Dick Groat is a former two-sport athlete best known as a shortstop in Major League Baseball. He played for four National League teams, mainly the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals, and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player in 1960, when he won the batting title with a .325 average for the World Series champion Pirates.… Read more »
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Sport: Baseball
Mark Gubicza
Mark Gubicza spent 13 years on the hill for the Kansas City Royals, helping them clinch the 1984 American League Western Division and the 1985 World Series crown. A two-time All-Star selection (1988 and 1989), Mark finished his career in 1997 with the Anaheim Angels, leaving baseball with a career record of 132-136 and an… Read more »
Don Gutteridge
Don Gutteridge is a native of Pittsburgh, Kansas. His major league baseball career begin in 1936 with the St. Louis Cardinals. A skilled second baseman, the high point in Gutteridge’s career came on his second day in the big leagues. In a double header at Ebbets Field, the rookie got six hits, including an inside… Read more »
Keith Guttin
Underdogs are easy to appreciate. They scrap, fight the good fight and never take anything for granted. When they win, our tears are tears of joy for them. Keith Guttin was that way as a baseball player and, when hired to lead the Missouri State Bears some 32 years ago, it turned out to be… Read more »
Byron Hagler
The letter from a player’s mom, written before she succumbed to cancer in 1992, rarely sees the light of day. Which is understandable. Byron Hagler, a longtime high school baseball coach set to be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, tears up just reading it. The mom addressed it to him, and included… Read more »
Art Hains
He used to act as a broadcaster on his buddies’ Strat-O-Matic games, even practiced in the basement of his parents’ home and, one day, walked into the radio station in his hometown of Marshall. Before long, Art Hains made his radio debut at – get this – age 17. “I’ve always said that I was… Read more »
Art Hains
There’s no other way to say it. He was on his death bed, stricken by a severe case of West Nile virus. Doctors sent him to one hospital after another, and friends back home in the Ozarks feared the worst as news reports and social media updates scrolled across their smartphones. This was the fall… Read more »
Hallsville High School Baseball Program
Just off Highway 63 in Boone County there’s a town called Hallsville. Yes, it has only one stoplight but, if you assume nothing is big here, you’d be wrong. Baseball rules. Has for decades. In fact, over at the post office, a black-and-white framed photo hangs from the wall, depicting a town team in wool… Read more »
Lucas Harrell
Lucas Harrell spent a lot of time playing whiffle ball and shooting hoops while growing up in Springfield. The back yard was for whiffle ball and, later, fielding grounders hit by his dad. The front yard, the driveway, that’s where the basketball was played. “When I got a little bit older we got a batting… Read more »
Jack Harry
He initially cut his teeth in radio while in college, got drafted into the Army and worked for the Armed Forces Network while stationed in the Panama Canal Zone – “There was a price on our heads,” he recalled – and ultimately parachuted into the Kansas City media market. And, then, Jack Harry never left,… Read more »
Jason Hart
Being a big-bopper seemed pretty cool to Jason Hart. Well, until his freshman year of college when one afternoon Missouri State University coach Keith Guttin (MSHOF 2015) decided to throw him batting practice. He’s still laughing about it. “He didn’t throw BP that often. But the next thing I knew, he whizzes one over my… Read more »
John Hartley
He played in the Kiwanis youth baseball league of Springfield, continued on in to high school and college, too, and eventually found his calling as a coach. Which helps explain why you’ll always find John Hartley smiling at a baseball field. In fact, ask him why he loves the game so much, and his response… Read more »
Helias Catholic High School Baseball Era 1987-1989
In the late 1980s, in the state capitol city of Jefferson City, a group of baseball players from Helias Catholic High School had just about everybody’s attention. And for good reason. The Crusaders had been building toward the elite of prep baseball powers for several years, with the 1985 team reaching the state quarterfinal and… Read more »
Tom Henke
Tom Henke grew up in Wardsville, MO and attended Blair Oaks High School. He excelled as a prep baseball player and signed to play at East Central Junior College after high school. In 1980, Henke signed with the Texas Rangers and split his time between the Rangers and their farm club, the Tulsa Drillers. From… Read more »
Tom Henke
He rose from a small town in mid-Missouri and went on to pitch 14 seasons in the big leagues, winning a World Series in 1992 and later pitching for his boyhood team, the St. Louis Cardinals. In fact, you could talk baseball all day with Tom Henke. About his minor league days. About his three… Read more »
Keith Hernandez
Widely regarded as one of the best defensive first basemen in all of baseball, Hernandez excelled as an offensive player as well. Keith played with the Cardinals organization until 1983. He won the 1979 NL batting title (.344) and shared the 1979 MVP award with Willie Stargell. Hernandez retired as a five time All-Star with 2… Read more »