Happy Birthday to Steve Balboni

Power and the Royals have traditionally had the same type of relationship as cats and dogs, oil and water and the Montagues and Capulets. Needless to say, they do not mix well. Even in the PED fueled home run explosion of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, the Royals still managed to avoid a forty home run a year hitter. In fact, they are the only team in major league history without a player to hit that forty home run mark.

This leaves Steve Balboni as perhaps the unlikeliest team leader in home runs during a single season in baseball. During that magical 1985 season, Balboni swatted 36 home runs, still the team record. That season, Bye-Bye Balboni had one of the better years of his career, producing a .243/.307/.477 batting line. In addition to those 36 bombs, Balboni hit 28 doubles, drove in 88 runs and even stole a base.

While Balboni never reached the 30 home run plateau again for the Royals, he remained a solid power hitter during his time in Kansas City. He hit over 20 home runs in each full season he spent in Kansas City, and came close to that 30 home run mark in 1986, when he swatted 29 homers. Overall, Balboni hit 119 home runs, eleventh in Royals history despite having only 1999 at bats.

More from KC Royals News

• KC Royals Rumors: Is a monster move in the cards?
• KC Royals Free Agent Hunt: 3 Tampa Bay pitchers
• Grading the 2022 KC Royals: The $25 million man
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Expectations met
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Day 3 update

So, why the history lesson? We all know that power and the Royals tend not to mix, so why dredge this back up? Well, today happens to be Steve Balboni’s 58th birthday. Since we cannot ask him for an autograph in the middle of the game like Rex Hudler did mid-interview, we may as well give him credit here.

Currently, Balboni works as a major league scout for the San Francisco Giants, a position he has held since 2010. Perhaps part of the blame for the Royals loss in last year’s World Series can be lain at his feet, but since he was an integral part of the 1985 championship, let us not hold that against him too much.

Happy birthday to Steve Balboni! Hopefully, there will be many more to come!