroit and Minnesota, and three games ahead of Chicago. Brett was not expected to be on the World Series roster to face the St. Louis Cardinals, but was added as an emergency injury replacement for Sparky Lyle, a transaction requiring the commissioner's approval.
Days later on October 8, Brett became the youngest pitcher ever in the World Series, appearing in relief in Game 4. He pitched a scoreless eighth inning, yielding a walk. In Game 7, he entered the game with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth inning and induced Tim McCarver to ground out to the first baseman to end the threat. At just 19 years and three weeks, he gave up no hits in scoreless innings in his two appearances.
"Nothing ever fazed him. We had no hesitation about putting him on the World Series roster, none at all," recalled Dick Williams, Boston's rookie manager that year. "He had the guts of a burglar."
1968–81
Shortly after that World Series, Brett spent six months in the Army Reserve and missed spring training in 1968. In his first Triple-A outing back (for Louisville), he was left in for nine innings and developed arm trouble; he endured a couple of surgeries, and his career never lived up to early expectations. He would later state that the worst curse in life is unlimited potential.
Brett was traded in consecutive years, after the 1971 and 1972 seasons. The former was part of a ten-player blockbuster that sent him, George Scott, Jim Lonborg, Billy Conigliaro, Joe Lahoud, and Don Pavletich to the Milwaukee Brewers for Tommy Harper, Marty Pattin, Lew Krausse, and minor-league outfielder Pat Skrable on October 10, 1971. Then, both he and Lonborg, along with Ken Sanders and Earl Stephenson, were dealt to the Philadelphia Phillies for Don Money, John Vukovich, and Bill Champion on October 31, 1972. While with the Phillies in 1973, he gave up Hank Aaron's 700th home run on July 21 in Atlanta. "I won the game, so it didn't matter that much to me," Brett said. "Aaron gave me an autographed picture the next day, and I stood there and tore it up in mock anger. I always took the game seriously, but I also had a good time playing it."
Although a much-traveled pitcher who played for ten MLB teams over a 14-year career, Brett did have remarkable career moments. He was the winning pitcher of the All-Star Game in 1974, where he was the only member of the host team Pittsburgh Pirates on the National League squad. Earlier that year on May 27, Brett held the San Diego Padres off base with a perfect game into the ninth inning before settling for a two-hit shutout win in the first game of a Memorial Day doubleheader, in which he also had a hit and batted in a run. In the second game, he had a pinch-hit triple to spark a five-run seventh to help the Pirates sweep.
Brett was traded with Willie Randolph and Dock Ellis from the Pirates to the New York Yankees for Doc Medich on December 11, 1975. His stay was brief, traded in mid-May (with Rich Coggins) to the Chicago White Sox for Carlos May. A week later on May 26, 1976, he had a no-hitter going for the White Sox with two out in the ninth in a scoreless game at California Angels. Jerry Remy's slow roller down the third base line was allowed to roll unplayed by Jorge Orta and amid some controversy, was scored a hit rather than an error. Brett pitched ten innings and won the game 1–0, in eleven innings.