Charlie Lau 1971 Set 1 Game Used Kansas City Royals Jersey. Hall of Fame third baseman Brett is likely Lau's most famous student. Brett said of Lau "'Charlie (Lau) made me a hitter. My rookie year I was hitting around .200 when he started working with me. All of a sudden, I started to hit.'" In his 21-year career, Brett had over 3,000 hits, 300 home runs and a .305 lifetime batting average. He led the American League in hitting in 1976, 1980, and 1990, including a .390 batting average in 1980, the highest batting average in a season since 1941, and 121 points over the league average .269. He hit over .300 11 times in his career