Gaylord Perry worked his way into the New York Giants starting rotation in 1964. He was traded to Cleveland in 1972 and responded with a 1.92 ERA, led the American League with 24 wins and won the Cy Young Award. He was traded to Texas in 1975 and after three seasons, he was dealt to… Read more »
News
Team: Kansas City Royals
Darrell Porter
Born in Joplin, Missouri, Darrell Porter grew up in Oklahoma City. He was selected as the Oklahoma High School Athlete of the Year as a senior in 1970. He was an All-State selection in football and baseball, along with being a High School All-American in the sport of football. Porter signed to play football at… Read more »
Marty Prather
His name is Marty Prather, but people from around Springfield, the Midwest and across the country know him simply as “The Sign Man.” Born in Evansville and raised in Bellbrook, Ohio, Prather moved to the Ozarks in 1981. An avid St. Louis Cardinals and Southwest Missouri State University fan, he began creating signs during the… Read more »
Jamie Quirk
During his 18 year playing career, Quirk appeared in 984 Major League games, 525 of those as a catcher. He compiled a .240 career average with 43 home runs and 247 RBI and played for a total of eight different teams, including the 1980 AL Champion Royals, the 1985 World Champion Royals and the 1990… Read more »
Dan Quisenberry
His major league career began when in July of 1979, he was brought up from Triple A to play for the Royals and earned his first save later that month. In 1980, he earned his first Rolaids and Sporting News Fireman of the Year Award, which would prove to be a record setting total of… Read more »
1985 Kansas City Royals
What a year 1985 was for the Kansas City Royals, who captured their first World Series in franchise history after years of coming oh-so-close. Pitting the two Missouri teams against one another, the 1985 Fall Classic was known alternatively as the I-70 Series and the Show-Me Series. The Series opened in Kansas City, but St.… Read more »
Bret Saberhagen
Enshrinement: Bret Saberhagen The story goes that, not long after the Kansas City Royals added right-hander Bret Saberhagen to the roster ahead of the 1984 season, sports writers gathered around then-manager Dick Howser and asked, “Why now?” After all, Saberhagen was at the ripe young age of 19 years old. And so Howser, who had… Read more »
Kevin Seitzer
On his first day in the big leagues with the Kansas City Royals, Kevin Seitzer was given a locker next to the team’s great closer, Dan Quisenberry. “I was scared to death. I had never been on the 40-man roster before, so I wasn’t in big-league camp in spring training, and I didn’t really know… Read more »
Rod Smith
In almost every community across America, a unique connection exists between sports fans and their local sports reporters. Nowhere is that more pronounced than in mid-Missouri. In 2008, at the height of the Great Recession and its layoffs, longtime KRCG-TV 13 Sports Director Rod Smith was among the casualties, for financial reasons like so many… Read more »
Linda Smith
For one of the most respected staff members in Kansas City Royals franchise history, the idea of a career in sports could not have been more inconceivable. Throughout her childhood in Washington, Mo., Linda Smith seemed destined to follow a path focused on her talents in music and dance. “I find most people prefer the… Read more »
Paul Splittorff
Starting in 1970, Splittorff embarked on an impressive 15-year pitching career with the Kansas City Royals. He averaged nearly 15 wins and 220 innings per year for Kansas City and holds team records for wins with 166, starts with 392 and innings pitched with 2,555. In 1973, he became the first 20 game winner in… Read more »
Art Stewart
When longtime Kansas City Royals scout Art Stewart talks about his 60 years in baseball, it’s like flipping through a scrapbook of old black-and-white photos. The stories are almost too hard to believe, and yet you can listen for hours. This is a man who has scouted every Kansas City Royals player from rookie ball… Read more »
Jeff Suppan
They called him “Soup,” and he approached hitters the way a mechanic restores a vintage vehicle. That is, with patience, thinking and creativity. No, Jeff Suppan didn’t throw fastballs that left vapor trails. Instead, when the sun set on his 17-year career in Major League Baseball, he offered a comment that every up-and-coming athlete ought… Read more »
Mike Swanson
He basically grew up in Kansas City’s old Municipal Stadium, where mom, Betty, worked for the Athletics and later for the Chiefs and where he himself later helped the Chiefs’ equipment manager in the locker room. In fact, in his final two years of high school, Mike Swanson traveled with the Chiefs in the 1970… Read more »
Mike Sweeney
A 16-year veteran of Major League Baseball, Mike Sweeney spent the bulk of his career playing first base for the Kansas City Royals. During those years with the Royals, he batted .299 and hammered 197 home runs, while batting in 837 runs and swiping 50 bases. The 6’1″, 195 pounder from Orange, CA appeared in… Read more »
George Toma
At age 10, he went to work on a vegetable farm, but not by choice. The family needed the money after his dad, a coal miner in eastern Pennsylvania, passed away. Fortunately for George Toma, the minor leagues rescued him as a teenager in the 1940s. But not because he could hit or pitch. Instead,… Read more »