Transcript of Brooks Robinson's speech at sculpture unveiling ceremony

On the day overall

I’m glad it’s over. That’s my final goodbye. No more statues. No more big “say hello’s”.
 
On the statue court in center field

It sure is. That is wonderful out there. I’ve admired some of the other ballparks that I’ve seen the statues in, Philadelphia and the Cubs, what they’re doing. Mr. Angelos’ generosity here is great. And Toby Mendez, I thought he did a fantastic job on all those statues out there.
 
On how the success of the current team affected the experience:
Oh my goodness, yeah. You don’t think we’d have that crowd out there tonight if they were 10 games out, do you? They have surpassed anything that any of us thought would happen. This has been a strange year. I said in my speech that in all my years, I’ve never seen anything like it. Running guys down, bringing them back, and running them down. The thing that I look at, when the Yankees brought someone up from Triple-A, those guys could play in the big leagues. And Boston, when they brought someone up, those guys could play in the big leagues. It looks like that’s just what happened to our team. When they bring someone up, they’re ready to play in the big leagues and that’s one reason they’re having this wonderful success.
 
On the reasons for the success of the current Orioles

It has to go back to scouting and who you sign. Lew Ford, he started out in the Atlantic League this year and somebody thought this guy would be a good fit in the Orioles Triple-A. They brought him up, he did well, and he’s in the big leagues. It all goes back to scouting and signing your first round draft choice and your second round draft choice. We went for a stretch there, I know it had to be 25 or 30 years, that I wondered who’s making these choices. No one came to the big leagues. I saw something one time in the last 25 or 30 years, our first round draft choices, I didn’t see anyone I recognized. Now it’s just the opposite.
 
On what he’s most proud of during his career

I think winning the MVP award in 1964. Talking about 162 games day in and day out and being able to say I was voted the Most Valuable Player in the league, that’s my number one thrill.
 
On the relationship with the fans

It’s been amazing. Of course, I’ve been here a long, long time. As I said in my speech, I’ve seen every player who ever put on an Orioles uniform with the exception of four or five. One guy I didn’t get to meet and I wish I had was Billy Cox. He played third base for the Dodgers and was just a wonderful glove-man. I signed June 1 and they had just let him go. He passed away, but he lived up in Susquehanna in a small town which I’ve been through and I saw all his artifacts. But I never got to meet him. It’s only about four or five guys that I never saw put on an Oriole uniform.
 
On what went through his mind when seeing the statue

It sure is very surreal. Those things are never going to go away unless they tear them down or something, but they don’t tear statues down too often. I just think this is a wonderful ballpark and it’s wonderful for the fans to have a look at the guys who really helped make this franchise and guys who are in the baseball Hall of Fame, which there’s 200 guys in there I guess. I couldn’t be happier being out there as one of them. I played at the right time. As I said before, I played with some great players. I saw the team when it was real bad and we kept getting better every year and almost won the pennant in 1960. It went right down to the wire. The Yankees came in here in ’60 on Labor Day. We were two games back and won all three of them. Then we ended up going to New York and they beat us for in a row and ended up going on to win 10 or 12 in a row. That’s when we really began winning games. It was exciting.
 
On comparing the current team to former teams

Bullpen. This is a terrific bullpen. In my day, when a guy came out of the bullpen he might pitch three, four, five innings. It’s entirely different now. They just play the game a little differently than they did. I’m not saying which is right or wrong, but it sure worked out great for the Orioles to have that group coming out of here. Left-hander against right-hander, right-hander against…it makes a good match for what’s happened in the game.
 
On Manny Machado