The Road to Cooperstown Goes Through Kansas City

Many members of the Baseball Hall of Fame played, coached, managed or scouted for various Kansas City ball clubs. Here is a thumbnail sketch of each of the 29 all-time greats.

Luke Appling, a lifetime .310 hitter, played 20 years as shortstop for the Chicago White Sox, but never appeared in a World Series game. The two-time AL batting champ coached the Kansas City A’s under Charley Finley 1964-1967. He moved with the club to Oakland in 1968 as a scout. 

Ernie Banks played shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs who signed him off the Dallas, Texas, sandlots. After one season in the Negro American League, he was sold to the Chicago Cubs where he spent the rest of his career.

Jake Beckley still holds the record for the most major league games played at first base. He also played a few for the Blues in 1908-09 and managed the club to a last-place finish in 1909. He left Kansas City to go to Bartlesville and Topeka. The Hall of Famer had 2,930 hits in the majors and another 834 in the minors.

James “Cool Papa” Bell combined speed, daring and batting skill to rank among the best players ever in the Negro Leagues. His contemporaries rated him the fastest man, especially from first to third. The switch-hitting center fielder played for the St. Louis Stars, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Homestead Grays and Kansas City Monarchs between 1922 and 1950, spending part of the 1932 season with Kansas City. In twenty-one of those years, he also competed in winter ball. His calm demeanor before big crowds and his general outlook on life resulted in his nickname — “Cool Papa.”  He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

Yogi Berra never played on a Kansas City team, but he was reserved on the Kansas City Blues roster for two years, 1944-1945, while he performed his military service. Back in New York, he won three Most Valuable Player Awards while leading the Yankees to 13 pennants in 16 years.

Lou Boudreau as player-manager of the Cleveland Indians conceived of the radical Ted Williams-shift that left only one player on the left side of the diamond. More importantly, he went 4-for-4 with two home runs in the first AL playoff ever to give the Indians the 1948 pennant. He was the Athletics’ first manager after they moved to Kansas City from Philadelphia. When his A’s finished sixth in 1955, they set a franchise attendance record.

George Brett learned how to hit after he reached the Majors at the tender age of 20 in 1973. He learned well enough to finish with 3,154 hits — including 665 doubles, fifth on the all-time list.

Joe Cronin — the only player ever to be sold by his father-in-law — played briefly in 1928 for the Blues, then was drafted by Washington where he began his American League career and met his future wife, the daughter of Senators’ owner Clark Griffith. Cronin hit .245 in 74 games for the Blues.

Whitey Ford, the Chairman of the Board, was called “Slick” by manager Casey Stengel and his Yankee teammates. He won 236 games and lost only 106, for a .690 winning percentage, the highest of any pitcher in the Hall of Fame. As a youngster, Ford was 6-3 in 12 games at Kansas City on his way to the Yankees in 1950. Unlike his buddy, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford never went down once he reached the big time.

Burleigh Grimes — nicknamed “Old Stubblebeard” because he refrained from shaving on days he pitched — won 270 games and pitched in four World Series for three different teams. But the Blues finished a dismal seventh under his tutelage in 1946. Grimes coached the 1955 A’s, then scouted for them the next two years.

Billy Hamilton was the town’s first big star. “Sliding Billy” stole 117 bases to lead the American Association in 1888 with the Cowboys. The next year he, again, led theleague with 102 steals. The lifetime .344 hitter stole 937 bases which was the all-time record until Lou Brock broke it. He became a club owner, manager, and player in the New England League after his major league career.

Gabby Hartnett worked for Charley Finley first as a coach, then as a scout and front-office staff member in 1965-66. Hartnett was the backstop for four Chicago Cub pennant-winners; his famous “Homer in the Gloamin” put the 1938 Cubs ahead of the Pirates in the NL race.

Carl Hubbell, the screwball throwing lefthander, pitched in relief for the Blues on May 15 and 16, 1927.

Catfish Hunter, the smooth righthander, was nicknamed by Charles Finley who paid $75,000 for him in 1964. Hunter pitched for the Kansas City A’s three season — he even appeared at first base once — and won 30 of his 224 victories in a Kansas City uniform.

Reggie Jackson was the first pick — second player overall — of the Athletics in the June 1966 free-agent draft. He played 35 games with one home run for Kansas City the following year before moving on to Oakland, Baltimore, New York, and California. During his career, Jackson powered 563 homers and drove in 1,702 runs.

Harmon Killebrew, aka the Killer, played the 1975 season for the Royals. He hit 14 homers, but more importantly, he protected John Mayberry in the batting order. Killebrew’s last season led to Mayberry’s best season. The Killer swatted 573 home runs and had 1,584 RBI in his 22-year career.

Bob Lemon, who first made it to the Majors as a third baseman with the Indians before switching to his Hall of Fame pitching career, managed the Royals for 425 games in 1970-72. His second-place finish in the club’s third year of existence was his greatest achievement, he compiled a 207-218 record as an expansion skipper.

Mickey Mantle — the Commerce Comet — had trouble adjusting to American League pitching when he jumped from Class C to the majors in 1951. Casey Stengel, Yankee manager, sent him down to Kansas City to learn the strike zone and received advice from his dad, Mutt Mantle. His dad broke into Mick’s room at the Muehlebach and started packing his clothers. He explained to his son that he didn’t raise a quitter, and if Mick was going to quit the Yankees he might as well come home. We know what happened next.

Joe McGinnity, nicknamed Iron Man because he worked in ore mines during the off-season, pitched for the 1894 Western League Blues. His 8-10 record belied his ability, which would account for 247 big-league wins ans 235 in the minors. He won his last professional game at age 54 in the Mississippi Valley League in 1925.

Johnny Mize, the Big Cat, had trouble adjusting to Casey Stengel’s managing techniques and American League pitching in 1950, so the Yankee skipper sent him down to Kansas City to find his stroke. It must have worked. The future Hall of Fame first sacker played on five straight World Series champions. He still holds the all-time St. Louis Cardinal single-season home run record with 43 in 1940.

Kid Nichols reached 300 victories at age 30 — Cy Young was 34 when he entered the charmed circle — and may have been the best pitcher of all time. He married a Kansas City woman and lived his entire adulthood in Kansas City. Still attending Hall of Fame gatherings into his 80s, the Kid provided a real link to baseball’s past. He played for Kansas City in 1887, 1888, 1902-1903. He owned, managed, and pitched for the ’02-’03 Western League team. He also managed Casey Stengel in the Kansas City Amateur Athletic League in 1908-09. Nichols is buried in Kansas City.

Leroy “Satchel” Paige may have been the greatest pitcher of all time, and was certainly baseball’s greatest showman. He often guaranteed to strike out the first nine hitters. Paige’s assortment of pitches included “Old Tom,” his fastball, “Long Tom,” his really fast ball, and his most famous pitch, “the Hesitation.” Dizzy Dean said of him, “If Satch and I was pitching on the same team, we’d clinch the pennant by July 4th and go fishing until World Series time.” Though born in the South, he married a local woman and lived in Kansas City when he wasn’t on the road.

Gaylord Perry was already a 300-game winner when he joined the Royals on July 6, 1983. He finished his career in Kansas City that summer, going 4-4 with one shutout. He started baseball at age 19 with St. Cloud in the Northern League and ended up with the Royals 26 years later. In between he won 314 major-league games.

Phil Rizzuto, aka the Scooter, was one of Kansas City’s favorite ballplayers. The shortstop for the 1939-40 back-to-back American Association pennant winners, tiny Rizzuto was Minor League Player of the Year in 1940. Ironically, he ended up playing for Casey Stengel and the Yankees after Casey as the Brooklyn Dodger manager had rejected him for being too small. As leadoff man for the 1950 Yanks, he won the  AL Most Valuable Player Award.

Jackie Robinson was an exciting, versatile competitor and an electrifying baserunner. Combining these qualities with his batting and fielding skills, he could beat the opposition in any number of ways. As a member of the 1945 Kansas City Monarchs, Robinson learned the infield tricks that enabled him to play first, second, and third for the Dodgers. The Monarchs changed him from a shortstop to the best utility man in baseball history. He was the 1947 Rookie of the Year and NL Most Valuable Player in 1949.

Enos Slaughter wept when informed that he had been traded to the Yankees by the Cardinals. He wept again when told he was leaving the league-leading Yankees to go to the last-place Kansas City A’s. While in Kansas City, Slaughter gained legions of fans who turned out to see a bona fide World Series star.

Tris Speaker, prematurely gray, was known as the Grey Eagle or Spoke. He was part of an ownership group that purchased the Blues from the Muehlebach estate in 1933. The .344 hitter with 3, 515 lifetime hits appeared on a Goudey baseball card in a Kansas City Blues uniform but failed to last a month as Blues manager.

Casey Stengel was owned by the Blues, who signed him out of Central High School and shipped him out to the low minors. The irrepressible Casey returned to his native city 35 years later to manage the 1945 Blues to a cellar finish. Stengel is best known for winning 10 pennants in 12 years. He also hit two home runs to win games in the 1923 World Series for the New York Giants.

Zack Wheat, a lifetime .317 hitter with 2,884 hits, is buried in the same cemetery as Satchel Paige on Troost Avenue. Wheat, who was born in Hamilton, Missouri, played alongside Casey Stengel in the Brooklyn Robins’ outfield for six years.