Kansas City Royals Five Best Draft Picks in Team History

Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

4. Bo Jackson – 4th round, 1986

Numbers alone cannot tell the true story of Bo Jackson’s impact upon the baseball world or the Kansas City Royals. In his four full seasons with the Royals, Bo produced a .252/.309/.487 batting line, hitting 107 home runs and stealing 78 bases. He had made an All-Star Game, and at age 27, appeared to be on his way to becoming a polished, all around threat on the diamond.

Unfortunately, the hip injury that Bo suffered while playing for the Oakland Raiders curtailed his baseball career and cut short his time in Kansas City. Instead of being the next face of the Royals, ready to lead the team for the next decade, he was released, settling in as a part time player with the White Sox and Angels before calling it a career following the 1994 season.

Yet, during that time with the Royals, Bo streaked across the baseball landscape like a comet. He was truly a talent all his own, capable of Herculean feats any time he stepped onto the field. He would hit tremendous home runs while shattering his bats, occasionally snapping the bat like a twig after striking out. He would scale walls to chase down fly balls, and make throws that left even the fastest runners of the time dead to rights if they dared to take an extra base. And who can forget the “Bo Knows” advertisements from the late 1980’s, where Bo Jackson was as big a star as Michael Jordan?

Bo Jackson may not have had the longevity or the career of the other players on this list, but that does not change the impact he had upon the baseball world or the Kansas City Royals.

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