KC Royals Immaculate Grid Cheat Codes: Gary Gaetti

Whether you're looking to improve your Immaculate Grid scores or you're just the kind of person who enjoys reading about semi-obscure baseball players from the eighties and nineties — guessing there is quite a bit of crossover there — this is the series that delivers the goods for KC Royals fans.

Before we get to his KC Royals tenure, let's start with Gary Gaetti's prime

Most people don't immediately identify Gary Gaetti as a Royal. His prime (1981-90) was spent in Minnesota, and he was the perfect poster boy for those blue-collar, overachieving teams with his grizzled look and old-school batting helmet without ear flaps. Kirby Puckett was the most talented Twin of that era, but guys like Gaetti and Kent Hrbek were at the core of the franchise's identity.

Gaetti made an instant splash when he reached the big leagues as a September call-up in 1981, homering off knuckleballer Charlie Hough in his first plate appearance. In fact, Gaetti had a knack for coming up big in those kinds of moments. He's the first player in MLB history to homer in his first two postseason plate appearances (1987), and he later homered in his first at-bat with St. Louis in 1996.

The man knew how to make a first impression, but he also had a knack for producing in the clutch, hitting big home runs for St. Louis in the 1996 postseason, including a grand slam off of Greg Maddux in the NLCS. A year later, he also recorded his 2,000th hit against Maddux, lining a shot off the pitcher's ankle. As quoted in his SABR biography by Bryan Lake, Gaetti said it was "fitting that he wouldn't get it as a clean hit and had to dig it out."

That is a great way to look at Gaetti's career as a whole. It wasn't that he was incapable of flashiness. He hit over 30 home runs and recorded 100+ RBI in back-to-back seasons (1986-87), and he was part of the only team in MLB history to execute two triple plays in the same season in 1990, but that's not what Gaetti was all about. Gaetti was a grinder, best exemplified by his 1987 Twins team, which finished 85-77, but still found a way to win the AL West and the World Series.

Despite being one of the faces of the champion Twins, Gaetti was not around when Minnesota won their second title in five years in 1991. His numbers declined significantly in 1989 and 1990, partially due to injuries, and the Twins let him walk in free agency. A roundabout path then led him to Kansas City.

Hal McRae convinces the Royals to take a chance at the hot corner

Gaetti signed with California, but he continued to struggle. Things got so bad in Anaheim that he requested a trade, but the Angels straight-up told him no one was interested. He was present for one milestone while in California, however, though it had nothing to do with him. Gaetti manned first base for the Angels when the Royals came to town on September 30, 1992, and George Brett recorded his 3,000th hit. He caught the throw and tagged Brett out when he was picked off immediately after.

Perhaps this stuck in the Royals' heads. When the Angels DFA'd Gaetti the following season, Kansas City snatched him up. Expectations were not necessarily high, but the Royals had a massive hole at third base. Brett had long since moved to first base and designated hitter, and Keith Miller was penciled in at the position. When he got injured, the Royals platooned David Howard and Terry Shumpert, so Hal McRae decided it was worth a shot, even if he didn’t exactly give him a ringing endorsement. "It's hard to say what the guy will do," McRae said, according to Lake.

A year later, McRae praised Gaetti as one of Kansas City's most valuable players. He improved the level of play at third base immediately and provided a dangerous bat in the middle of the lineup, but he found his groove in 1995, enjoying a renaissance season among the fountains and finishing tenth in AL MVP voting. He became one of the few Royals to hit over 30 home runs in a season, falling one short of Steve Balboni's then-team record with 35, and he even blasted a walk-off against his old team, the Angels.

But perhaps his greatest accomplishment, at least in my mind, is that he is forever immortalized as the Royals' third baseman in Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball for the Super Nintendo. Point to whatever stats and accomplishments you like, but for fans of certain age, this is the highest honor a player of that era can achieve.

However, until the Grid adds that as a category, that factoid won't do you much good. So, let's get to the stuff that matters.