August 5, 1977: Royals’ John Mayberry hits for the cycle, receives an excess of curtain calls

On August 5, 1977, the Kansas City Royals gave the Chicago White Sox a taste of their own medicine. The host Royals smacked four home runs en route to a 12-2 victory in the Friday night opener of a three-game weekend series. Making the defeat worse for the visiting White Sox was watching the Royals Stadium crowd of 38,079 refuse to be seated until each home-run hitter emerged from the KC dugout for “a bare-headed curtain call,”1 something the White Sox had been recently known to do.

Just a week before, Kansas City had played a critical four-game set at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. The White Sox won the first three contests, lengthening their American League West lead over the second-place Royals and Minnesota Twins2 to a season-high 5½ games. On the way to the second-highest homer total in the majors in ’77,3 Chicago hit five home runs in their three wins, and every time a White Sox player homered, he stood at home plate watching the ball, or he tipped his cap to the crowd after reaching the dugout, delaying the game. Kansas City manager Whitey Herzog complained that his outfielders had to dodge firecrackers coming from Comiskey Park’s famed “exploding” scoreboard after the homers.

The Royals salvaged the finale in Chicago by winning the second game of a July 31 doubleheader, aided by three home runs of their own – by George Brett, Hal McRae, and Amos Otis. When McRae hit his round-tripper in the seventh, he slowly trotted around the bases, tipping his helmet twice to the Comiskey Park crowd of more than 50,000. According to the Kansas City Star, as McRae approached the Royals’ dugout, fans began throwing debris onto the field.4 In the eighth, Otis connected for a solo shot and quickened his pace around the bases, but the friction was evident. Otis was showered with beer as he ran to the wall in center to catch a fly ball in the ninth inning.

That led newspapers and radio stations in Kansas City to tell the Royals and fans that when the White Sox come to Kansas City, “do unto Chicago as Chicago had done unto them.”5 Fans were urged to rise from their seats for occasions other than the National Anthem and seventh-inning stretch. And the fans obliged.

One of Kansas City’s stars of August 5 (and one of the cap-tippers, too) was John Mayberry. Two seasons after batting .291 for the Royals, setting career highs in many offensive categories, and placing second in the American League’s MVP race, the 28-year-old Mayberry was hitting just .231 as of August 2.6 A 2-for-20 performance on a recent road trip (July 29-August 2) led to his being taken out of the starting lineup.7 Mayberry, an eight-year veteran, had also been complaining of a sore back, which meant that he was Kansas City’s designated hitter, instead of playing first base.

Herzog insisted that Mayberry open his stance,8 and the results were immediate. The Royals’ homestand began on August 3 with two games against the expansion Toronto Blue Jays. Mayberry had four hits in seven at-bats in two Royals’ wins.

The White Sox followed the Blue Jays to Kansas City, and the same pitchers who faced off at Comiskey Park in the Royals’ July 31 win started the series opener. For KC, it was Dennis Leonard, who had won his last four decisions dating back to July 8. These included two victories over the White Sox. He had collected four complete games in that stretch and had pitched into the eighth and ninth innings in the other two. He was trying to notch win number 11. For Chicago, it was Chris Knapp, in his first season as a member of the White Sox rotation.9 He was in search of his 10th win. Knapp had won four decisions in a row before losing in his last start to the Royals.

The Royals jumped on Knapp in the second inning. Mayberry singled to left with one out, and Otis drove a 412-foot home run over the center-field wall. He tipped his batting helmet once he had reached the dugout. Darrell Porter followed with a homer to deep right for a 3-0 Royals’ lead. Another curtain call.

The Kansas City Times reported that the crowd cheered their team on, “which brought everything alive in the stadium except the scoreboard.”10 A malfunction rendered Royals Stadium’s crown-topped center-field scoreboard blank – except for the time display – until the bottom of the third. “Persons with radios became the source of the strike count.”11

Freddie Patek continued the Kansas City hit parade with a single and stole second base. He scored after singles by Brett and McRae. That brought Chicago manager Bob Lemon to the mound; Bart Johnson relieved Knapp. Pete LaCock singled, driving in Brett with the fifth and final run of the inning.

Jack Brohamer doubled to right to lead off Chicago’s third inning. He scored on Ralph Garr’s two-out single, cutting the deficit to 5-1.

Mayberry led off the bottom half and drilled a shot to deep right for his 17th home run. After his circuit clout, Mayberry returned to the top step of the dugout and, like Otis and Porter, waved his cap to the cheering crowd. The crowd stayed on its feet as Johnson gave up four consecutive singles, to Otis, Porter, Patek, and Bob Heise,12 and Otis scored KC’s seventh run of the game. Brett forced Porter at the plate with a grounder to first, but McRae lifted a sacrifice fly to right, plating Patek. The Royals led, 8-1.

The Royals’ defense stymied the White Sox in the middle innings. In the fourth, with runners on first and second, Otis fielded a Brohamer single to left-center and threw Jim Spencer out at the plate to end the threat. Spencer tried to bowl over Royals catcher Porter but was called out. An inning later, Brett gloved Richie Zisk’s grounder to third and started an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.

Mayberry had his third at-bat in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, he picked up his third hit, lining a triple into right field. This was his only triple of the season. Otis hit a comebacker to Johnson, who threw home and Mayberry was tagged out. Porter then hit a grounder to second. Johnson ran over to first base and “was jarred from behind after touching the bag.”13 Benches emptied and players ran in from both bullpens, but only words were exchanged.

Tensions flared again in the fifth inning. Johnson glared into the Royals dugout. After the game, he even admitted to making obscene hand gestures.14 When the sixth inning ended, Johnson came off the field and noticed Porter glaring back at him. “I just went for him. I instigated it. I got in a couple of punches and that was it,”15 said Johnson. Both Johnson and Porter were ejected. The Royals fans turned ugly, pelting Johnson with objects as he left the field.16

The teams kept each other scoreless until the bottom of the seventh. Don Kirkwood was now pitching for the White Sox. Two Chicago errors, by shortstop Tim Nordbrook and second baseman Jorge Orta, and Brett’s 11th home run (with another cap-tipping curtain call) gave Kansas City three more runs.

Each side added a run in the eighth. Orta homered to lead off the top half, and in the bottom half, Al Cowens singled with one out. Mayberry, who had grounded out in the sixth, now doubled to right to drive in Cowens with the game’s final run. Mayberry became just the second Royals player to hit for the cycle in the nine-year-old history of the franchise, following Patek, who accomplished the feat on July 9, 1971.17

“This is my first four-hit game in a long time,”18 Mayberry told reporters. His 4-for-5 performance raised his average to .245. He was one of three players to hit for the cycle in 1977, The others were Houston’s Bob Watson (June 24) and Chicago’s Brohamer (September 24) .

The second star for the Royals was Leonard, who pitched a six-hit complete game, threw 110 pitches, and earned his 11th win. Herzog said that when he visited Leonard on the mound in the seventh, he asked the 26-year-old how he felt and if he knew how many pitches he’d thrown. Leonard told his skipper he “felt like he’d thrown 170 or 180.”19 He finished the season with 20 victories, tops in the AL, including four wins in five games against Chicago.20 The Royals swept the series from the White Sox, closing to within 1½ games of the division leaders.21

After the game, Chicago’s Johnson told reporters he hoped his teammates didn’t remove their hats anymore that season “unless the National Anthem is being played, unless it’s shower time, or unless Queen Elizabeth pays a surprise visit to their clubhouse.” He added that “being in first place is reason enough to get the other team angry, you don’t have to give them extra reasons.”22 

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Joseph Wancho and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com, Retrosheet.org and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA197708050.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1977/B08050KCA1977.htm

Notes

1 Bob Verdi, “Toned-Down White Sox Knuckle Under to Royals,” Chicago Tribune, August 6, 1977: 137.

2 The Royals (56-43) and Twins (59-46) were tied for second place.

3 The White Sox’ 192 home runs in 1977 were topped only by the Red Sox’ 213.

4 Del Black, “Royals Escape Chicago – Twins Next,” Kansas City Star, August 1, 1977: 13.

5 Verdi.

6 In 1975 Mayberry batted .291. He had 161 hits, including 38 doubles and 34 home runs, scored 95 runs, and drove in 106 runs. He drew 119 walks to lead the American League. These stats were all career highs. He was runner-up to Boston’s Fred Lynn in the MVP balloting. Then Mayberry batted just .232 in 1976 and .230 in 1977. He was purchased by the Toronto Blue Jays in April 1978 and experienced a resurgence in his hitting, batting .256 in 549 games over the next four seasons.

7 From July 29 to August 2, Mayberry went 2-for-15 against the White Sox and then 1-for-5 against the Twins, and his average dropped to .231.

8 Del Black, “Mayberry’s Hitting Runs Full Cycle for Royals,” Kansas City Star, August 6, 1977: 24.

9 Knapp was a September call-up in 1975 and had two appearances. In 1976 he appeared in 11 games, making six starts. In 1977, he started 26 of the 27 games in which he pitched.

10 Lewis W. Diuguid, “Royals Knock Sox Off Chicago as Emotions, Heat Run High,” Kansas City Times, August 6, 1977: 60.

11 Diuguid. When the actual game information began filling up the scoreboard, it listed the action as being in the fourth inning instead of the third. Eventually all was corrected.

12 Heise was playing for KC’s regular second baseman, Frank White, who had left the previous game in the bottom of the second, after doubling and then scoring from second base. White did not play again until August 10.

13 Verdi.

14 Verdi.

15 Verdi.

16 This was Johnson’s only ejection in 185 career games spanning spanned eight seasons. This also was Johnson’s last season in the majors. He made five more appearances after this game, mostly in late-inning situations when the White Sox were several runs down.

18 Black, “Mayberry’s Hitting Runs Full Cycle for Royals.” This was Mayberry’s only four-hit game of the 1977 season. His previous four-hit game came on May 21, 1976, against the Minnesota Twins.

19 Black, “Mayberry’s Hitting Runs Full Cycle for Royals.”

20 According to his SABR biography, over a seven-year stretch (1975 through the strike-shortened 1981 season), Leonard led all right-handed pitchers with 120 victories. See Gregory H. Wolf, “Dennis Leonard,” SABR Biography Project.

21 On August 20, the Royals extended a winning streak to four games, and they overtook the White Sox for first place in the AL West. That streak grew to 10 games. Kansas City then won 16 in a row (and 24 of 25) in August/September to run away with the division, eventually winning 102 games in 1977. They lost the AL Championship Series to the New York Yankees, three games to two.

22 Verdi.