Royals players in the great years...
 

I really started getting into the Royals about 79-80

1st base Willie Aikens
2nd Base Frank White
Shortstop UL Washington (and his toothpick)
3rd Base George Brett

Catcher...john wathan???

RF????????????
Center Field Amos Otis
Left Field Willie Wilson

Pitcher Paul Splitorff
?????????????

??????????????

??????????

Saver QUIZZZZ


help me fill in the blanks...

Brett Sabrehegen (sp?)

Bob Boone was the catcher along there somewhere.

Dennis Leonard pitched...

AFter Daryl Porter and before John Wathan?

oh yes, thank you

Clint Hurdle?

Hal McRae

catcher: darrell porter
outfield: clint hurdle, al cowens, hal mcrae
pitchers: steve busby, al hrabosky, larry gura, dennis leonard, renie martin

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/team...p?y=1979&t=KCA
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/team...p?y=1980&t=KCA

I thought of him, but wasn't he a year or two later? After Otis retired and Wilson moved to Center?

Kevin Appier, SP

Oh "in the great years" -- nevermind

OH how could I forget our DH?


and a few games Ken Brett pitched some innings

LOL, i don't think we are talking about the same years.

Heh. Should I be nervous that I immediately thought of Pete LaCock?

I remember taking my little transister with the white ear piece to school and listening to the day games on 61 country WDAF

Dane Iorge (sp) thanks to him there was a game 7

Jamie Quirk

Mark Gubiza
Daryl Motley
Bye Bye Balboni

I have a signed baseball from back then...

How has no one mentioned Pete LaCock!?! Or Freddie Patek!

in 79 we had Porter, Wathan and Quirk all on the same team... not bad group of catchers...

Actually, the Royals best team, imo, was 1977 - they won 102 games. I believe, at one point, they won 16 straight games. Should have beat the Yanks in the ALCS, but we gave up 3 runs in the 9th in game 5, after keeping their bats silent most of the night. I can't think about it without getting pissed off.

Darryl Motley
Jim Sundberg
Charlie Liebrandt
Bud Black
Mark Gubicza
Danny Jackson
Onix Concepcion
Pat Sheridan
Lonnie Smith
Willie Wilson
Jorge Orta

etc. etc. All from memory. :-)

*AHEM*

He was a coach here for the St Joe Blacksnakes a couple of years ago :shake:

Isn't his dad Peter Marshall?

Lonnie Smith was so unpredictable in the outfield his nickname was "Skates." One time he twisted an ankle tracking down a routine fly ball to left. He broke back, broke in, broke back out again, scurried in as fast as he could, dived, caught the ball just off the turf, then they helped him off the field with a twisted ankle. Weird.

Darryl Motley played right field. He caught the last out in the 1985 Series. One time he struck out four times in a game that ended up going 15 or 16 innings. He stranded six or seven guys on base. I was out in right field GA, and when the game went into extra innings, I yelled at him "Hey Darryl, thanks for the doubleheader,dude..." He ended up hitting a homer in the 16th to win the game, and in the paper the next morning, the reporter asked him how it felt to hit the winning dinger. He said "Well, some guy yelled at me 'thanks for the double header' so I knew I had to do something to make up for it."

So they do hear you, my friends. They do hear you.

Other forgotten Royals:

Dane Iorg
Jim Sundberg
Pat Sheridan
Bill Pecota
Greg Pryor
Buddy Biancalana
Onix Conception
Jorge Orta (St. Louis know him quite well)
Bud "The Arsonist" Black
Steve "A Pitch Too" Farr
Tom Poquette
Clint Hurdle
Rich Gale
Steve Mingori
Larry Gura
Dirty Kurt Bevaqua

and my two favorite Royals pitchers of all time:
Steve Busby and Dennis "Leo" Leonard.

BTW: Pete LaCock is one of the dirtiest baseball names ever. Right in there with Dick Pole, Rusty Kuntz and Bartolo Colon.
http://www.flumesday.com/111206dirtynames2.shtml

The heavy druggies on the Royals were:
Jerry Martin
Willie Aikens
Darrell Porter
Vida Blue
Willie Wilson

Clint Hurdle 1980 Rookie Of The Year, i beleive

1980 P Ken Brett

Tom Poquette.... He'll leave the light on for ya! lol

I miss Cookie Rojas.

RIP Double Barrel Darrell

Dude had some serious demons in his life.

My first baseball memory was a double header my dad took me too and then Royals stadium. I'm guessing it was probably 77 or 78 so I was six or seven years old. I remember a bench clearing brawl when one of the Royals got hit, I can't remember who it was. The next inning Al Hrbosky threw at a guys head and actually charged the plate. Another brawl ensued. I thought it was the coolest ****ing thing ever!

I also remember going to a Royals/Yankess game in 80. Brett when deep twice to Reggies one. I think he was in the .420 plus range after that game. That was the year he chased .400. In my mind he was a baseball god and really I still feel that way :)

By the way, I don't think I saw anyone mention Quiz.

um...the last name on the OP

I figured I missed it somewhere.

Too obvious.

Not sure if it was the same game, but I remember a game similar when Hrbosky threw 2 pitches at Lymon Bostock's head. After the 2nd one, all hell broke loose. George Brett body slammed Angels Manager Jim Fregosi.

Yes indeed.....the coolest ****ing thing ever!

It could have been.

Baseball was way different back then. I saw a Royals/Yankess playoff game on ESPN classic a few years ago. I remember watching the series but I don't remember no one getting thrown out when Nettles and Brett duked it out at thirdy. Today, they would have probably suspended them for the rest of the series.

Ah, when men were allowed to be men.

Rangers pitcher Ed Farmer put two Royals out for months in one game. He hit Al Cowens in the jaw with a fastball (and pretty much f'ed up the rest of his career) then hit Frank White on the hands, breaking one of his fingers... in the SAME GAME.

Cowens attacked Farmer the next year, btw...here's the story on that:
http://gregeno.blogspot.com/2005/06/...n-chicago.html

Mike Sweeney had the best body slam on Detroit Pitcher Jeff Weaver. That was one of the best baseball fights, because Sweeney was such an unlikely candidate to pop his cork. I guess Weaver just said the magic word...
http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1239718

Hebosky nick name was 'The Mad Hungarian'. He would stand off the pitchers mound and face towards second base. He would then look down to the ground and meditate for a few seconds and then slam the ball into his glove and the crowd would go wild. It was a great act.

Mike Sweeney, he was great in that year the Royals almost went .500

The oldest ones I can remember were back when Whitey Herzog was the coach and we had Fred Patek, John Mayberry, Buck Martinez, Steve Busby, Amos Otis, etc.

RF Al Cowens (until he got beaned and broke his jaw).

in 1980, Hurdle played in right. And had his only truly decent year at the plate in the bigs.

Tom Poquette and Joe Zdeb platooned at one outfield spot sometime in that era, until Poquette ran into the wall (before it was padded). Poquette was never the same after. Al Cowens, btw, was never the same after he was beaned. Cowens was a rising star.

Jose Cardenal played one of the outfield spots. He struck out to end the 1980 WS.

Man, look at those stats. Boy has the game changed. 37 complete games for the starting staff. 16 complete games from Larry Gura out of 36 starts. Three starting pitchers with more than 200 innings.

Quisenberry had 128 innings as the primary closer in 75 appearances. We had pretty much a 2 man bullpen. Marty Patton had 89 inning in 37 appearances...and no one else had more than 33. I guess Rene Martin was the 5 starter/long relief guy. He had both starting and reliever appearances.

Ah the good ol days of my childhood- Appier, Jeff King, Randa, Sweeney, Suppan, Febles...

It appears that mess has finally been righted however. Here, Here!

Thanks for reminding me of Chris Chambliss. :cuss::cuss::banghead:

Yep I loved the combination of Rojas and Patek and Mayberry.

I know it's unlikely for Quiz to be in the MLB HOF, but if you really look at his numbers, and really think about it, you think to yourself. "How is this guy not in the HOF?"

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3EUr6xsp3mg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3EUr6xsp3mg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

He is my second favorite all time Royals pitcher, behind Steve Busby.
No disrespect intended for Sabes.

Oh, and I would take Daryl Porter at catcher and Freddie Patek at short over Wathan and U.L. Washington.

Whos the best Royals manager of all time?

Whitey Hertzog
Jim Frey
Dick Howser
John Wathan
Hal McCrae

Only one (Howser) has had his number retired.
Whitey cost us at least 1 world series in managing blunders vs Yanks in late 1970s. That's why it was so great to beat his ass in 1985. You forgot to mention Jack McKeon, who was better than Wathan. Hal McRae was the best at throwing telephones in his office.

Dick Howser, Whitey was good but couldn't get over the hump with all that talent.

One of the players who was key on that 77 team and came over in the trade for Porter was Jim Colbert. He won 18 games in 1977. Didn't pitch in the playoffs though. (Whitey!!).

He aslo threw a no hitter that year. He struck out 6 and gave up about 21 line drive screamers for outs. Wish I could find the TCJ's write up after that game. I think I have it in one of my scrapbooks. Colborn kind of chuckled about how he could have given up 7 hits if he didn't have such a great defense behind him.

I was disappointed in losing Jim Wohlford and Tom Poquette in that deal at the time. I got to know them pretty well from the front row of LF GA at the time.

Howser, Whitey, and Bob Lemon.

Hal would have been a great manager. The strike and a bad move by Herk killed his career.

Random Royal memories...

I was at a game once and saw Al Cowens hit a grand slam into the visiting bullpen in the first inning before there were any outs. That was ****in sweet. IIRC the Royals beat the Blue Jays 14-2 that day.

I always loved how when Hal McRae drew a walk........ he actually walked... all the way to first base.

I always thought Amos Otis might hit the ball farther if he didn't let go of the damn bat with one hand on his backswing every damn time.

I thought the way Darrell Porter lifted his right leg as he "swung" the bat in the batters box on his setup was cool for some reason.

Frank White was born with the nickname "Smooth" or he should have been.

Daryl Motely looked like a little body builder in his uniform.

Rich Gale started like the first 4 Royals games I ever went to.

The Royals lost like the first 9 games I ever went to. The first was a 1-0 sleeper against the Indians and I sat on the top row of the upper deck on the first base side. I cried most of the way back to the car. Hey I was a kid and my dream of getting to go to a Royals game someday had come true but then pooped on by lowly Cleveland.

I once yelled at Neifi Perez "hey Neifi just give back the 2 million on your way out and we'll call it even" after he popped out with the bases loaded. I was sitting close enough that game that I could have been heard. I hope so.

My brothers and I after drinking a few once taunted Jacques Jones by yelling "Jones is a girls name" every inning or so... and "Matt Stairs would have caught that" after a ball got away from him... Stairs had actually made a diving catch in the first.

One player that just came to mind, remember George "boomer" Scott? He was brought in to hit home runs, and went an incredible number of bats before he got one. Wasn't it about 500 at bats?

Howser

Frank's nickname was "Academy" because he was the first Royals starter to come out of Ewing Kauffman's baseball academy. That's what the Royals players called him.

Brett's nickname was "Mullet" when he was coming up.
After a few years they all just called him 'Mr. Brett."

LMAO I can't imagine you and your brothers doing something like that.... nah... never... You're usually such well-behaved angels at the ball park... :D

Frey hardly ever gets any credit. He did beat the Yankees in 80 and went to the WS.

Ironically he beat Dick Howser in the 80 playoffs, then was replaced a year or two later by him.

That '80 Royals team was so far superior to the Phillies, it really wasn't close. I remember thinking, after the Phillies beat Houston in the NLCS, that we were going to run away with the series (Hell, we just swept the best team in Baseball - the Yanks). Yeah, not so much.................

Quiz lost 2 games in that Series, and Willie Wilson couldn't hit his ass with either hand - he struck out ( i think) a dozen times. Not to mention, I believe we lost a couple games due to some horrific fielding blunders. Willie Aikens and A.O. played their asses off.

Those teams in 74 and 75 were so much fun to watch.

Having watched all of that, you are correct, I didn't give Frey any credit. He was obviously a better coach than I gave him credit for, but at the time, I felt like they had so much talent, they won in spite of him.

He did well with the Cubs after leaving the Royals, so he must have been better than I gave him credit for.

That still hurts, and the Pete Rose catch is still haunting, even though it should not have come down to that.

Frey was a friggin idiot. Anybody could have managed that team in 80 and beat the Yankees. And won the series. He looked like a moron when Dickie Knowles dusted Brett and he came running out of the dugout screaming "Hey, Hey"!! Pete Rose told him to STFU.

Frey managed to lead a WS team to a losing record in the '81 split season. He was the wrong choice for the job from the get go. Whitey and Joe Burke couldn't get along, because Joe Burke would not go get the power hitter we needed to put us over the top.
We needed a Larry Hisle and he went shopping an got us that washed up fat ass, George Scott.

Jim Frey. Loser.

That 1980 series is one of the worst memories of my childhood. I cant still see Tug McGraw thumping his chest and Pete Rose spiking the ball after an out at first.

Puke...............

The biggest blunders belonged Darryl Porter. Twice in that series he rounded third and, with a close play at the plate looming, stopped and let Bob Boone tag him out. Twice. He should have buried Boone on both. But he had quit drinking then and instead of killing Boone, acted like he sneaking into bed with the gardner's wife (credit Bill James).

Darryl Porter lost that series. Nor Wilson, not Aikens, not Quiz.

I wasn't allowed to be a Royas fan back in the day. My family is from Western Kansas, my dad as a child recieved the St. Louis call on the radio before the Royals were in KC. He grew up a Cardinal fan and hated the Royals. I attribute my love for Death Metal to the sound my dad made when Orta was called safe by Dinkenger in '85. Thanks dad.

ROFL

Don't pretend like you weren't there... sammiched between Matt and I if I remember correctly...

I guess that's left for interpretation, but our inability to protect a lead is what Brett still credit's to that WS loss.

I credit it to a number of things, including the Phillies being aggressive (especially their pitchers), and the Royals playing too passive.

Yes, it's certainly open to debate. However, in that first game we were up and had rallied again. If Porter even makes an attempt to score, we are back in the game. Instead he stops dead 10 feet from the plate let's himself get tagged out. Killed the rally, killed the game.

And I agree our inability to hold leads was atrocious. To this day, I'm stunned that Leo gave up that HR Bake McBride.

Nor will I ever forget the towering HR Mike Schmidt hit in game 5 off Larry Gura. It went straight up. And up. And up. I thought it was just a long out. Watching AO just drift, and drift waiting for it to come down. And AO drifted and drifted some more. Pretty soon, he standing at the 410 sign (old CF) and it landed high on the embankment just right of the scoreboard. A tremendous shot.

George Brett and his hemoroids didn't help much. Must have been VERY painful to miss a game do to something like that

Danny Tartibull

He didn't miss any games.