September 27, 2023

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

Brooks Robinson's Glove was Gold.

Everyone knows that.

But did you know the Hall of Fame third baseman from Little Rock, Arkansas was married in Windsor, Ontario on Oct. 8, 1960 to Windsor native Connie Butcher?

"He was married in our church, Christ the King, in South Windsor,'' Tom Valcke, another Windsor native, said in an interview. "My brother Greg was their altar boy. Brooks was Greg's favourite player and why Greg always played third base and wore No. 5.''

Connie was a flight attendant for United Airlines when she met Brooks on a Baltimore Orioles flight from Kansas City to Boston.

The story goes that many of the Orioles were hitting on Connie but Brooks got her attention by confiding to her that there was only one player not married. Connie later asked Brooks who the sole bachelor was and he said it was him. The truth was that at least half of the players were not married.

Brooks and Connie began dating and they were married for 62+ years.

Robinson, the Human Vacuum Cleaner, is being eulogized around the baseball world following his death on Tuesday. He was 86.

There is at least one other Canadian connection to Robinson. He played in triple-A in 1959 for the Vancouver Mounties, a Baltimore affiliate.

Robinson batted .331 with six homers and 30 RBI for Vancouver before he was called up for good by the Orioles en route to a fabulous career that saw him elected into Cooperstown.