A-O!

The Royals had three players represent the hometown team, John Mayberry, Cookie Rojas and Amos Otis. Otis received the third most votes among American League players and earned a start. Mayberry filled in as the starting first baseman after Dick Allen was hurt and couldn’t play.

Mayberry was deserving anyhow, with a .300/.439/.539 line and 20 homers and 80 RBI. Otis had a .287/.350/.496 line with 19 homers.

Mayberry ended the first inning with a ground out, but when Otis came up in the second inning, he already had Reggie Jackson on second base after a leadoff double. He singled towards second base and drove in the American League’s only run.

Despite the scoring problems of the AL, Otis and Mayberry did their part. In his second at bat Mayberry walked in the bottom of the third, then doubled to right-center to lead off the bottom of the sixth, but he was stranded there. In his last at bat, he grounded out against Tom Seaver (but hey, he moved Rojas to second after a walk).

Otis added to his RBI single with another in the fourth inning and stole second with Bobby Murcer at bat. He left the game after Carlton Fisk and Brooks Robinson stranded him on second.

Big John.

Mayberry slowed down in the second half, finishing with a .287/.417/.478 line and ending with 26 homers and 100 RBI. Otis finished at .300/.368/.484 and 26 homers and 93 RBI.

Maybe the two Royals didn’t have flashy, superstar kind of games, but they had solid ones, contributed to their side and did so on their own field. All three Royals in the 1973 All-Star Game ended up in the Royals Hall of Fame. That adds up to a special event and one worth noting.

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The huge-scoreboard, multi-fountained stadium opened in 1973 and also hosted the All-Star Game. The new stadium and its baseball event inspired the fans to vote Amos Otis as a starter (and third leading AL vote-getter) and John Mayberry landed in the starting lineup after Dick Allen was injured. Cookie Rojas also made it into the game.

Otis had 20 homers by the All-Star Break that year and 111 hits overall. Mayberry had 20 as well but had also reached base 180 times with 97 hits and 83 walks by July 24th. Rojas was in his third consecutive All-Star Game and fourth of five in his career.

Other stars included Hall of Famers Brooks Robinson, Billy Williams, Johnny Bench, Willie Stargell, Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Rod Carew, Bert Blyleven, Nolan Ryan, Rollie Fingers, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays (in his final All-Star Game). Ron Santo was in the game and will be inducted in 2012.

Others included Joe Torre, Thurman Munson, Ted Simmons, Bobby Bonds, Davey Johnson and some guy named Pete Rose.

Non-players Sparky Anderson, Dick Williams, Whitey Herzog, and Nestor Chylak were involved in the game as well, all of whom are now in the Hall of Fame.

Bobby Bonds hit a two run homer in the fifth inning and was named the game’s MVP but the big blast came off the bat of Johnny Bench, who drove a ball to deep left estimated at 480 feet and considered the longest homer in Royals/Kauffman Stadium history.

Those Royals All-Stars finished with respectable numbers – though Rojas was showing signs of aging. Mayberry and Otis were well on their way to becoming Royals Hall of Famers.

Royals 1973 All-Stars, rest of season:

Video has been posted online of a feature about the game:

Check out the threads on Ewing Kauffman.

The NL won 7-1 and it wasn’t really much of a contest after the middle innings. Rick Wise, the NL starter, got the win while Blyleven took the loss.

Let me give you an example.  I was recently looking at the Royals team history page and discovered something interesting.  If you review the column of “Top Players” you’ll see a number of recognizable names of athletes that contributed mightily to the success (or relative success) of each specific season.  You’ll find Alex Gordon, Amos Otis, Bret Saberhagen, Carlos Beltran, David Cone, Johnny Damon, Kevin Appier, Zack Greinke, John Mayberry, Dan Quisenberry, Willie Wilson, Joakim Soria, etc. and of course George Brett – a veritable who’s who of Royal’s history.  You’ll also see Jose Offerman, Mark Teahen and a couple other mild surprises.

This made me think…  What is, or what should be, the definition of the Top or Best player?  Baseball Reference defines the Top Player as the individual with the highest WAR (Wins Against Replacement) rating of any player on the team.  WAR is a tangible analysis that takes both offense and defense into account, but it doesn’t make any attempt to measure leadership or intangibles, and it seems to favor pitchers slightly in my opinion.

5 time All Star Mike Sweeney was never the best player on the Royals according to Baseball Reference (Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE)

Let me give you an example of the lack of leadership skills and intangibles in the WAR calculation.  Remember Mike Sweeney?  There is a lot of mixed opinion about Mike, and deservedly so, yet he put up some dynamite offensive numbers for a few years combined with the ability to hold his own at first base, and he was the undeniable leader of the Royals during his time as Captain.  Yet this 5 time All Star who hit .333 with 144 RBIs, 71 walks, and a league leading 15 HBPs in 2000, and a 2002 season that saw him hit .340, .563 slugging, and 148 OPS+ was never the “Top Player” for the Royals according to Baseball Reference and his WAR rating.  In 2002, that honor went to Paul Byrd.

What do you think of that?  Was Paul Byrd a more important piece of the puzzle for the Royals in 2002 than Mike Sweeney and his .340 batting average? (.340 is 2^nd only to George Brett’s .390 in 1980, and how would you like to have a .340 hitter on the Royals right now?)  In 2002, Paul Byrd was 17-11 with a 3.90 ERA and he led the league with 7 complete games – he was definitely a very valuable pitcher, but I don’t think his performance could be defined as “dominating.”  Paul Byrd appeared in 33 games.  Mike Sweeney played in 126 (less than a full season due to the beginning signs of his many recurring back issues), had the first straight steal of home by a Royal in over 20 years, was named to his 3^rd consecutive All-Star game, led the league in defensive assists by a 1^st baseman – and he was the Captain of the team.  But this wasn’t good enough to be the Royals “Top Player.”

Obviously, my definition of the best player on the team is going to differ from other fans, and from other experts as well.  My subjective definition simply asks, “Who was the player the Royals could least afford to do without?”  In 2002, I believe the answer has to be Mike Sweeney.

Before the 2012 season began, who did you think the Royals’ best player would be this season?  If you’re like most of the rest of us, you may have thought, or at least hoped, it would be Eric Hosmer.  If so, those hopes were dashed weeks ago as we’ve witnessed one of the most dramatic sophomore slumps in recent memory.  A few of you may have predicted Alex Gordon, or maybe Joakim Soria prior to his injury.  Predictions are based on hopes, and as a Royals fan you certainly know that hopes are often dashed.

If you said Billy Butler, you were pretty much on target.  (Although according to WAR rating, Alex Gordon is on top for the second year in a row – I don’t agree in 2012.)  However, I am hesitant to name a DH as the best player citing the same reservations many have for naming a pitcher as MVP.  And unless a Royals pitcher is completely and utterly dominating (see Steve Busby, Dennis Leonard, David Cone, Zach Greinke, or Bret Saberhagen) I have similar misgivings.

For 2013 we have several potential candidates for best player.  I’ll list my nominations below and include the odds that I think I’m right.  And, I’ll also acknowledge that there’s no possible way any reader will agree with me 100%.

Could Mike Moustakas become the best player on the Royals? (Credit: Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE)

Mike Moustakas:  The improvement Mike has shown from 2011 to 2012 has been nothing short of breathtaking.  He is much more comfortable at the plate this year, and in the field he doesn’t even look like the same player.  I believe Mike’s personality has many leadership qualities and he’s maturing into a presence that will almost certainly make him the best player on the team at some point in his career.  For 2013, I’d say the odds of Mike being the Royals best player, the guy they can least afford to do without, are about 3 to 1.

Eric Hosmer:  Although he hasn’t come close to fulfilling our expectations this year, Hosmer’s potential is so tantalizing that I have to put him near the top of the list.  I believe Eric is just a tweak or two away from “righting the ship” and getting back on track to becoming the offensive powerhouse we all know he can be.  His defense is still solid, but it may take a while for his personality to mature into a true clubhouse big dog.  I’ll put Hosmer’s odds of being the best player in 2013 at 5 to 1.

Alcides Escobar:  If you told me I could only watch one play from each Royals game, I would pick the inevitable web gem that Esky turns in virtually every night.  It is truly a thrill to watch Alcides display his otherworldly defensive skills while protecting the left side of the diamond.  I’ll go out on a limb and say that after watching him for less than two seasons he may not be the absolute best defensive shortstop I’ve ever seen, but I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone better than him.  Escober is hitting around .290 at a premium position and I believe the only thing that could potentially limit his ability to be a great club house leader are his English language skills.  Alcides is my dark horse candidate for best player in 2013 and he’s my favorite to watch play in 2012.  I’ll put his odds at 10-1.

Jeff Francoeur:  I believe Jeff is the closest thing the 2012 Royals have to a clubhouse leader and his rocket arm and intangibles are great.  Who’s the guy you see chest bumping his team mates every night and cheering them on with one of the most upbeat personalities in the majors?  It’s Frenchy.  Who else tosses baseballs wrapped in $100 bills and gets into hilarious mock disputes with opposing mascots?  Frenchy’s power numbers are way down this year and his average has dipped, so his on-field performance is not trending in the right direction which makes him a risky wager.  I also wouldn’t bet on Jeff being “da man” in 2013 due to the fact that he may not even play in a Royals uniform.   If he is still wearing Royals blue in 2013, I would put Francoeur’s odds at 15-1.

Wil Myers:  At some point in 2012, no matter how hard the Royals brass try to hold him back, he’ll force his way to Kansas City.  And he may light it up offensively when he arrives, but his defense still needs work and there’s almost no way anyone can be a true clubhouse leader in his first or second year.  Odds 30-1.

Billy Butler:  Great DH, one of the best in baseball.  But as I explained earlier, I just don’t think a DH can be the best player.  If a DH is your best player, then your team is in trouble.  Odds 30-1.

Jake Odorizzi:  See “Wil Myers.”  Odds 50-1.

Alex Gordon:  Gold Glove defensive left fielder who has been a disappointment at the plate this year.  He’s a solid contributor and I want him on my team, but he’s not a vocal clubhouse leader and has little chance to be the best player on the team in my rating system.  In 2013, I’d rate him at 50-1.

There are a few other players who have a shot at being the best player, but all of them have significant question marks either because they may not recover from injuries (Joakim Soria and Danny Duffy), they haven’t played in the majors long enough for us to get a good sense of their performance (Salvador Perez), or because Dayton Moore hasn’t traded for them yet or signed them as a free agent (Zach Greinke – hint, hint…)

And don’t get me started about relief pitchers.  Unless you are Mariano Rivera, Dan Quisenberry, or Joakim Soria in his prime, you can’t even be considered the Top Player on the team.  It would be the same as voting the field goal kicker as the top player on an NFL team – it’s not going to happen.

Could Yuniesky Betancourt be the best player? Haha, just kidding! Almost got you, didn't we? (Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE)

Yuniesky Betancourt:  I’ll just skip straight to the odds.  10,000,000,000 to 1.  I had to throw him in just for kicks.

The biggest reason we have difficulty selecting the potential top player is because the Royals are so young.  Most of the time I believe that’s a good thing and not a bad thing, but it causes them to be inconsistent as they go through the struggles of figuring out how to succeed in the big leagues, and most of them simply have not matured into the true leaders that they will hopefully one day become.

I still believe that we are two solid starting pitchers away from being a contending team and I’m holding on to hope that we find these hurlers somewhere, either in the farm system, through trades or free agency, before the start of the 2013 season.  When this happens, we’ll find our team playing in October, and this is the time when true clubhouse leadership emerges and performance on the field has a historical impact on your team and your legacy.   When we play in October, that’s when we’ll definitely learn who is the best player on this team.

Only one team in major league history has lost as many as 23 consecutive baseball games – the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies.  The ’61 Phillies were a historically bad team that finished the season 47-107.  But what would you say if I told you the Royals also had an equally appalling streak of futility, unrivalled in the annals of Major League baseball?  It’s true, I wish it wasn’t, but it is.

The Royals 1969 inaugural season was a great success in almost every way.  Our Boys in Blue opened the year with four wins in their first five games, and finished the season winning five of their last six for a 69-93 record, good for 4^th place ahead of both the White Sox and Seattle Pilots (now the Milwaukee Brewers.)  Lou Piniella was voted the Rookie of the Year.  This rag tag group cobbled together mostly from expansion draft picks or purchased outright from other teams exceeded expectations and put the baseball world on notice that Kansas City’s baseball team was no pushover.

For all the excitement of the new season and the anticipation of future successes to come, there was one blemish that I still clearly remember 43 years later.  The story of THE losing streak began with a win on May 9, 1969 – 43 years ago today.  The Royals visited the Orioles for the very first time at old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

Frank Robinson used the Royals as a stepping stone on his path to the Hall of Fame (Image: Joy R. Absalon-US PRESSWIRE)

Royals rookie pitcher, Dick Drago started and finished the game, surrendering only 4 hits and 2 runs to the talented Orioles who featured future Hall of Famers Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson, as well as Boog Powell, Mark Belanger and company.  The Orioles finished the 1969 season at 109-53 in first place in the East, but lost to the Miracle Mets in the 1969 World Series.  It was a big deal for an expansion baseball team to trot into Memorial stadium and hand the mighty Orioles a loss in their very first game.  Unfortunately, it would be the last loss the Orioles suffered at the hands of the Royals for a very, very long time.

For the remainder of the 1969 season, the Royals and Orioles played 11 more times.  Every single one of them was tallied as a win for the Orioles, including two shutouts.  The Royals came close a couple of times with two one run losses, but for the most part the contests were lopsided.

Déjà vu all over again, as Yogi Berra would say, occurred in 1970.  The Orioles tallied 12 more consecutive wins over the Royals.  It almost became a self-fulfilling prophecy – the Royals expected to lose when they played the Orioles, so they did exactly that.

The 1971 Royals finished above .500 for the first time and were becoming a well respected team.  Many players from the inaugural season had moved on and made way for a wave of talented athletes that would lead the Royals into their glory years.  On April 30, 1971, the first time the Orioles and Royals faced each other in the young season, Baltimore was confronted with a very different team than they had faced the previous two years.  Taking the field for the Royals that day were Amos Otis, Freddie Patek, Cookie Rojas, Lou Piniella, and Bob Oliver.  No longer were the Royals a rag tag group of castaways seeking respectability.  They were now a team on par with the best of Major League baseball.

The game was hard fought with the Royals taking a 4-3 lead into the top of the 9^th inning.  With Tom Burgmeier on the mound, Brooks Robinson singled and made his way around the diamond to score the tying run.  Many thought this game would end the same way the previous 23 meetings of the Royals vs Orioles had ended, with Baltimore finding a way to pull out the victory, as good teams always seem to do.

With two outs in the bottom of the 9^th, Paul Schaal singled past 3^rd base.  Gail Hopkins’ pinch hit single pushed Schaal to 3^rd.   The shortest man in professional baseball, 5’5” Freddie Patek and his .253 batting average came to the plate with the game tied, two outs, and the winning run on 3^rd base.  And then, just like David bravely facing Goliath, Patek promptly drove a single to the right centerfield gap.  And with that, the Royals longest ever streak of frustration and futility was over.

The following morning on May 1, 1971, the sports section of the Kansas City Star described the feelings of relieved Royals fans with the banner headline, “23 Skidoo.”  The streak was over and the Royals had pointed themselves in the right direction for a season that would set them on a path toward playoff and World Series success within a few years.

Character is built on the back of challenge and adversity.  No doubt these early Royals had become well versed in all aspects of patience and perseverance during their first few years.  In the end, Royals fans were rewarded with a team that rooted for each other and knew the meaning of teamwork, the benefits of common goals, and the payoff of hard work.

Fast forward to 2012, and as Yogi Berra would say, I believe it’s déjà vu all over again.

Thanks for visiting Kings of Kauffman. You can stay current on all the Kings of Kauffman content and news by following us on Twitter, Facebook, or by way of our RSS feed.  You can also send your questions to our mailbag at KoKMailbag@gmail.com and follow Alan Barrington on Twitter to be notified each time he posts a story and receive his incredibly insightful sports commentary.

Is winning games all a team must do to capture the imagination of its fan base?  Winning is obviously extremely important because nothing else matters if you don’t see a big number in the win column.   However, in my opinion, winning or at least the hope of winning is only half the equation.  The other half is based on the emotional investment the fans have in the team and particularly in the players.

I couldn’t be a Yankee fan because as Jerry Seinfeld once said, they’re “rooting for the clothes.”  The Yankees are substantially made up of players who established their careers on other teams.  Mark Teixeira originally from the Rangers, A-Rod originally from the Mariners, Curtis Granderson from the Tigers, Nick Swisher from the A’s, CC Sabathia from the Indians, etc.  With a few notable exceptions (see Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and potentially Robinson Cano), the Yankees are a super star team cobbled together from pieces that became too expensive for other franchises to afford.  They’re mercenaries.  How do you root for mercenaries?  I couldn’t do it.

How did you feel about Joe Montana when he took the Chiefs to the AFC Championship game?  If you’re like me, you jumped out of your seat with every touchdown he threw and cheered for him and the Chiefs at the top of your lungs.  But in your heart, you knew he wasn’t really a Chief – he was a 49er that we borrowed at the end of his career.  It’s fun to cheer for your team when they’re winning, but it’s just not quite exactly the same when you aren’t emotionally invested in the players as well.

The great Royals teams of the 70’s and 80’s instilled an extra dose of pride in the fan base because they were homegrown players.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  Many of these legendary Royals including Amos Otis, John Mayberry, Freddie Patek, Hal McRae and a few others played a handful of games while wearing different uniforms prior to coming to KC.  However, with the possible exception of Darrell Porter and Jim Sundberg, none of them will be remembered for anything other than playing in Royal blue, and white, and a little bit of powder blue.  None of the core players for these great old Royals teams had established themselves in other cities before coming to the Royals.

In 2003, I was just as excited as everyone else when the Royals jumped out to an astounding 9-0 start.  Much of the excitement was due to the fact that their strong performance was unexpected.  The prior year in 2002 the Royals record was 62-100, their first ever 100 loss season.  They had lost 21 of their first 29 games in 2002.  Even the most optimistic Royals fans (myself among them) had very low expectations for 2003.  I rooted hard for their surprising performance to begin the season, but it wasn’t with the same heartfelt fervor as when I was fighting to get a seat in the upper deck of a filled-to-capacity Royals stadium to watch a team stocked with homegrown players back in 1977.  Back in ‘77, we knew this experience was just a taste of what was yet to come.

Now think about who was on the team in 2003.  Carlos Beltran was the only potential perennial All-Star in the group.   Some of us were holding out hope that Mike Sweeney would become the next George Brett, and although he was a very good player, he never completely reached the career potential we all dreamed of.  Sweeney’s annual back injuries, for which he inexplicably refused surgery (maybe it could have been explained, but it was never explained to us, the fans), torpedoed a career that might have made him the 5th or 6th greatest Royal ever, in my opinion.

After Beltran and Sweeney, who did we have?  Carlos Febles, Angel Berroa, Brent Mayne, Ken Harvey, Michael Tucker, Joe Randa, and Raul Ibanez.  Not exactly murderer’s row.  Ibanez turned out well, but we had to claim him off the Mariners’ scrap heap.  Runelvys Hernandez was the opening day pitcher after winning only four games in 2002.  Four games!  Who starts a pitcher on opening day with four career victories?  This roster was much more likely to inspire frustration and disappointment than confidence and optimism for the future.

How many of these guys from the 2003 roster did you dream could be key pieces of a pennant winning ball club?  Please don’t say Angel Berroa.  Joe Randa was a solid player on the downside of his career.  We saw flashes of what Raul Ibanez was to become, but history taught us if he performed well he’d be rewarded with a long-term contract by a team that could afford it – aka not the Royals.  If you believed anyone else on this roster could consistently compete at a high level, you were kidding yourself.  Don’t even think of looking up the list of pitchers we had in 2003, it will make you cry.

We were all excited when the Royals unexpectedly won a bunch of games to begin the 2003 season, but even in the midst of a winning streak when the Royals found themselves in first place, the experience wasn’t everything we wanted it to be.  We wanted to believe that our players had the potential to sustain and even improve their performance over several seasons, we wanted to believe if one or more of our players grew into a super star that we could sign him to a long term contract and prevent him from moving to the coast, and we wanted to believe in the direction the team was heading.  If you’re honest you’ll say that you couldn’t believe any of these things in 2003.  So all you were left with was a quickly fleeting winning record, and that’s not enough.

Today, something is different.  The Royals had a losing record last year and you were still reading about them in the dead of winter, possibly for the first time in your life.  You listened to the sports channel in December to hear the news about the Winter meetings, right in the middle of football season.  You know something is different, don’t you?  You can sense it like all the rest of us.

Salvador Perez blocks the plate and establishes himself as a difference maker for 2012.

A couple of years ago, there was a little spark – some news about a home run hitting high school kid named Moustakas being drafted, and you watched Alex Gordon get moved from 3^rd to the outfield to make room.  You heard another younger kid named Hosmer was hitting the cover off the ball and making a mockery of minor league pitching.  Then you learned that Wil Myers was also being moved to the outfield to make way so some A-ball stud named Salvador Perez could catch.  (And yes, he will catch again.  Probably around the All-Star break.)  The Royals drafted multi-sport star Bubba Starling, and Nebraska boy Alex Gordon shot laser beams all over the park last summer and gunned down nearly everyone who dared challenge his arm.   And the list goes on, as the spark begins to erupt into a roaring fire.

There are many other reasons to love this Royals team, but I think you get my point.  The Royals are trotting out athletes that you believe have potential to play key roles on a championship club, players who haven’t yet reached their potential, players you’ve heard about and rooted for since they were in Rookie league, and players who are either homegrown or didn’t establish themselves on other teams.  (I don’t care if Frenchy played for a few other clubs.  That smile, hustle, and attitude of his are infectious and I think he was a great addition.)

And above all, you believe the club is headed in the right direction.  We’ve stopped signing over-the-hill veterans to fill positions because we had no major league ready talent available.  We signed Billy Butler,  Alcides Escobar, Alex Gordon, and Salvador Perez to long-term contracts and we have many other players tied up for several years into the future.

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.  This Royals team is different, and it’s not because they’re winning, because they aren’t winning yet.  It’s because they have the potential to consistently win, because we believe in them, and because we’re emotionally invested in them.  That’s why 2012 feels different.

Thanks for visiting Kings of Kauffman. You can stay current on all the Kings of Kauffman content and news by following us on Twitter, Facebook, or by way of our RSS feed.  You can also send your questions to our mailbag at KoKMailbag@gmail.com and follow Alan Barrington on Twitter to be notified each time he posts a story and receive his incredibly insightful sports commentary.

Famous Amos Otis cookies

The offseason moment we’ve all been waiting for arrived last week – the announcement of the Royals promotions for the 2012 season.  Seriously, many of the Royals promotions are quite fun and some have become a Kansas City tradition.  There would be riots if the Royals ever gave up Buck Nights and Fireworks Fridays.

In the spirit of fun these marketing gimmicks are designed to create, I’d like to suggest a few more promotions for the Royals to consider in the future after the jump: (more…)

Al Hrabosky – The Mad Hungarian (Sports Illustrated)

#2 on our Royals All-Time Name Team

The middle of Christmas / New Years week is no time for hard hitting news or brain strain caused by disagreements over year end organizational moves.   We’ve had several days now to dissect the Yuniesky Betancourt signing and consider what it means to the organization.  Half of Royal Nation has been calling for Dayton Moore’s head on a platter over this decision, and the other half have yawned and scoffed at all the silly fuss over a part-time utility player.

Just since last week, we signed Twins castoff Jose Mijares as a left handed reliever to take some pressure off Tim Collins, and we’ve pondered the merits of chasing after Roy Oswalt to bolster our rotation.  Whether you agree or disagree with these moves and potential moves, I’m glad they’re giving us a reason to talk baseball.  Not a bad week’s work for a small market team smack in the middle of the cold offseason.

Enough with the hard news.  Now that Christmas is over, you’ve opened your presents and drank the egg nog, it’s time to loosen your belt and join me in a light hearted look at the history of the Royals and some of the names that have made the games entertaining. (more…)