Buddy Biancalana

In the summer of 1985, all eyes were on an historic chase that thrust three men into the national consciousness. Two were ill-tempered, foul-mouthed, vicious competitors who weren’t above injuring an opponent if it meant taking an extra base. The other was one whose former coach said of him, “I have never worked with a nicer person. He’s polite and gives 100% attention when he is being addressed. It’s no wonder everybody who meets him can only say nice things.”1

Entering the season, Cincinnati Reds player-manager Pete Rose was fewer than 100 hits behind Ty Cobb as baseball’s all-time hit king. Sportscasters would periodically update the status of the chase, and as the gap grew smaller, the “Pete Rose Countdown” became a ubiquitous part of nightly newscasts nationwide.

This inspired the “Late Night with David Letterman” writers, who thought it would be funny to do a similar countdown but for some other player who was hopelessly out of reach of breaking the record – ideally, someone obscure from a small-market team with a funny-sounding name.

Yet Buddy Biancalana would have the last laugh. The light-hitting shortstop, who was in his first full year in the majors, hit just .188 in the 1985 regular season, but proved to be a cornerstone of the Kansas City Royals team that won the World Series that year.

***

A quarter-century before he went from late-night punchline to World Series hero, Roland Americo Biancalana Jr. was born to Dorothy “Dot” (Vaught) and Roland Biancalana Sr. of Greenbrae, California, on February 2, 1960. At birth, Roland Sr. immediately nicknamed his son “Bud” because, having gone through life being teasingly called “Roly-Poly,” he wanted to spare the kid from the same fate.

Growing up in Marin Country, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, Biancalana was initially a San Francisco Giants fan – he estimated he went to Giants games about once per homestand growing up – but converted to a Los Angeles Dodgers fan when he was around eight years old because his dad became friends with pitcher Bill Singer. As a child, Biancalana and his family visited Singer’s home in L.A. and went inside the Dodgers clubhouse and onto the field.

Roland Sr. loved baseball and wanted to encourage his son’s passion for the game. As a stockbroker in San Francisco, his workday ended when the New York Stock Exchange closed at 1:30 locally. This left his afternoons open to work with Bud on baseball drills and take him to practices and games.

Biancalana pitched and played shortstop. He would practice in the front yard, tossing a rubber baseball against a retaining wall to work on fielding. “I give it a lot of credit for developing my footwork because I had to sidestep planter boxes and pillars and steps to make plays,” he said.2

As a teenager playing in Babe Ruth League, Biancalana stood out and caught the eye of legendary Redwood High School coach Al Endriss, a former minor-leaguer in the Brooklyn Dodgers system.3 His Redwood teams won the Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) championship 10 times in 12 seasons between 1970-81 and became a nationally recognized powerhouse, earning the title “Team of the Decade” for the 1970s from The Sporting News.4

“Endriss calls up my father and he says, ‘There’s a kid in the eighth grade. His name is Buddy Biancalana. He’s going to be the best shortstop that ever played at Redwood,’” recalled Steven Travers, a Redwood teammate whose father was coaching in the Joe DiMaggio League in 1974.5

As a high school freshman, Biancalana earned a spot on the varsity team. As a sophomore, he was named starting shortstop and earned All-MCAL Second Team honors for a Redwood Giants squad that won a record 30 games and earned a fifth straight MCAL championship.6

Holding his own against older players got him on the radar of major-league scouts checking out draft-ready seniors, and his coach understood why. “The kid is a natural. Buddy is poetry in motion at short,” Endriss gushed. “He doesn’t run; he sort of glides to where the ball is hit, and when he gets there – either far to his right or far to his left – he’s always in position to throw.”7

By his junior year, the team was gaining national attention. Redwood was ranked seventh in the country in a preseason poll published in the “Baseball ’77” issue of National Prep Sports magazine.8 Endriss built the team’s ability and confidence by seeking out and accepting challenges from diverse teams outside the region.

In the 1970s, the population of Marin County and the town of Larkspur, where Redwood was located, was approximately 95% white, and teams rarely played schools with rosters of non-white students. But Endriss sought out games with predominantly Black schools in Oakland, Hispanic teams from Southern California, and even an international challenger.

In the spring of 1977, a team from I-Ning High School in Taiwan made a goodwill tour of the United States, playing – and dominating – American prep teams with a roster composed of students who’d won the 1972 Little League World Series. They capped off the 10-game tour at Redwood High on May 12, coming in undefeated, having outscored their opponents by a total of 80-7, and riding back-to-back no-hitters.

More than 2,000 people turned out for the game at a high school field with seating for a few hundred, surrounding the ballpark. Taiwan won on an extra-inning wild pitch, 2-1. “This was easily our toughest game of the tour,” the Taiwanese coach said. “Our other games have been pretty easy, but this one had me nervous throughout.”9

The Giants bounced back from the loss to win their sixth straight MCAL title and their first North Coast Section championship. They had five players named All-Americans, including Biancalana. In the fall, Easton Aluminum Bats declared Redwood the top-ranked prep team in America.10

During Biancalana’s final prep season, the attention from the majors and from college recruiters grew. There was some concern over whether he’d be able to hit at a major-league level, but Endriss dismissed that, stressing his shortstop’s defensive skills. “Look at Larry Bowa and Bud Harrelson. Neither one of them were outstanding hitters in high school,” he argued, “Every scout with whom I’ve spoken is confident he can go a long way in professional baseball.”11

“He’ll go high,” agreed Jack Schwarz, scouting director for the San Francisco Giants. “We know a lot of clubs are interested in him.”12

Interest wasn’t just coming from the major leagues. Coaches and recruiters from top baseball schools across the country – including 1978 College World Series champion University of Southern California, 1976 champions University of Arizona, California, University of Miami, and others – were also interested in adding Biancalana to their rosters. University of Texas, the 1975 champions, offered him a full scholarship without even seeing him play, based solely on the praise of Endriss.

A month before the draft, Biancalana signed a letter of intent to attend Arizona State University, the 1977 CWS champions and 1978 runner-up. “As far as we’re concerned, Buddy was the top shortstop prospect we’ve seen,” said ASU coach Jim Brock. “We consider ourselves fortunate that he has chosen to come here.”13

Biancalana let it be known, however, that he was open to going pro. “It depends on where I’m taken in the high school draft,” he told the press.14 Days after the ASU announcement, scouts from the Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Boston Red Sox were still at Redwood’s next game to see Biancalana hit a triple and three singles.15 In the weeks that followed, scouts kept tabs as Biancalana helped lead Redwood to a seventh straight MCAL championship and a second consecutive North Coast Section title.

It was well known among scouts that the Biancalana family put a strong emphasis on the value of education, so the commitment to ASU made many teams reluctant to risk a first-round pick on a player who wasn’t expected to sign a professional contract. Biancalana expected to go in the third or fourth round based on what he’d been told. But when the phone rang at 7:30 on Draft Day morning, he heard differently.

Biancalana answered in his bedroom at the same time Dot picked up in the kitchen. John Schuerholz, the scouting director for the Kansas City Royals, introduced himself and let the 18-year-old know that, if he was willing to sign, the team intended to draft him with the 25th pick. “My mom said, ‘No, he’s going to college,’ and I said, ‘Mom! Hang up the phone,’” Biancalana recounted.16 Hours later, the phone at the Biancalana home rang again with the news that he’d been drafted by the Royals.

“In Biancalana, we feel like we’ve selected the finest defensive shortstop in the country. He has an outstanding arm, great defensive ability, and is a well above-average runner,” Schuerholz shared in his post-draft evaluation.17 “He needs work with the bat – like most young kids – [but] with his defensive skills, if he can become a hitter, he could become a first-string major leaguer.”18

After nearly a month of negotiations, the Royals came to play a weekend series against the Oakland A’s. Biancalana took infield practice with the team before Friday and Sunday’s games. Schuerholz and manager Whitey Herzog were impressed by the teenager’s prowess. “There’s no doubt he fits in perfectly with our type of ball club,” Schuerholz stated, saying Biancalana’s defense was ideal for playing on artificial turf.19

Days later, Biancalana and the Royals reached an agreement on a contract that included a signing bonus of more than $53,000 and a college scholarship. Schuerholz called it “one of the most attractive packages we’ve ever offered a drafted player.”20

When Biancalana reported to the Gulf Coast League Royals for rookie ball in Sarasota, Florida, several of the players who’d already been there for weeks were eager to see the vaunted number-one pick. “And I get in there and … I was five-foot-ten, 148 pounds and they say, ‘Wait a second. This guy?!’” Biancalana recalled.21 “There were players there … from University of Miami and other great baseball schools, and when I got on the field with them, they were bigger and stronger and more mature baseball players at that time. But as far as being fundamentally sound, I was way ahead of them because of instruction we got from Al Endriss.”22

In 32 games, Biancalana hit .171 and committed six errors, but the Royals weren’t concerned. “You can’t go by what he did [in rookie ball]. Some kids need all summer to adjust to being away from home,” said Royals coach Chuck Hiller, a former rookie-league manager. “Kids from nice homes have tougher times than others, and Buddy’s from a nice home.”23

“Buddy has a lot of things going for him,” Herzog agreed. “He worked out with us in Oakland last summer and you can tell [he’s] stronger. Buddy’s a good infielder. You don’t find middle infielders with that much talent at his age. You have to gamble with a kid like that.”24

“We knew Buddy needed a lot of work with the bat when we signed him,” Schuerholz confirmed. “We know it will take time for Buddy to make it to the majors. We don’t want to rush him. He’ll probably spend [1979] with Fort Myers.”25

In fact, Biancalana spent two seasons with the Fort Myers Royals of the Class A Florida State League, where he began switch-hitting, something he’d tried occasionally as a high school senior. In 1981, he was promoted to the Double-A Jacksonville Suns, where he had to adjust to the grind of the long bus rides of the Southern League.

“Jacksonville to Memphis is 14 hours,” he detailed. “I used to get up on the luggage racks, lay down, and try to sleep. But the thing about a 14-hour trip was you could sleep seven hours but still have seven left. The sun’s coming up and the [air conditioner] doesn’t work.”26

The following spring training, Biancalana got more playing time than expected because Onix Concepción and other three other infielders each suffered hand injuries that kept them out of the lineup. Getting more time to play alongside second baseman Frank White, Biancalana observed how the five-time Gold Glove winner27 proactively charged groundballs mid-hop and would catch them out in front of his body. He began mimicking White’s style of play and adapting it to his own.

Assigned to the Triple-A Omaha Royals, Biancalana cut his errors from 48 in 1981 to 18, leading all minor-league shortstops in fielding percentage.28 He also put on some muscle, changed his batting stance, and batted .251 with a career-high 27 extra-base hits. “I’ve always told myself I could hit and I think the last two years, I’ve really progressed,” he noted. “I’m going to get rid of that [‘good field, no hit’] label. I plan to hit .300 someday in the big leagues.”29

“I could really feel, ‘Okay, the dream is the next step, playing in the major leagues,’” Biancalana remembered. “I would go to bed at night and just naturally would start to visualize, unintentionally, these glass doors at Royals Stadium that I’d never seen before [but] I’d heard about from guys that had been up and down.”30

By the end of the season, he passed through the doors himself. Despite being with the Royals organization for five years, he’d never seen Royals Stadium until he was driving on Interstate 70 from Omaha to Kansas City in September.

Biancalana made his major-league debut on September 12, 1982, taking the field as a defensive replacement for U.L. Washington in the bottom of the ninth inning of an 18-7 shellacking of the Minnesota Twins. Gary Ward slapped a grounder his way, which he scooped up and fired to first for the first out of a three-up, three-down inning that earned Dan Quisenberry his 33rd save of the season.31

In the final game of the season, Biancalana got his first start and his first major-league hit against Oakland. Batting left-handed, he pulled a line drive to right field. “It would have been right at the right fielder, but the good news is the A’s – it was a game that didn’t matter – they had Mike Heath, a catcher, playing right field,” Biancalana recalled. “Mike Heath came running in and the ball sailed right over his head. … It was a triple and I was being waved home for an inside-the-park home run … and I was out at the plate.”32

In 1983, Royals management decided Biancalana would benefit more from playing every day in Triple-A than riding the bench in majors behind Washington and Concepción. That spring, he met Sabrina Sojka of Omaha, and the two were married six months later. The season’s end also brought Biancalana Silver Glove honors, recognizing him as the best defensive shortstop in the minor leagues.33 He returned to the big leagues, playing six September and October games.

Biancalana made Kansas City’s 1984 opening day roster because Washington was on the disabled list. He played three games as a late-inning defensive replacement before he was sent back to Omaha at the end of April. Once he started getting regular playing time, his bat came to life. In 58 Triple-A games, he batted .260 with seven home runs, including two in one game against the Oklahoma City 89ers. He matched his career-best total of 27 extra-base hits in fewer than half as many games as in 1982, including a career-high seven home runs.

Biancalana was recalled in mid-June when Concepción went on the disabled list, but he primarily played second base until August so White could rest a sore leg. When Concepción and Washington both went on the DL again, Biancalana finally got his shot at shortstop. “The fact he is going to have a chance to play regularly for four or five weeks is going to either erase the doubts about him playing in the big leagues or solidify the doubts of people who feel he can’t,” said Royals manager Dick Howser.34 In his first 16 games as starting shortstop, Biancalana batted .250, recorded a six-game hitting streak, and belted his first major-league homer.

The Royals won the American League West but were swept in the best-of-five American League Championship Series by the Detroit Tigers, who went on to win the World Series. Biancalana played in two games, as a pinch-runner and late-inning defensive replacement. He went hitless in his only at-bat.

In the offseason, Biancalana put on 10 pounds of muscle, reporting to spring training weighing 175 pounds.35 The Royals had traded Washington to the Montreal Expos in January; Concepción got the starting shortstop job in camp, with Biancalana coming off the bench. But while few Americans outside of Western Missouri were diligently keeping tabs on the Royals’ depth chart, “Buddy Biancalana” was about to become a household name.

On the August 21 episode, David Letterman performed a bit about gift ideas involving silly props. The Buddy Biancalana Hit Counter, a blue box with a large red button on top, had photos of Biancalana and Rose with numbers representing Biancalana’s anemic big-league hit total versus Rose’s.36 “You can chart the Royals veteran utility infielder’s march to immortality. Alright, let’s see. Buddy got a hit – one hit last week,” Letterman announced, smacking the red button and adding a hit to Biancalana’s total. “Only 4,181 hits to go!”37

In the coming weeks, the bit evolved into a running gag. “Letterman must be struggling for material like I’m struggling for hits,” the shortstop joked back.38 “I’m closer to Pete Rose than he is to Johnny Carson.”39 But the attention made him a sensation. Fans at home and in visiting stadiums alike chanted his name and roared on the rare occasion that he got a hit.

All season, Howser had juggled Biancalana and Concepción at shortstop, Concepción, who’d batted .282 in 1984, hit just .204 in 1985, barely better than Biancalana. Down the stretch, with the Royals and the California Angels neck-and-neck for the AL West title, Biancalana got the starting nod.

“I think [Howser] thought I was catching the ball better than Onix – neither one of us were hitting much,” Biancalana speculated. “Dick knew that with our pitching, if we just put the best defensive club on the field, that was going to give us the best chance of winning.”40

The 91-71 Royals won the AL West, then beat the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS in seven games. In Game Six, Biancalana belted an RBI double and advanced to third on an error, allowing him to score what proved to be the winning run on a double by Lonnie Smith. In Game Seven, the Royals won, 6-2, to advance to the World Series.

That set up an all-Missouri World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Sitting in the clubhouse 20 minutes before Game One player introductions, Biancalana found himself paralyzed with fear. This was more intense than pregame nerves and he had to admit that he was terrified like never before in his life.

That self-confession changed everything. “I sat there and that fear subsided enough to where I could actually stand up, grab my bat, my glove, and my helmet,” said Biancalana. “And what happened next was I went out and I played, inarguably, the seven best baseball games of my life.”41

Over the next seven games, he batted .278, 90 points higher than during the regular season, with a .435 on-base percentage, second only to George Brett. Everything seemed to slow down, making him feel like he had extra time to see pitches, to track balls off the bat, to make plays. “Every single ball hit me right in the sweet spot of my glove and every single throw for seven games came out of my hand with perfect speed and trajectory,” he remarked.42 He was “in the zone.”

He hit the game-winning RBI in Game Five, played errorless defense all series, and outplayed Ozzie Smith, widely considered the best shortstop in baseball. Biancalana finished second to Bret Saberhagen in World Series MVP voting and cemented his status as a Kansas City icon.

Ten days after the Royals hoisted the World Series trophy, Letterman followed up a segment about a woman who dressed up turtles in little outfits by introducing “the ultimate underdog … my kind of ballplayer, shortstop Buddy Biancalana!”43 He opened the interview segment by gifting the Buddy Biancalana Hit Counter to its namesake, and Biancalana presented Letterman with a World Series bat. He joked that it was the bat he’d used half the year, pointing out that it had no ball marks on it.44

In the weeks and months to come, he was a media darling, flying around the country making appearances on TV, at conventions, at banquets, He even hired a booking agent, understanding that his proverbial “15 minutes of fame” was limited. “This doesn’t happen to everyone. It won’t happen ever again to me, so I’ve got to take advantage of it,” he said.45

The Royals, influenced by his cult hero status, more than doubled his salary for 1986, from $72,000 to $165,000. But all the recognition and adulation were proving stressful. “I had that experience in the World Series but I had no idea what happened,” Biancalana explained. “I play the best baseball of my life on the biggest stage, the world sees it, the world likes me – I’m on Letterman, I’m on The Today Show, I’m on magazine covers, I’m on all kinds of commercials in Kansas City – and I have no idea how it happened.”46

In spring training, Biancalana struck out 18 times and lost his starting job to the newly acquired Angel Salazar.47 For two months, he rode the bench, but worked his way back into the starting lineup with improved hitting.48 Despite finishing the season with a career-best .242 batting average, however, he wasn’t offered a contract for 1987, making him a free agent. He wound up re-signing with the Royals, however.49

In late February, just before spring training started, Bryn, his first child, was born. Biancalana has two other sons, Gavin and Alex, who were both born after his retirement as a player.

Biancalana won the 1987 Opening Day start but was demoted to Omaha in July. “If the Royals don’t want me, I can accept that. … There are 25 other clubs, and some teams are going to need help in the stretch run,” Biancalana said. “I know I can help a team.”50 

A week later, he was traded to the Houston Astros. In 10 games, he had just one hit. He was sent down to the Triple-A Tucson Toros, but before the demotion, playing for a National League team for the first time in his life, he finally had a chance to play in Candlestick Park, the stadium he and his father had gone to together countless times throughout his childhood – and to realize how miserable the place was.

“It was August and I’m out there playing shortstop,” he said. “I felt like I was playing in Cleveland in April with the wind whipping in off Lake Erie. It was incredible. I couldn’t believe it was that cold, but that’s San Francisco during the summertime.”51

In 1988, he went to training camp with the Atlanta Braves but was cut. He inked a minor-league deal with the Royals but never returned to the big leagues. In 1989, he signed for another season but spent the whole year on the disabled list.

During that time, he took advantage of the opportunity and got his commercial real estate license, as well as doing pre- and post-game coverage of Royals games on weekends, before officially retiring, a mere 4,143 hits shy of Rose’s record.

In the years that followed, Biancalana served as a player agent, coached, and managed in the minors.52 During an off-hand conversation with his sister in 1995, he learned that he’d fallen off a bathroom counter as a baby and sustained a concussion, though it was impossible to diagnose that in an infant at the time. This made him wonder how this head trauma may have affected everything in his life from his education to his baseball career to his divorce. “At a young age, you stop crying and … people think you’re okay,” Biancalana explained, “but over time, blood vessels start to constrict and you start to wonder why it’s difficult to learn in school, why you feel the way you feel, why you respond to relationships the way you do.”53 

This curiosity complemented another of Biancalana’s interests regarding brain science. After his retirement, he became fascinated with how he’d managed to be so successful in the World Series but failed to replicate that level of play the rest of his career. He began studying the science behind “being in the zone,” trying to quantify and replicate the brain activity of an athlete undergoing the experience.

Biancalana recalled how acknowledging his fear had been a key to his success, and his studies indicated that understanding and controlling emotions – particularly fear – play a major role in the way an athlete’s body responds and performs. His findings led to his co-authoring the book The 7 Secrets of World Class Athletes in 2010, writing Zone Motion: Your Unfair Advantage in 2025, and starting a consultancy and coaching service for athletes from all types of sports.

Last revised: December 3, 2025

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Don Giller for providing video archives of Buddy’s various mentions and appearances on “Late Night with David Letterman.” This article was reviewed by Rory Costello and Bill Lamb and fact-checked by Ray Danner.

Photo credit: Buddy Biancalana, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 Al Corona, “Redwood’s Perennial Crop: Star Shortstops,” San Francisco Examiner, March 14, 1978: 42.

2 Steven Travers, “Take 5 with Steven Travers (4.17.25),” 100 Yards of Football Sports Talk Radio, April 17, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcVyrZjMKA4.

3 Endriss was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1992. American Baseball Coaches Association, “ABCA Hall of Fame Inductee: Al Endriss,” https://www.abca.org/ABCA/ABCA/Awards/Hall-of-Fame/Hall-of-Fame-Inductee.aspx?Ordinal=156.

4 Redwood Baseball, “Our History,” https://www.redwoodbaseball.org/ourhistory.

5 Travers, “Take 5 with Steven Travers (4.17.25).” Similar to an American Legion team, the Italian Athletic Club played an 18-game schedule but also traveled for another 30 or so games, providing a highly competitive off-season program for Redwood players that was a key to the prep program’s success.

6 “Six Mustangs, One Hornet Named to All-League Teams,” Novato (California) Advance, May 19, 1976: A-12; David Einstein, “Redwood Goal: No. 1 in the Country,” San Rafael (California) Daily Independent Journal, March 8, 1977: 31.

7 Corona, “Redwood’s Perennial Crop.”

8 “Baseball C-Men Draw No. 15 National Ranking,” Carlsbad (New Mexico) Current-Argus, January 30, 1977: B-2.

9 Al Corona, “Redwood Gives Taiwan Toughest Game,” San Francisco Examiner, May 13, 1977: 55.

10 Al Corona, “Redwood Nine Ranked No. 1 in the Nation,” San Francisco Examiner, October 4, 1977: 50.

11 Corona, “Redwood’s Perennial Crop.” The Larry Bowa comparison would follow Biancalana for most of his career. Reporters would ask coaches, managers, or executives whether Biancalana could hit well enough to play at the major-league level, and they would regularly invoke Bowa’s name in response.

12 Al Corona, “Giants High on Redwood Shortstop,” San Francisco Examiner, May 10, 1978: 57.

13 “Top Baseball Prospect To ASU,” San Francisco Examiner, May 3, 1978: 51.

14 “Top Baseball Prospect to ASU.”

15 Corona, “Giants High On Redwood Shortstop.” The Reds had the 17th pick in the draft, which they used on high school shortstop Nick Esasky. The Pirates had both the 19th and 21st picks. The Red Sox didn’t have a first-round pick, having lost it to the New York Yankees as compensation for signing free agent pitcher Mike Torrez. Boston didn’t select anyone until the fourth round, the 102nd pick overall.

16 Boal, “Buddy Biancalana.”

17 “Shortstop Tops Royals Draft List,” Kansas City Times, June 7, 1978: 1C.

18 Rich Sambol, “Royals Happy with Draft,” Kansas City Star, June 11, 1978: 12S. The Royals’ second-round pick, outfielder Darryl Motley, was another high school prospect who’d also committed to Arizona State.

19 Al Corona, “Biancalana Will Join K.C. Royals’ Farm Team,” San Francisco Examiner, July 6, 1978: 59. Herzog had breakfast with Endriss and Roland Sr. Sunday morning.

20 Corona, “Biancalana Will Join K.C. Royals’ Farm Team.”

21 Frank Boal, “Buddy Biancalana: From KC Royals World Series Champion to Mindset Coach,” There’s Just Something about Kansas City, Episode 87, May 20, 2025, https://www.somethingaboutkc.org/episodes/buddy-biancalana.

22 Travers, “Take 5 with Steven Travers (4.17.25).”

23 Sid Bordman, “Biancalana May Be a Hit Yet,” Kansas City Star, March 1, 1979: 16.

24 Bordman, “Biancalana May Be a Hit Yet.”

25 Bordman, “Biancalana May Be a Hit Yet.”

26 Jonathan Rand, “The Royals Don’t Take the Scenic Route,” Kansas City Times, March 19, 1982: D-1. Possibly adding to his frustration, Arizona State won the 1981 CWS in what would have been his senior year.

27 White went on to win three more Gold Gloves in his career, including in 1982. The others came in 1986 and ’87.

28 Steve Pivovar, “Joe Sparks Impatient for Arrival of Pitchers,” Omaha World-Herald, April 1, 1982: 32.

29 Steve Pivovar, “Pitcher Huffman Hits ‘Up’ Cycle as Royals Half a Game from Top,” Omaha World-Herald, August 23, 1982: 13. At season’s end, Biancalana also received the Bill Wood-Lancer Hustle Award, recognizing him as the Omaha Royal who showed the most desire, determination, and hustle.

30 Boal, “Buddy Biancalana.”

31 Quisenberry pitched three innings to qualify for the save, tying his then career high and the Royals franchise record, in the lopsided victory. He was attempting to break what was then the single-season record of 38 saves, set by Detroit’s John Hiller 10 years earlier.

32 Boal, “Buddy Biancalana.” In the interview, Biancalana says he was out because he, at 160 pounds, tried to run down 200-pound catcher Mickey Tettleton. However, Tettleton didn’t make his major-league debut until June 1984, a year and a half after this game. The catcher that day was Bob Kearney, who still outweighed Biancalana at 190 pounds.

33 “Royals’ Biancalana to Get Silver Glove,” Omaha World-Herald, August 19, 1983: 21.

34 Tracy Ringolsby, “Biancalana Not Coming Up Short in Latest Shot with Royals,” Kansas City Star, August 26, 1984: 7-SPORTS.

35 Mike Fish, “Long Hours in Weight Room Paying off for Biancalana,” Kansas City Star, Marh 12, 1985: C1.

36 In Letterman’s bit, the numbers are inaccurate. Biancalana is shown to have 11 career hits. When the episode aired, Biancalana had 46. The number “4,180” below Rose was representative of Cobb’s record and how many hits Biancalana would need to match it (11+4,180), but – and you can’t blame the “Late Night” staff for this – it was determined years later that Cobb’s career hits total was 4,189, not 4,191, because two hits had been counted twice. Also, pressing the button adds one to both numbers instead of adding one to Biancalana’s total and subtracting one from Rose’s.

37 Worldwide Pants Inc., “Gift Ideas,” Late Night with David Leterman, August 21, 1985; YouTube video “Buddy Biancalana on Letterman, November 6, 1985,” 7:33, uploaded by Don Giller, August 13, 2018, https://youtu.be/3SDjpq1FNzQ, accessed August 19, 2025.

38 “AL Insider,” USA Today, August 27, 1985: 4C.

39 The original publication of this quote is unclear, but Letterman read it aloud during Biancalana’s November 6 appearance and it was reprinted in People magazine. Worldwide Pants Inc., “Buddy Biancalana,” November 6, 1985; YouTube video “Buddy Biancalana on Letterman, November 6, 1985,” 7:33, uploaded by Don Giller, August 13, 2018, https://youtu.be/3SDjpq1FNzQ, accessed August 19, 2025; Jack Friedman, “So What if His Name Means White Wool? Baseball’s Buddy Biancalana Is a Man for This Season,” People, November 25, 1985, https://web.archive.org/web/20090926150921/https://people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20092270,00.html, accessed August 19, 2025.

40 Boal, “Buddy Biancalana.”

41 Travers, “Take 5 with Steven Travers (4.17.25).”

42 Travers, “Take 5 with Steven Travers (4.17.25).”

43 Worldwide Pants Inc., “Buddy Biancalana,”

44 Letterman capped off the segment with a slow-motion montage of Biancalana’s five World Series walks set to Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better.”

45 Sandy Keenan, “A Big Hit Everywhere but at Bat,” Sports Illustrated, March 24, 1986, https://vault.si.com/vault/1986/03/24/a-big-hit-everywhere-but-at-bat.

46 Travers, “Take 5 with Steven Travers (4.17.25).”

47 Local radio station KCFX printed thousands of Biancalana masks for people to wear at the home opener, only to have him on the bench until he went in as a defensive replacement in the bottom of the eighth inning.

48 From June 13-20, Biancalana went 7-for-20 with two walks and home runs in back-to-back games for a .350/.409/.650 slashline and a 1.059 OPS. “No one can tell me I can’t play this game, because I can,” he declared. “And I can hit.” Bob Nightengale, “Full Season in 6 Days,” The Sporting News, June 30, 1986: 18. “Late Night” viewers even got an update. “Buddy Biancalana, playing for the Kansas City Royals, apparently hit two home runs over the weekend,” Letterman read off a note from Bob Costas. Worldwide Pants Inc. “Note from Bob Costas,” Late Night with David Letterman, June 17, 1986, video provided by Don Giller.

49 Biancalana was one of many players around the league – and one of six Royals – who wasn’t given a contract offer in December, a ploy by owners to rob them of arbitration. The players were granted free agency, but most found that other teams weren’t interested and wound up re-signing with their old teams. Biancalana confirmed he would have accepted the $180,000 offer he received and foregone arbitration if it had been offered in December.

50 Steve Pivovar, “‘Bitter’ Biancalana Not 100% Certain He’ll Report Here,” Omaha World-Herald, July 23, 1987: 39. Biancalana had the option to refuse and become a free agent but would have surrendered the remainder of his contract.

51 Boal, “Buddy Biancalana.”

52 Biancalana managed the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ Single-A affiliate Charleston RiverDogs, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Single-A affiliate Lakewood BlueClaws, and the independent Amarillo Dillas of the United League.

53 Boal, “Buddy Biancalana.” Biancalana suspects he suffered at least four other concussions as a child but never even saw a doctor about them, much less had them diagnosed.