ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson died Tuesday at the age of 86. Among his many fans in Maryland during his playing days was Ben Walker, a young left-hander who would go on to cover baseball for The Associated Press for more than 40 years. Walker retired in March, but he wrote this appreciation of Robinson for the AP from his childhood home after hearing the news.
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We still have a charmed patch of grass in our backyard, plucked from the very spot where Brooks made that play.
Growing up in Maryland in the 1960s, Brooks Robinson was a god.