First Gloves: Rico Petrocelli
It was hard getting recognized as a good defensive shortstop in the American League in the 1960s. Not because the shortstops in the league weren’t any good, but because too many of them were.
If you arrived anywhere in the league at the dawn of that decade, hoping to make a name for yourself as a good defender and maybe collecting one of those relatively new Gold Gloves for your trophy case, you had a problem on your hands. This was the competition you faced:
Luis Aparicio won his third consecutive Gold Glove that season and had six more in his future. He led the league with 27 fielding runs and 3.7 defensive WAR, not to mention also leading in assists, double plays, range factor, and fielding percentage. He ended his brilliant career fourth all-time among shortstops in career fielding runs with 149.
Tony Kubek held down shortstop for the pennant-winning Yankees. A former Rookie of the Year, he was already a two-time All-Star by 1960 and an outstanding defensive player. He didn’t just play shortstop but that was his main position and he was outstanding. Before retiring a few years later he would lead the league in range a couple of times and total 66 career fielding runs as a shortstop, which is still 21st all-time despite the fact that he only played nine big league seasons.
