The Unforgettable Topps Cards From Don Mattingly’s Dominant Peak

During the prime years of his career, New York Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly established himself as one of the best players in baseball.  Between 1984 and 1989, Mattingly’s impressive list of accomplishments included winning the MVP Award, earning five Gold Gloves, picking up three Silver Sluggers, capturing a batting title, producing five 100-plus RBI campaigns, and securing All-Star selections in all six of these seasons.  As youngster growing up, I became aware of Mattingly while he was racking up these achievements and the slugger soon became one of my favorite players.  One of the joys of my childhood was collecting baseball cards.  I loved studying Mattingly’s cards and memorizing the statistics on the back.  Based on how deeply his batting average, home run, and RBI totals have been seared into my brain, their level of importance ranks somewhere just below my date of birth and social security number but above my license plate and credit card numbers.  Although I collected packs of all card manufacturers, Topps were the most readily available and I generally preferred their designs over their competitors.  Thus, I associate Mattingly’s dominant peak with his main card from each year’s Topps set.

I can trace the origins of becoming a Don Mattingly fan back to my elementary school years in 1986.  One of my neighbors, Eric, shared my passion for baseball card collecting and was a huge fan of both the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.  Not surprisingly, Eric’s favorite players were the top hitters for these two teams, Mattingly and Mike Schmidt.  For whatever reason, Schmidt and the Phillies didn’t appeal to me but I was drawn to Mattingly and the Yankees.  Soon, like many kids, I was collecting Mattingly cards and had a poster of the slugger in my room.

1984 and 1985 Topps

I started buying packs of baseball cards in 1983 but my first serious year as a collector was 1984.  For this reason, the 1984 Topps set will always be special to me and among my favorite designs.  Although Mattingly made his major league debut late in the 1982 season, he was not included on either Topps’ 1983 base or Traded sets.  Thus, Mattingly’s first appearance on a Topps card came with his 1984 rookie.  Mattingly’s 1983 stat line on the back of the card was good for a first-year player—4 home runs, 32 RBI, and a .283 batting average in 91 games across 305 plate appearances—but not enough to factor into the AL Rookie of the Year vote.  However, Mattingly’s rookie numbers were accompanied by a series of minor league campaigns in which he hit well over .300.  These impressive minor league statistics were a better foreshadowing of the dominance that was to come.  The main shot on the card shows Mattingly, sans his trademark mustache, playing off the first base bag.  Though he is playing first in the picture, the card lists his position as OF-1B since he had spent slightly more of his rookie season patrolling the outfield than manning first.  The card also displays Mattingly wearing a different number than his customary 23 as he used 46 during his initial campaign.  One of the criticisms often directed at the 1984 Topps design is the square headshot of the player inside a solid-colored box.  The previous year’s design used a photo of the player inside a circle featuring a sky or a stadium background so many felt the solid-colored box was a step backward.  Unlike the main shot, the photo of Mattingly inside the box captures him sporting his familiar mustache.  Topps used purple for the lettering and orange for the box, two colors the manufacturer had often featured on Yankees cards for their late 1970s and early 1980s designs.

After spending the opening weeks of the 1984 season bouncing back and forth between the outfield and first, Mattingly finished April with a .324 batting average to cement himself as the club’s starting first baseman.  The young slugger continued scorching opposing pitching and ranked among the AL leaders in batting average throughout the year.  On the final day of the regular season, Mattingly went 4 for 5 to raise his average to .343 and in the process passed veteran teammate Dave Winfield to win the AL batting title.  In addition, Mattingly’s 207 hits and 44 doubles also led the AL while his 110 RBI tied him with Eddie Murray for fifth-best in the junior circuit.  He also showcased his superb contact skills, striking out just 33 times and ranking second to only Marty Barrett with 18.3 at bats per strikeout.  Mattingly’s excellent sophomore campaign also earned him a fifth-place finish in the AL MVP vote.  New York concluded the season with a solid 87-75 record, good for third place in the AL East, but a full 17 games behind the dominant Detroit Tigers who raced out to an early division lead and never looked back.  Had the Yankees been able to present more of a challenge to the Tigers, Mattingly may very well have won the AL MVP since there was no clear front-runner for the award.

While Mattingly’s 1984 Topps features him playing off the bag on defense, his 1985 card shows him leading off the bag as a base runner.  Topps once again used purple on the Yankees cards in this set but this time opted for a shade that has a slightly more blueish hue.  Mattingly’s 1985 Topps marks the last time during his playing career that he appears clean shaven on his main Topps card.  Although I opened dozens of packs of Topps in 1984, I never was fortunate enough to pull a Mattingly rookie.  By the time I became a fan of the slugger, his 1984 Topps was selling for prices that were out of my childhood budget.  It wasn’t until years after his retirement that I finally got around to purchasing Mattingly’s rookie.  I did, however, buy his more reasonably-priced 1985 Topps at a hobby shop shortly after becoming his fan.  While I had loved the design of the 1984 Topps and bought packs every chance I could get, I found the look of the 1985 series underwhelming and my interest in collecting temporarily waned.  But, as you get older, often times even the stuff you didn’t care for when you were young becomes nostalgic and you grow to have more of an appreciation for it later on.  That is certainly the case for me with the 1985 Topps set.

1986 Topps

Mattingly followed up his excellent sophomore campaign with an even more dominant 1985 season.  Mattingly led the AL with 145 RBI, well in front of Eddie Murray’s runner-up total of 124.  Mattingly also ranked among the AL top-five in the other Triple Crown categories with his .324 batting average good for third-highest and his 35 home runs slotting in fourth-best, only a handful behind the 40 of league-leader Darrell Evans.  Mattingly finished atop the AL in doubles for the second year in a row with 48 while also pacing the circuit with 86 extra-base hits and 370 total bases.  In addition, the young slugger’s 211 hits trailed only Wade Boggs.  Despite Mattingly’s incredible season, the Yankees had to settle for second place, finishing just a pair of games behind the Toronto Blue Jays in a close division race.  New York got off to a slow start and were unable to catch Toronto who took over the division lead for good in mid-May.  Mattingly did his best to help his club catch the Blue Jays, being named AL Player of the Month for both August and September as he hit .350 from August 1-on with 23 home runs and 66 RBI in 62 games.  Over that stretch, the Yankees went 42-20.  Although, New York fell short of making the postseason, Mattingly was recognized for his outstanding campaign, winning the AL MVP.  He picked up 23 of 28 first-place votes with the remaining five going to the runner-up, George Brett.  Mattingly’s award-winning season also included his first of what would be three straight Silver Sluggers.  In addition, the slick-gloved first baseman was recognized for his defense, winning the first of five consecutive Gold Gloves.

After being unimpressed with Topps’ 1985 design, when I opened my first pack of their 1986 offering, I jumped back into collecting with both feet and bought cards with more frequency than ever before.  Mattingly’s 1986 Topps immediately was one of my favorites of this set and will always be memorable to me because it was the first card of the slugger I pulled out of a pack.  The black and white colors featured throughout this card are in perfect symmetry.  Some of the color coordination is coincidental like the black and white borders, the Topps logo in right corner, and the player’s name lettering at the bottom.  Other parts are intentional such as the team lettering at the top and the position bubble.  The black and white design fits the image of the mustached Mattingly, eye black smeared across his face, clad in New York’s midnight navy pinstriped home jersey, dropping his bat as he jogs out of the batter’s box after making contact.

Throughout Mattingly’s career, the Triple Crown line of home runs, RBI, and batting average along with hits were the most commonly used stats to evaluate a slugger.  However, in the last couple of decades, advanced metrics like WAR and OPS+ have become the primary tools to judge hitters.  In addition, previously overlooked stats such as walks, OBP, and runs scored are now viewed alongside the Triple Crown and more traditional means of evaluation.  As I learned about baseball statistics, seeing the bold and italicized league-leading numbers on the back of Mattingly’s card let me know he was a phenomenal hitter.  The one statistic of Mattingly’s that stood out to me more than any other was his eye-popping 145 RBI which was the highest total since George Foster’s 149 in 1977.  During my main baseball card collecting years, which ranged from 1983 to 1995, no one was able to match Mattingly’s RBI mark.  The closest any hitters came over that period of time were Andre Dawson and Mark McGwire, whose respective totals of 137 and 134 were each attained in 1987, a season which saw scoring reach unusually high levels due to a curiously live baseball known as the “rabbit ball.”  Mattingly at least owed some of his lofty RBI total to the presence of Rickey Henderson at the top of the batting order.  Prior to the 1985 season, New York acquired the speedy Henderson from the Oakland Athletics in multi-player trade.  Henderson finished 1985 with a superb .419 OBP, led the AL with 80 stolen bases, and also paced the circuit by scoring an astonishing 146 times in 143 games.  Similar to how Mattingly’s 145 RBI stood out in this era, Henderson’s 146 runs scored was the highest total since Ted Williams crossed the plate 150 times in 1949.  While Mattingly took home MVP honors for his brilliant campaign, voters also recognized Henderson’s excellence as he finished third in the election.  Mattingly and Henderson played together from 1985 to 1988.  During their four seasons as teammates, the combination of Henderson’s top of the order on-base skills and Mattingly’s timely hitting from the heart of the lineup fueled New York’s potent offense.  This was never more apparent than in 1985 when Henderson was driven in 56 times by Mattingly and the Yankees led the AL in scoring.

1987 Topps

Mattingly’s dominance continued into 1986 with another marvelous campaign.  The reigning MVP both paced the league and set career highs with 238 hits, 53 doubles, and 388 total bases.  Mattingly achieved another personal-best by hitting .352.  Only the presence of perennial batting champion Wade Boggs’ .357 mark kept him from taking home the batting crown for a second time.  Mattingly also ranked among the AL leaders with 31 home runs and 113 RBI.  New York once again finished second in the AL West, this time five and a half games behind the Boston Red Sox.  Mattingly did his best to help the Yankees catch the Red Sox down the stretch, batting .434 during a career-high 24-game hitting streak which ran from August 30 through September 26.  He was also named the AL Player of the Month for second September in a row.  Mattingly drew ample MVP support, garnering five first-place votes and finishing runner-up to Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens in the election.

For their 1987 design, Topps used wood grain borders that were similar to the look of their 1962 and 1968 sets.  It took a while for me to warm up to the wood grain design since it clashed with the colors of several teams, particularly the blue jerseys of the Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays, who were two of my favorite teams to collect cards of.  However, the refined wood grain design complements Mattingly’s classic Yankees pinstripes while the red box at the bottom of the card matches the red from the team’s logo.  The shot of Mattingly shows the slugger in the batter’s box, readying for the pitch.  Although I felt Topps had taken a step backward with their 1987 set, it didn’t stop me from buying oodles of packs.  Over time, the wood grain design grew on me and now this is one of the main sets I associate with my childhood.

That same year, I purchased my first baseball poster when I brought home a Starline poster of Mattingly.  I remember my friend Eric having a Mattingly poster and, like countless other fans, I wanted a framed shot of the slugger to proudly display in my room.  The poster image captures Mattingly at a similar angle to the one used for his 1987 Topps.  However, this shot, taken a moment later in his batting sequence, showcases his coiled stance as he is crouched down, awaiting the delivery of the ball.  Starline’s poster designs always did a good job of using colors that matched the ones used by the player’s team.  The navy borders, white lettering, and thin square outline form a suitable frame for the photo of Mattingly in his pinstriped uniform.  A year or so after buying Mattingly’s Starline poster, I came across a poster which features six Yankee legends—Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Thurman Munson.  I felt the six legends each symbolized a different decade of success for the franchise with Ruth representing the 1920s, Gehrig the 1930s, DiMaggio the 1940s, Mantle the 1950s, Maris the 1960s, and Munson the 1970s.  It was fitting to bring this portrait into my room alongside my poster of Mattingly who I felt was the Yankee great who best represented the 1980s.  Years later I found out the image of the six legends had been originally used for the Yankees 1985 yearbook.

1988 Topps

The 1987 season was an eventful one for Mattingly.  In early June, he was in the midst of a 15-game hitting streak when he was placed on the 15-day disabled list due to injured discs in his lower back.  Mattingly shook off the injury and on July 8 hit a pair of homers in a 13-4 win against the Minnesota Twins to begin a stretch in which he went deep in eight consecutive games.  With his incredible eight-game stretch, Mattingly matched the record previously set by Dale Long in 1956.  Mattingly tied a different home run mark on September 25 when he hit a grand slam during an 8-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.  The bases loaded shot was Mattingly’s fifth of the year, equaling the single-season grand slam mark attained by Ernie Banks in 1955 and Jim Gentile in 1961.  Four nights later, Mattingly broke the record with his sixth slam in a 6-0 win against the Boston Red Sox.  Mattingly finished the year with a .327 batting average, 30 home runs, and 115 RBI despite being limited to 141 games due to his back injury.

On the surface, Mattingly’s 1987 season looks like a conglomeration of his previous two campaigns as his batting average was similar to his 1985 mark and his home run and RBI totals were almost identical to his 1986 numbers.  However, 1987 was the year of the “rabbit ball” which saw home runs hit at a never-before-seen rate and runs scored per game rise to its highest level since 1950.  Thus, Mattingly’s 1987 numbers, while statistically similar to 1985 and 1986, were actually a slight step below those prior campaigns.  Modern analytics bare out this difference as Mattingly’s 146 OPS+ for 1987 was below the 156 figures he produced in both 1984 and 1985 as well as his 161 mark from 1986.  Moreover, after pasting his name all over the leaderboard in such categories as hits, doubles, RBI, and batting average over the past three seasons, 1987 represented the first time since his rookie season that Mattingly did not lead the AL in any major offensive category.  Nevertheless, Mattingly’s 1987 campaign was impressive and would represent a career-year for most players.  The Yankees led the AL East standings as late as August 8 but struggled down the stretch and did not factor into the late season division race, slipping to fourth place by the end of the campaign.  The combination of missing time due to his back injury and New York’s inability to stay in the division race, kept Mattingly out of the conversation for the MVP but the slugger still received his share of support and finished seventh in the election.

I remember opening my first pack of 1988 Topps and immediately loving the design of the card.  After a year of looking at wood grain, the clean white borders of the 1988 set were a welcomed sight.  As I explore the cards of my youth, I noticed that I preferred designs that featured clean white borders.  This makes sense because the 1983 and 1984 Topps sets that served as my entry into the hobby both featured clean white borders.  For their 1988 set, Topps used a different color for the team’s name, the player name, and the thin square box which outlines the photo.  Examining other cards in this set, it appears Topps tried to choose colors that matched the team’s uniforms but, for the most part, was only partially successful.  With the purple box outlining Mattingly’s photo, we see the return of one of Topps’ favorite colors to use for the Yankees.  In addition, there is also the reappearance of red from the previous year, this time spelling out the team’s name.  Although I really liked this set when I was younger, I notice that on a lot of cards the player’s head covers the team’s name which can look pretty goofy.  Fortunately, on Mattingly’s card his head only obstructs the bottom of a couple of the letters.  Another odd choice is Topps’ use of yellow for the strip surrounding the slugger’s name.  The photo of Mattingly is the closest shot Topps has used for his main card.  It is also the first standard issue Topps card featuring the former MVP in the Yankees’ road gray uniform.  The image of Mattingly is similar in sequence to his 1986 Topps where he is shown in the process of dropping his bat and running out of the batter’s box after making contact.  Here we see Mattingly, bat in hand, taking a longer gaze at the ball, preparing to run but with less urgency.  By the expression on his face, it looks as though he has hit a fly ball that he hopes will drop but fully expects to be caught.

1989 Topps

After the year of the “rabbit ball”, the 1988 campaign saw the beginning of a five season stretch in which AL scoring was much lower in comparison to 1987.  For the second year in a row, Mattingly made a trip to the 15-day disabled list, this time being sidelined at the end of May after straining a muscle in his right rib cage during pregame batting practice.  The injury limited Mattingly to 144 games and he finished the campaign with 18 home runs, 88 RBI, and a .311 batting average.  While Mattingly’s stats were impressive, they represented another step down from his peak seasons as evidenced by his 128 OPS+.  This also marked the first time since his rookie campaign that he failed to draw support in the MVP vote.  Although Mattingly did not stand atop the AL leaderboard in any of the major offensive categories, due to his outstanding contact skills he was able to pace the circuit with 20.7 at bats per strikeout.  New York led the standings for the majority of the first two and a half months of the season but ultimately wound up at the tail end of a razor close five-team division race despite finishing just three and a half games behind the AL East champion Red Sox.

I always felt the 1989 Topps was an appropriate follow up to the 1988 set.  Topps retained the large white borders from 1988 while also bringing back the square outline, albeit with rounded corners on the top left and bottom right.  Topps made a nice change by moving the team’s name towards the bottom of the card and placing it overtop of the player’s name to form a ribbon extending out of the rounded right corner.  The card manufacturing giant also did an excellent job of matching the team and player names with colors similar to their club’s uniform.  The color coordination is evident on the Yankees cards where the ribbon is decorated with a pleasing blend of purplish-blue and gray while the player’s name is spelled out in white lettering.  For the third consecutive year, we see the presence of red on Mattingly’s card, this time forming the square outline.  The use of red here is the only curious color selection on the card.  In my opinion, black or a different shade of blue would have been a more suitable choice for the outline.  Mattingly is shown wearing the Yankees’ practice or spring training jersey with his first baseman’s glove tucked under his arm, having just walked into the dugout from the field.  Mattingly’s eyes are fixed on the freshly grabbed bat in his hands.  The image captures all of the slugger’s trademark facial features: his perfectly groomed mustache, lantern jaw, and cleft chin.  While I certainly have good memories of collecting 1989 Topps during my childhood, I don’t think I truly appreciated the superb design or the classic shot of Mattingly.  I now put this card alongside his 1986 Topps as my favorite of the slugger.  For the remainder of Mattingly’s career, I considered Topps’ card designs hit-or-miss.  Aside from 1992, I never collected packs as aggressively as I had during the 1980s.  Thus, Mattingly’s 1989 card is the final in a memorable succession of Topps cards that I associate with the first baseman’s peak seasons.

Mattingly finished out the decade with yet another solid campaign, batting .303 with 23 home runs and 113 RBI.  After back-to-back seasons with stints on the disabled list, he was able to stay healthy throughout 1989 and play in 158 games.  The slick-gloved first baseman continued to be one of the game’s most respected players and among its best on defense, earning both his sixth straight trip to the All-Star Game and his fifth consecutive Gold Glove Award.  Mattingly ranked in the top-ten of several categories, with his 113 RBI eclipsed only by Ruben Sierra’s mark of 119.  Mattingly’s RBI total was even more impressive considering New York traded leadoff hitter Rickey Henderson back to Oakland on June 21, depriving the slugger of his main table setter.  On top of that, power-hitter Dave Winfield missed the entire season due to a back injury.  Without the presence of Winfield, who normally batted behind him in the order, Mattingly had little protection in the lineup.  Newer metrics show Mattingly’s 1989 campaign to be a slight improvement over the prior year as he raised his OPS+ from 128 to 133.  Ever the contact hitter, Mattingly averaged a career-best 21.0 at bats per strikeout, good for second-best in the AL and his sixth straight finish of fourth or higher.  Nevertheless, he was unable to keep the Yankees from nosediving to a 74-87 record and suffering their first losing season since 1982.  Despite his lofty RBI total, New York’s poor record prevented Mattingly from drawing serious MVP consideration and he finished fifteenth in the election.

The 1989 campaign represented the end of a spectacular six-year run in which Mattingly averaged 203 hits, 43 doubles, 27 home runs, and 114 RBI, while batting .327.  Over that six-year span Mattingly posted a 147 OPS+ and struck out an average of just 34 times.  Unfortunately, the back problems that sent Mattingly to the disabled list in 1987 resurfaced in a much more serious way during 1990 and caused the first baseman to miss nearly a third of the season.  Mattingly continued to be plagued by back problems and went from being one of the game’s most dominant sluggers to a slightly above average hitter over the remainder of his career.  However, Mattingly was still regarded as one of the finest defensive players in the game and picked up four more Gold Glove Awards to bring his total to nine for his career.  Among first basemen, Mattingly’s nine Gold Gloves are the most attained by an AL player and trail only the 11 achieved by Keith Hernandez.  Mattingly was also recognized for his leadership qualities and was named captain of the Yankees prior to the 1991 campaign.  Mattingly finally experienced his first taste of the postseason in 1995, batting a scorching .417 during a closely-contested ALDS in which New York was narrowly defeated by the Seattle Mariners.  After taking the 1996 season off, Mattingly officially announced his retirement on January 22, 1997, bringing an end to his distinguished 14-year playing career.  Later that year, on August 31, the Yankees held a ceremony to retire Mattingly’s number 23.

----by John Tuberty

Follow me on Twitter @BloggerTubbs

Stat links to main players mentioned: Don Mattingly, Mike Schmidt, Dave Winfield, Wade Boggs, George Brett, Rickey Henderson, Ted Williams, Roger Clemens, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Thurman Munson, Keith Hernandez, Mark McGwire, Andre Dawson, Dale Long, Jim Gentile, Ernie Banks, Ruben Sierra, Marty Barrett, Darrell Evans

Sources: Baseball Reference, Baseball Almanac, New York Times articles from June 1987, May 1988, March 1991, January 1997

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My Three Favorite Baseball Cards and Thoughts on the Hall of Fame Case of Thurman Munson

My Three Favorite Baseball Cards and Thoughts on the Hall of Fame Case of Mainstay Era Committee Ballot Candidate Tommy John

Keith Hernandez, Whitey Herzog, and the Controversial Trade That Revived The New York Mets

Salvador Perez, Jorge Soler, Bob Cerv, Heavy Johnson, and the Rich History of Kansas City’s Single-Season Home Run Record

Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez received a substantial amount of attention for his impressive 2021 season.  A five-time AL Gold Glove Award winner, the 31-year-old Perez has spent the bulk of his career drawing more praise for his expertise behind the plate than for his production in the batter’s box.  However, in 2021, Perez established himself as one of the premier power hitters in baseball, battling Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Shohei Ohtani for the AL home run crown.  In addition, by hitting his 46th longball of the season, on September 20, Perez passed Johnny Bench to set the single-season record for home runs by a primary catcher.  Another intriguing but less publicized aspect of Perez’s excellent 2021 campaign was his pursuit of the Kansas City major league and Royals franchise single-season home run records.  Most major league cities and their residing franchise have the same single-season home run record holder.  Yet, for the majority of the fifty-plus history of the Kansas City Royals this was not the case as the city and the franchise had two separate record holders.  In fact, Kansas City baseball has its own rich history of major league play which predates the existence of the Royals franchise and traces its origins back to the 19th century.  Over the years, a variety of sluggers have held the city’s home run record.  These sluggers have taken the field for such franchises as the Monarchs and Athletics with some competing in now defunct major leagues like the American Association and the Negro Leagues.

The Unions, Cowboys, Packers, and the Early Days of Major League Baseball in Kansas City

Kansas City’s first foray into major league level baseball came in 1884 as part of the upstart Union Association.  Established as a competitor to the National League and American Association, the Union Association was a short-lived third major league.  Most accounts refer to Kansas City’s team as the Unions while other reports cite the club as the Cowboys.  By either name, Kansas City proved to be one of the Union Association’s most uncompetitive franchises, positing a horrid 16-63 record.  The team’s pitiful .203 win-loss percentage was only eclipsed in its futility by the .111 mark of the Wilmington Quicksteps who went 2-16 and dropped out of the league before the season ended.  Home runs were a rare occurrence during the early days of baseball because the ball was softer and fields were more vast.  Kansas City only hit six home runs as a team with six players—Charlie Bastian, Charlie Berry, Bob Black, Frank McLaughlin, Lou Say, and Peek-A-Boo Veach—each being credited with exactly one round-tripper.  The categorizing of the Union Association as a major league has often been questioned since very few top players joined the league which ultimately folded after just one season of play.

With the dissolution of the Union Association, Kansas City was out of major league baseball.  However, just two seasons later, Kansas City returned to major league play, fielding a team in the National League.  The new franchise, which was unaffiliated with the Union Association team, adopted the Cowboys moniker and was admitted to the NL on a trial basis for the 1886 campaign.  The Cowboys achieved wretchedly similar results as their predecessor, going 30-91 while finishing next-to-last among the NL’s eight teams.  First baseman Will McQuery and second baseman Al Myers tied for the Cowboys home run lead with four a piece.  McQuery and Myers became permanent franchise leaders when the fledgling club went out of business after the season.

Once again, Kansas City was not without major league baseball for long as the third incarnation of the Cowboys took the field in 1888 as part of the American Association.  Formed in 1882 as a rival league to the NL, the American Association proved to be a much more serious competitor than the Union Association.  The AA differentiated itself from the NL by offering cheaper ticket prices, selling alcohol in the stands, and permitting games to be played on Sunday.  Just like before, the Cowboys proved to be a short-lived major league franchise, surviving only two years and enjoying no more success than their forerunners—finishing a respective last and next-to-last in the eight-team AA.  During the club’s initial campaign, second baseman Sam Barkley and center fielder Jim McTamany matched the four home runs of McQuery and Myers from the NL Cowboys.  The following year, Cowboys center fielder Jim Burns set a new Kansas City record by hitting five home runs.

Two and half decades later, Kansas City made its fourth attempt at playing host to a major league franchise when the Packers took the field in the fledgling Federal League for the 1914 season.  In the team’s first year, second baseman Duke Kenworthy smashed the Kansas City single-season home run record by clubbing 15 round-trippers.  Kenworthy’s impressive longball total ranked second in the Federal League, trailing only the 16 hit by Chicago Chi-Feds center fielder Dutch Zwilling.  Kenworthy was one of the league’s finest hitters, pacing the circuit with 69 extra base hits while ranking a respective fifth and sixth with 91 RBI and a .317 batting average.  In addition, the slugger’s 4.9 WAR slotted him fourth among position players while his 159 OPS+ was also good for fourth-best.  The Packers were a much more competitive team than the three incarnations of the Cowboys, concluding the 1914 campaign in sixth place among the eight Federal League clubs before delivering the city its first winning major league season in 1915 with an 81-72 record and fourth place finish.  The Federal League folded following the 1915 campaign, temporarily bringing an end to major league baseball in Kansas City.

The Kansas City Monarchs

On February 13, 1920, at the urging of Rube Foster, a group of black baseball team owners met at the Paseo YCMA in Kansas City to form the Negro National League.  The new enterprise represented the first structured black baseball league.  Last December, as part of a yearlong celebration of the formation of the Negro Leagues, MLB officially recognized seven distinct leagues which operated during the 1920 to 1948 timeframe as major leagues.  When play began in the spring of 1920, the Kansas City Monarchs took the field as one of the Negro National League’s eight original teams.  The Monarchs primarily featured players from two clubs:  the All Nations barnstorming team which played throughout the Midwest and the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Wreckers, an Army Regiment outfit based out of Camp Stephen D. Little in Arizona.  The Monarchs were immediately one of the Negro National League’s most successful teams, finishing the inaugural season as runner-up to the pennant-winning Chicago American Giants.

During the Monarchs’ second year of play, super-utility player George Carr nearly matched Duke Kenworthy’s Kansas City home run record when he went deep 14 times as part of an excellent season in which he also batted .323 with 73 RBI and 22 stolen bases.  The slugger finished in the top-ten in several offensive categories with his 14 longballs ranking second only to the 15 hit by St. Louis Giants center fielder Oscar Charleston.  Carr was a true utility player, taking the field at seven different positions with 47 of his appearances coming at first base, 17 at third, 16 at second, 12 at right field, 11 at shortstop, 10 at catcher, and 1 at left field.  Negro League schedules were not quite as expansive as white baseball leagues.  Thus, Carr’s 14 home runs was achieved in 101 games while Kenworthy played in 146 when he attained his record mark in 1914.

The following season, Kenworthy’s Kansas City home run record was matched by two-way superstar Bullet Rogan.  An even more unique player than Carr, Rogan was able to dominate both in the batter’s box as well as on the pitching mound.  At the plate, Rogan belted 15 home runs, collected 55 RBI, stole 16 bases, posted a 199 OPS+, and hit .369 in 74 games.  Toeing the rubber, Rogan went 14-8 with a 2.93 ERA, completed a league-leading 20 of 21 starts, and is credited with a league-high two saves in an additional five relief appearances.  Rogan paced the circuit with an eye-popping 9.0 WAR while ranking among the league leaders in several hitting and pitching categories, including runner-up in both home runs and wins.  When he was not pitching, Rogan split time between center and right field.  Rogan’s amazing season played a vital role in helping the Monarchs capture their first pennant.  Statistics from the Negro Leagues are incomplete and constantly updated as more game logs are discovered, meaning that both Carr’s and Rogan’s respective home run totals from 1921 and 1922 could very well surpass Kenworthy’s mark in the future.

Rogan shared the longball record for just a single year before his teammate Heavy Johnson wrote his name into Kansas City history, clobbering 20 four-baggers.  Johnson was a thickly-built slugger known for swinging a particularly heavy bat but also notorious for his surly demeanor.  Nevertheless, Johnson’s superb 1923 campaign was one for the ages as he is retroactively credited as winning the Triple Crown, having led the league with not only his 20 home runs but also his 120 RBI and .406 batting average.  He also led in a slew of other offensive categories including hits, runs scored, doubles, slugging percentage, and OPS+.  He also paced the circuit with 98 games played, checked in at second place with 5.8 WAR, and did not let his size keep him from swiping 17 bags, the fifth-best total in the league.  On defense, Johnson split time between the corner outfield positions.  Johnson’s historic season helped lead the Monarchs to their second straight pennant.  Kansas City continued winning pennants, bringing their total to an amazing five in a row in 1926.  The Monarchs added a sixth pennant in 1929 before the Negro National League was disbanded followed the 1930 season.  After the dissolution of the league, the Monarchs became a barnstorming independent club.  However, in 1937 the team became a charter member of the newly formed Negro American League and immediately returned to their dominant ways, capturing their first of five consecutive pennants.  Even though the Monarchs and the Negro American League both continued to operate into the 1960s, the 1948 campaign represents the final season the Negro Leagues are categorized as major league level since rosters were depleted by the exodus of players to the recently integrated American and National Leagues as well as their minor league feeder teams.  Overall, the Monarchs won an incredible 10 pennants in 23 years of recognized major league play.  The closest any Monarchs hitter came to matching Johnson’s 20 home runs during his Triple Crown-winning campaign was in 1937 when Willard Brown hit 10 home runs.

The Kansas City Athletics

During the first half of the twentieth century, the majority of white baseball in Kansas City was being played at the minor league level.  Teams using the familiar Cowboys moniker or the Blues name took the field in various minor leagues as early as the mid-1880s.  In 1902, the Cowboys joined an upstart minor league calling itself the American Association.  Two years later, the Cowboys permanently changed their name to the Blues who remained in the AA for the next five decades.  As minor league clubs began operating as farm teams for the majors, the Blues first became an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1935 before starting a lengthy partnership with the New York Yankees that ran from 1936 to 1954.  In 1955, the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League relocated to Kansas City after Arnold Johnson bought the franchise from the Mack family.  The A’s had a rich history which dated back to 1901 when the club began play as one of the AL’s eight charter franchises.  Under the direction of the legendary Connie Mack, the team won nine pennants and five World Series championships.  However, the A’s fell on hard times during the latter years of Mack’s ownership and finished at or near the bottom of the AL during the majority of the franchise’s final two decades in Philadelphia.

With the return of major league action, Kansas City’s home run record was quickly shattered when left fielder Gus Zernial belted 30 longballs during the A’s inaugural season at their new residence.  Although Zernial set a new Kansas City benchmark, his 30 home runs were well shy of the A’s overall franchise record of 58 established in Philadelphia by Jimmie Foxx during the 1932 campaign.  Nevertheless, Zernial was the ideal slugger to break Heavy Johnson’s mark, having been the A’s main power threat during the franchise’s last few years in Philadelphia, which included hitting a league-leading 33 home runs in 1951 and clubbing a career-high 42 two seasons later.  Zernial’s 30 round-trippers ranked second in the AL to Mickey Mantle while his 13.8 at bats per home run paced the circuit.  Zernial’s longball total was even more impressive considering he accomplished the feat despite playing in only 120 games and was coming off an injury-shortened 1954 season which saw him sidelined for a month and a half with a broken collarbone.  Though he batted just .254, his .508 slugging percentage and 84 RBI were a respective third and ninth-best in the league.  Unfortunately, the A’s on-field play more closely resembled the futility of Kansas City’s older franchises than the dominance of the Monarchs as the club completed their initial campaign in Kansas City with a 63-91 record and sixth place finish in the AL.

One of the major criticisms of Arnold Johnson’s ownership was a series of transactions between the A’s and the Yankees which Kansas City rarely seemed to get the better of.  However, one deal the A’s came out on the winning side of took place just after the 1956 campaign when New York sold Bob Cerv to Kansas City.  The 31-year-old Cerv had spent parts of six seasons with the Bronx Bombers as a rarely used backup outfielder and pinch hitter.  Over the previous two seasons, Cerv had showed promise, batting .320 with 6 home runs in 200 at bats.  Cerv was familiar with Kansas City and the A’s home ballpark, Municipal Stadium, having spent four seasons playing there for New York’s farm team, the Blues.  In his first season with the A’s, Cerv hit 11 home runs, 44 RBI, and batted .272 in 124 games.  Cerv was still being used as a backup, though, splitting time between the three outfield positions and pinch hitting.  During that same 1957 campaign, Gus Zernial challenged his own Kansas City home run record but settled for 27 longballs while the A’s franchise completed their fifth consecutive losing season and third straight since relocating to the Heartland.  In November, Kansas City sent Zernial to the Detroit Tigers as part of a massive thirteen-player trade.  The dealing away of Zernial opened up left field for Cerv and he made the most of the opportunity, setting a new Kansas City benchmark by slamming 38 home runs during the 1958 season.  In addition to his lofty longball total, Cerv also batted .305 and drove in 104 runs.  Although Cerv did not lead the AL in any offensive categories, he appeared all over the leaderboard, ranking in the top-five in home runs, RBI, runs scored, total bases, extra base hits, and slugging percentage.  Moreover, his 6.3 WAR and 159 OPS+ were each the fourth-best marks in the junior circuit.  AL MVP voters recognized Cerv for his outstanding campaign as he picked up three first place tallies and finished fourth overall in the election.

Perhaps most impressive though, was that Cerv put together his marvelous season despite sustaining a broken jaw in a home plate collision with Detroit Tigers catcher Red Wilson while trying to score from second base during a May 17 game.  Cerv only missed three games and then played the next 28 contests with his jaw wired shut while being forced to live on a liquid diet.  Over that 28-game stretch, the slugger hit 6 home runs.  The broken jaw was not the only injury that afflicted Cerv during his breakout campaign, as he also suffered a broken toe and a hand injury from crashing into an outfield fence, in addition to a bruised elbow as a result of being hit by a pitch from Yankees reliever Ryne Duren.  A’s shortstop Joe DeMaestri said of his teammate, “Cerv leads the major leagues this year in pain.”  However, even with Cerv’s bat sparking the offense, the A’s still finished next to last in the AL, though the club’s 73-81 record was their best since moving to Kansas City.

In December 1960, Charlie Finley purchased the A’s franchise from the estate of the recently deceased Arnold Johnson.  The eccentric Finley adopted a hands-on approach and constantly meddled with his team.  Finley often altered the dimensions of Municipal Stadium in an attempt to give his team an advantage.  One of his ideas was to bring in the right field fence for the 1964 season to mimic Yankee Stadium as closely as league rules allowed.  Finley reasoned that New York won pennants due in part to their short porch in right field.  Finley acquired power-hitters Rocky Colavito and Jim Gentile to add punch to the A’s lineup.  Colavito, who had reached the 40-home plateau three times in his career, challenged Cerv’s Kansas City home run record with 34 round-trippers.  Gentile, just three seasons removed from clubbing 46 home runs, chipped in with 28 longballs.  Overall, the A’s offense hit 166 four-baggers, the third highest total in the AL.  However, Finley’s tinkering backfired as the A’s pitchers gave up an MLB-record 220 home runs, a dubious mark that stood until the 1987 Baltimore Orioles served up 226 longballs.  The A’s not only finished dead last in the standings but their 57-105 record was the team’s worst since relocating to Kansas City.  During Finley’s ownership reign, he regularly threatened to relocate the franchise.  Prior the 1968 season, the outlandish owner followed through on his threats, abandoning Kansas City and moving the club to Oakland.  Throughout the 13-year stretch the A’s called Kansas City home, the team failed to post a single winning season and remained a perennial cellar dweller.  The A’s sixth place finish during their inaugural season in the Heartland and 73-81 record during Bob Cerv’s 38-home run 1958 campaign proved to be high water marks for the club.

The Kansas City Royals

Fortunately, local baseball fans did not have to wait long for the return of major league action as Kansas City was granted an expansion team for the 1969 season.  The debuting franchise took the name Royals and began play in the newly-created American League West Division.  The Royals quickly established themselves as a competitive franchise, finishing runner-up in the AL West in just their third year of existence.  Outfielder Ed Kirkpatrick set the initial Royals franchise home run record by going deep 14 times in the club’s inaugural season.  The following year, outfielder Bob Oliver more than doubled Kirkpatrick’s mark, belting 27 longballs.  No Royals hitter came close to challenging Bob Cerv’s Kansas City home run record for the first several years of the franchise until first baseman John Mayberry smacked 34 round-trippers in 1975.  Mayberry’s impressive season resembled Cerv’s 1958 campaign with the slugger batting .291 with 106 RBI.  In addition, Mayberry finished runner-up in the AL MVP vote and paced the circuit in walks and OPS+.  He also ranked second in runs scored, RBI, OBP, slugging percentage, and OPS.  Mayberry’s potent bat had played a key role in securing the club their third runner-up finish in five years.

Over the next decade, the Royals became a regular participant in the playoffs, winning the AL West crown seven of the next ten seasons while finishing second in each of the other three campaigns.  This run concluded with the team defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in a thrilling seven-game 1985 Fall Classic to capture the franchise’s first World Series title.  One of the highlights of the championship run was first baseman Steve Balboni setting a new club record by launching 36 home runs over the fence.  Balboni’s impressive longball total ranked third highest in the AL and came just two shy of matching Cerv’s Kansas City mark.  Acquired in a trade with the Yankees prior to the 1984 season, Balboni had hit 28 four-baggers during his initial year with the Royals, the most since Mayberry’s 34 in 1975.  However, Balboni was a more one-dimensional hitter than his predecessors who held their respective franchise’s home run record or challenged for the Kansas City mark as his 36 drives were accompanied by a .243 batting average, .307 OBP, 112 OPS+, and 1.2 WAR.  Balboni also led the AL in the dubious category of strikeouts with 166.  Nevertheless, Balboni did manage to stroke 28 doubles, drive in 88 runs, and rank fifth in the circuit with an average of 16.7 at bats per home run.  Balboni’s teammate, franchise icon George Brett had one of his finest campaigns in 1985, smacking a career-high 30 round-trippers, collecting 112 RBI, and batting .335 while accumulating 8.3 WAR and posting a league-best 179 OPS+.  At the time, Brett’s 30 longballs trailed only Balboni’s 36 and Mayberry’s 34 for the most in the 17-year history of the Royals.

After the winning the franchise’s first World Series championship, the Royals entered a malaise period in which the team went almost three decades before returning to the postseason in 2014.  However, Cerv’s Kansas City home run record and Balboni’s franchise mark both managed to outlast the club’s lengthy playoff drought.  During this time period, just seven Royals hitters managed to reach the 30-home plateau as year after year no slugger was able to eclipse the respective benchmarks set by Cerv and Balboni.  Right fielder Danny Tartabull came close in 1987, going deep 34 times, during the season of the “rabbit ball” when home runs were being hit at a never before seen rate.  Two years later, left fielder Bo Jackson clubbed 32 four-baggers in 135 games.  Jackson seemed destined for several 30-home run campaigns before a football injury brought a premature end to the two-sport star’s career on the gridiron and damaged his baseball abilities.  In 1991, Tartabull made another run at Balboni’s mark, ripping 31 homers during his final year with the Royals before departing via free agency and signing with the Yankees.  Designated hitter Bob Hamelin was in midst of putting together an excellent rookie campaign when the player’s strike brought a premature end to the 1994 season.  At the time of the work stoppage, Hamelin had hit 24 home runs and was on pace to finish with 37.  Had the full season been completed, Hamelin may very well have been able to challenge Balboni’s and Cerv’s respective marks.  Aside from his 24 round-trippers, Hamelin also collected 65 RBI while producing a .282 batting average and 147 OPS+.  Hamelin was recognized for his fine freshmen campaign, garnering 25 of 28 first place votes to win the AL Rookie of the Year.  Similar to 1987, the game saw an unusual rise in home runs during the 1994 season.  Although, unlike the “rabbit ball” year, this time the increase in longballs sustained itself for more than a decade.  Since the player’s strike was not settled until April of the following year, the 1995 season was shortened from 162 to 144 games.  Veteran third baseman Gary Gaetti presented a serious challenge to Balboni’s franchise record when he finished the abbreviated campaign with 35 four-baggers.  Gaetti looked to be on pace to overtake the franchise mark when he sat at 34 home runs with 14 games left to play.  However, Gaetti fell into a slump, batting an abysmal .082 over next 13 games while failing to go deep.  In the final game of the Royals season, Gaetti snapped out of his homerless-drought and put the ball over the fence in his second at bat of the game to bring him to within one four-bagger of matching Balboni.  But in his last three plate appearances, Gaetti grounded out, hit a line drive single, and then flew out for the final out of the game.  Had the season not been delayed and shortened by the strike, it is possible, Gaetti would have been able surpass Balboni’s and Cerv’s records.  Gaetti concluded the year with 96 RBI, a .261 batting average, and 116 OPS+.

The 1995 campaign represented the start of a bleak 18-year period in which the Royals produced only one winning season.  Over that span, just three sluggers managed to put together 30-home run campaigns for Kansas City:  designated hitter Chili Davis belted exactly 30 in 1997, third baseman Dean Palmer cracked 34 in 1998, and right fielder Jermaine Dye smacked 33 in 2000.  By contrast, other baseball cities such as Baltimore, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco witnessed sluggers set new single-season benchmarks with 50, 60, or even 70-home run campaigns during this high-offense era.  The franchise finally snapped out of their funk in 2013 with a solid 86-76 record.  The following season the club went 89-73, ended their lengthy playoff drought, and came up just short against the San Francisco Giants in a razor-close seven-game World Series.  In 2015, Kansas City improved to 95-67 and returned to the Fall Classic where they defeated the New York Mets to claim the franchise’s second World Series championship.  However, the Royals did not rely on the home run for their success as the 2014 club’s 95 longballs were fewest in MLB while the 2015 team went deep just 139 times, the next-to-the lowest total in the AL.  In 2016, Kansas City’s record slipped back to 81-81 despite designated hitter Kendry Morales chipping in 30 home runs.  The 2016 season represented the first in a series of campaigns in which the average home run per game rate soared to never before seen heights even greater than the high-offense period of the late 1990s and early 2000s as more and more players focused on hitting the ball in the air.  

On April 6, 2017, Bob Cerv passed away at age 91.  Nearly six decades after clubbing 38 longballs for the 1958 Athletics, Cerv still held the Kansas City major league home run record.  Coincidentally, during the subsequent 2017 season, third baseman Mike Moustakas appeared to be on pace to easily break Cerv’s mark by going deep 25 times before the All-Star break.  Although Moustakas’ home run pace slowed down after the Midsummer Classic, he managed to tie Balboni’s franchise record with a three-run blast on September 1.  Moustakas failed to leave the yard over his next 15 games before finally homering on September 20 to set a new franchise benchmark.  Five days later, Moustakas matched Cerv’s Kansas City record with a majestic shot over the right field wall at Yankee Stadium.  Moustakas stepped to plate 16 more times but was unable to add to his home run total and finished the year tied with Cerv at 38.  Unfortunately, Moustakas hit each of his final three longballs on the road so the Royals fans at Kauffman Stadium did not get the opportunity to see the slugger equal and pass the franchise record or tie the Kansas City mark.  An impressive aspect of Moustakas’ season was that he had broken Balboni’s 32-year-old franchise record despite missing nearly all of the 2016 campaign after suffering a torn ACL in a collision with left fielder Alex Gordon while chasing a foul pop up.  Moustakas’ return from injury netted him the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award.  The power-hitting third baseman’s 38 home runs ranked fifth-best in the AL.  In addition, he collected 85 RBI and batted .272 with a .314 OBP.  Moustakas also posted a 117 OPS+ and 1.6 WAR as value-wise, his campaign much more resembled Balboni’s 1985 than Cerv’s 1958.  Once again, the Royals were unable to recapture their championship form from two seasons before, posting a middling 80-82 record.

Following Kansas City’s lackluster 2017 campaign, the club’s young core of players started becoming eligible for free agency.  As a small market team, the Royals did not have the finances to compete for their services on the open market.  During the offseason, first baseman Eric Hosmer and center fielder Lorenzo Cain departed the team to sign lucrative free agent contracts with the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers, respectively.  Not surprisingly, Kansas City immediately tumbled to the bottom of the AL Central standings once the 2018 campaign got underway.  Four days before the July 31 Trade Deadline, the Royals traded free-agent-to-be Mike Moustakas to the Brewers.  Kansas City ended the year in the AL Central cellar with an abysmal 58-104 record, the franchise’s worst since 2005.

The club continued to struggle mightily in 2019 despite the emergence of right fielder Jorge Soler as a new challenger to the dual Kansas City and Royals franchise single-season home run marks.  Picked up from the Chicago Cubs prior to the 2017 season, in exchange for relief pitcher Wade Davis, the 27-year-old Soler had battled injuries throughout his career and seen his 2018 campaign cut short when he suffered a broken bone in his left foot in mid-June.  Similar to Mike Moustakas two years before, Soler established himself as a threat to the home run records, going deep 23 times before the All-Star break.  However, where Moustakas’ longball pace slowed after the Midsummer Classic, Soler’s production ramped up in the season’s second half.  On August 30, Soler tied Cerv’s and Moustakas’ shared record with his 38th drive of the season.  Just three games later, on September 3, Soler set a new benchmark, hitting home run number 39 as part of a 6-5 win over the Tigers.  Soler’s record-breaking longball was a three-run blast which put him at exactly 100 RBI for the year.  Although the club was suffering through a difficult season, Soler was able to treat the Kauffman Stadium faithful as both his record-tying and record-breaking drives had taken place in front of Royals fans as part of a ten-game homestand.  Soler continued to scorch opposing pitching over the closing weeks of the season, connecting in the Royals last game of 2019 to finish the year with an AL-best 48 home runs.  Soler had not only obliterated Cerv’s and Moustakas’ shared mark of 38, but also became the first Royals hitter to pace the junior circuit in four-baggers.  Moreover, with his final blast of 2019, Soler passed Rafael Palmeiro to set the single-season home run record for Cuban-born players.

In addition to his eye-popping longball total, Soler tied for second in the AL with 117 RBI while also ranking in the top-five in total bases, slugging percentage, extra base hits, and at bats per home run.  Soler batted a mediocre .265 but, due in part to his 73 walks, managed to get on base at a more impressive .354 clip.  He did, however, lead the circuit in one dubious category, striking out 178 times.  The free-swinging slugger finished the season with 3.5 WAR and slotted just outside the top-ten with a solid 137 OPS+.  Despite carrying the reputation of being injury-prone, he proved to be durable during the 2019 campaign, appearing in all 162 games.  A right fielder by trade, Soler only saw limited time on defense and spent the majority of the year being used as the club’s designated hitter.  However, Soler’s record-setting season was not enough to pull Kansas City out of the doldrums as the team posted an ugly 59-103 mark.  Soler’s colossal power was one of the few bright spots in a depleted offense that scored the next-to-the least amount of runs in the AL.  The Royals lack of success likely played a role in MVP voters almost completely ignoring Soler as the home run champ drew just one tenth-place tally in the election.

Although Soler had smashed the Kansas City major league and Royals franchise records, catcher Salvador Perez quickly emerged as the next challenger to the dual benchmarks.  Originally signed in 2006 as a 16-year-old amateur free agent from his native Venezuela, Perez made his major league debuted for Kansas City late in the 2011 season.  Perez had been part of the young core of players who helped the Royals develop into a back-to-back pennant winner and 2015 World Series champion after a decade-plus as a losing ball club.  Through his career, Perez had shown pop in his bat, clubbing 27 home runs in both 2017 and 2018, but was recognized more for his defense which had netted him five Gold Glove Awards.  Prior to the 2019 campaign, Perez suffered an elbow injury which required Tommy John surgery and forced him to miss the entire season.  When the backstop made his return during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, he went on an offensive tear, belting 11 home runs in only 37 games while batting .333 with a 159 OPS+.  Prior to 2020, Perez had generally been a league average hitter, posting a career OPS+ of 98 with his seasonal marks slightly above or just below 100.  With his offensive breakout, Perez was named AL Comeback Player of the Year.

With right fielder Alex Gordon’s retirement following the 2020 season, Perez was the only core position player to remain from Kansas City’s 2015 championship team.  Before the start of the 2021 campaign, the veteran catcher underscored his commitment to the Royals franchise by signing a lucrative four-year contract extension.  Though he wasn’t quite able to replicate his breakout 2020, Perez put together a solid first half, posting a 115 OPS+ while appearing to be on pace for a personal best in longballs with 21 at the All-Star break.  Like Soler two years before, Perez started driving the ball out of the yard with even more regularity in the season’s second act.  The power-hitting backstop had a particularly impressive month of August in which he went deep 12 times, including an August 25 to 29 stretch where he homered in five straight games, with grand slams coming in back-to-back contests on August 26 and 27.  Perez’s longball surge put him at 38 going into September and he began drawing attention for his pursuit of Johnny Bench’s 51-year-old single-season home run record for catchers who spent at least of 75% of their games behind the plate.  Perez quickly closed in on Bench’s record, hitting home run numbers 43, 44, and 45 in successive contests with the final blast on September 16 matching the Hall of Fame catcher’s mark.  Four days later, on the road against the Cleveland Indians, Perez put the ball over the fence to stand alone in the record books.  Perez’s drive not only set a new standard for catchers but also was the 198th of his career and moved him past Mike Sweeney for number two on the Royals all-time home run list, trailing only the 317 hit by George Brett.

Perez next set his sights on Soler’s Kansas City major league and Royals franchise single-season home run records.  Coincidentally, Soler had been swapped to the Atlanta Braves in a trade deadline deal on July 30 but Perez maintained contact with his friend and former teammate who wished the backstop well in his pursuit of the record.  On September 28, the Royals hosted the Indians to begin a six-game homestand to close out the season.  Perez went deep in the opening contest for his 47th longball.  The following evening, Perez tied Soler’s record with a bottom of the first inning home run off Cleveland starter Zach Plesac.  Unfortunately, at the conclusion of the top of the second, Perez suffered a sprained ankle slipping on the dugout steps.  Perez took one more at bat before the injury forced him to leave the game.  Despite the sprain, the resilient slugger returned to the field without missing a game.  Though Perez stepped to the plate 18 more times after taking Plesac deep, he was unable to add to his longball total and thus had to settle for sharing the Kansas City major league and Royals franchise single-season home run records with Soler.

Perez finished his sensational 2021 campaign with 48 round-trippers, 121 RBI, a .273 batting average, and .316 OBP.  As the season drew to a close, Perez battled Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Shohei Ohtani for the AL home run crown.  Guerrero was able to go deep on the final day of the regular season and match Perez’s 48 drives which led not only the AL but all of MLB.  In addition to sharing the longball lead with Guerrero, Perez’s lofty RBI total also paced both the junior circuit and MLB.  Perez produced a 126 OPS+, an impressive mark for a catcher along with 5.3 WAR which ranked tenth among AL position players.  Perez showcased his durability, playing in 161 games.  His 124 games caught was the second highest total in the AL while his 43.9% caught stealing rate was the best among MLB backstops.  Perez’s record-breaking season put him in the conversation for a high finish in the AL MVP vote.  Despite Perez’s stellar campaign, Kansas City finished the year with a 74-88 record, the franchise’s fifth straight losing season.  However, the club’s 38-35 second half mark, when Perez swung a particularly hot bat, possibly foreshadowed a return to prominence for the Royals.

It will be interesting to see how long Perez and Soler hold the Kansas City major league single-season home run record.  Will the two sluggers hold the mark for multiple decades like Heavy Johnson and Bob Cerv or relinquish the honor after just a few seasons like Gus Zernial and Mike Moustakas?

 

----by John Tuberty

Follow me on Twitter @BloggerTubbs

Stat link to players mentioned: Salvador Perez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Johnny Bench, George Brett, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Jorge Soler, Zach Plesac, Alex Gordon, Rafael Palmeiro, Wade Davis, Mickey Mantle, Bo Jackson, Charlie Bastain, Charlie Berry, Bob Black, Frank McLaughlin, Lou Say, Peek-A-Boo Veach, Will McQuery, Al Myers, Sam Barkley, Jim McTamany, Jim Burns, Duke Kenworthy, Dutch Zwilling, Rube Foster, George Carr, Bullet Rogan, Heavy Johnson, Oscar Charleston, Willard Brown, Hurley McNair, Connie Mack, Jimmie Foxx, Gus Zernial, Bob Cerv, Red Wilson, Ryne Duren, Joe DeMaestri, Rocky Colavito, Jim Gentile, Ed Kirkpatrick, Bob Oliver, John Mayberry, Steve Balboni, Danny Tartabull, Bob Hamelin, Gary Gaetti, Chili Davis, Dean Palmer, Jermaine Dye, Kendrys Morales, Mike Sweeney

Sources:  Baseball Reference, Baseball Reference Bullpen, Seamheads, MLB, MiLB, Charlie Finley SABR biography, Bob Cerv SABR biography, Fox Sports, Saturday Evening Post, The Sporting News via SABR Paper of Record: July 16, 1958 and July 30, 1958 editions, Sports Encyclopedia, MLB article about which leagues are Major League, MLB article recognizing Negro Leagues as Major League, MLB article on Mike Moustakas’ injury, MLB article on Jorge Soler’s injury, MLB article about Salvador Perez tying Jorge Soler, SABR article about Jorge Soler setting Cuban home run record, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Larry Lester-Baseball’s First Colored World Series: The 1924 Meeting of the Hilldale Giants and Kansas City Monarchs (McFarland), CBS Sports, Kansas City Star

Cards: Salvador Perez 2016 Topps, Jorge Soler 2018 Topps, Bob Cerv 1959 Topps, Heavy Johnson 2020 Dreams Fulfilled Negro Leagues Legends, George Carr 2020 Dreams Fulfilled Negro Leagues Legends, Bullet Rogan 2020 Dreams Fulfilled Negro Leagues Legends, Gus Zernial 1957 Topps, Bob Cerv 1958 Topps, Rocky Colavito 1964 Auravision Records, John Mayberry 1975 Topps, Steve Balboni 1986 Topps, Bob Hamelin 1995 Topps, Mike Moustakas 2018 Topps Heritage, Jorge Soler 2020 Topps 1985 35th Anniversary, Salvador Perez 2017 Topps Heritage

 

Other Articles by Tubbs Baseball Blog:

An In-Depth Look at Hall of Fame Candidate Tim Hudson’s Career and How it Compares to Recent Cooperstown Inductees and Prominent Pitchers From His Era

How Dwight Evans Overcame a Mid-Career Crisis to Evolve into a Hall of Fame-Caliber Player 

The Break-up of The Oakland A’s Dynasty, How The Players Fared After Leaving as Free Agents, and Their Airbrushed 1977 Topps Cards

 

My Interview with Derek Stevenson, Umpire from the 2021 Perfect Game All-American Classic

Derek Stevenson umpires games in the greater Atlanta area

On August 22, 2021, San Diego’s Petco Park hosted the 19th edition of the Perfect Game All-American Classic.  This annual event brings together the nation’s top amateur players heading into their senior year of high school to face off in an East versus West battle.  Elijah Green, Dylan Lesko, and Jayson Jones each took part in this year’s contest along with many other top high school prospects from the Class of 2022.  The game also featured the sons of former major leaguers CC Sabathia (Carsten), Andruw Jones (Druw), Matt Holliday (Jackson), Carl Crawford (Justin), and Lou Collier (Cam).  Coverage of the event was broadcast live on the MLB Network.  Over the years this game has showcased dozens of future first-round draft picks.  Moreover, five recipients of the MVP Award—Freddie Freeman, Bryce Harper, Buster Posey, Kris Bryant, and Andrew McCutchen—have played in the All-American Classic along with 2016 AL Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello and frontline starting pitchers Gerrit Cole, Kevin Gausman, and Zack Wheeler.  Each club was managed by a former major league player with Clint Hurdle helming the East and Luis Gonzalez in charge of the West.  Hurdle skippered the Colorado Rockies to the 2007 NL Pennant and managed in the majors as recently as 2019.  Gonzalez hit 354 home runs during his impressive 19-year playing career and is most remembered for his Game Seven, Series-ending walk-off RBI single to help the Arizona Diamondbacks triumph over the New York Yankees in the 2001 Fall Classic.

The East won this year’s game, 9-1, with ten pitchers combining to no-hit the West.  The no-hitter was the first in the history of the All-American Classic.  Catcher Luke Heyman hit the only home run of the night, a two-run shot in the bottom of the third inning to put the East up 3-0, and was named the game’s MVP.  It was neat to get a glimpse into the future as I expect to see several of these players selected in the 2022 Amateur Draft and popping up in the major leagues over the next few seasons. 

However, what made this year’s All-American Classic special for me was seeing my friend Derek Stevenson in uniform as the game’s third base umpire.  Derek and I worked together in 2012 and 2013.  Since that time, our mutual love of baseball has helped us stay in touch and it has been wonderful to see Derek follow his career path and become an umpire.  Derek currently works games in the greater Atlanta area and was nice enough to answer some of my questions about his participation in the All-American Classic and his career as an umpire.

Derek, first of all congratulations for getting the opportunity to work this game and thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.  Can you tell us what it was like to receive the invite to work the Perfect Game All-American Classic and about your experiences during the event?

Thank you so much.  Getting this opportunity was a blessing.  When I received the invite, I was shocked.  Very unexpected. I believe I was speechless.  The experience was amazing. Seeing all of that talent from these young men just motivates me to be a better umpire for the game.  During the pregame Home Run Derby, I got to see some of these young men 16, 17 years old hit upper deck home runs at Petco Park.  And I got to stand in the same spot as some of the great umpires, Joe West, Hunter Wendelstedt, Jansen Visconti, and Tom Hallion.  It was an honor to be a part of this and I wish all these young men the best in the future. 

What types of games do you generally work as an umpire in the greater Atlanta area?

I generally work high school, college, and travel ball games here in Georgia.

When did you first become a baseball fan and who were your favorite teams and players growing up?

I was a baseball fan probably when I was in the womb.  Hahahaha.  I remember playing baseball since I was 5 and watching the Yankees, Mets, and Braves.  I gravitated towards the Braves because I watched Greg Maddux pitch one time and just was in shock at how great of a pitcher he was.  Chipper Jones was and is my favorite player.  His ability to switch hit amazed me and I wanted to play just like him and tried. 

When did you start umpiring and what made you realize you wanted to pursue this as a career?

I started umpiring about 4 years ago.  The moment I put on my uniform I knew this was what I wanted to do forever.  I was doing a travel ball game and I was the home plate umpire and it was an amazing close game, fans were into the game, the players were great—playing hard and making amazing plays.  I said to myself “this is where I belong!”  The joy and feeling I get on the field makes me want to continue this.  These players are so talented.

Can you tell us about the progression of your umpiring career that led to you getting the call to work the Perfect Game All-American Classic?

I have had a lot of help along the way.  My trainers, instructors, and my umpire brothers have all helped me.  They saw that I had raw talent and a drive to be a better umpire, so they took me under their wing and have and continued to mold me into a good umpire.  Going to umpire camps every year, working on your mechanics at home in the mirror, and the most important thing, being in your rule book, have all helped with my progress.  I have a long way to go to get to where I want to be.  I believe that Perfect Game has some of the best umpires you can find and we all work hard together and push each other to be better than yesterday.  It’s a blessing.

You mentioned umpire camps, what were some of the things you learned or felt you were able to improve on by attending these camps?

“What can’t you learn” is probably the better question and easier question haha.  I can go on for years about this topic.  When you go to these camps, you’re learning everything about the game of baseball.  They improve your rules knowledge of the game which helps your confidence on the field.  They improve your mechanics so they are nice, crisp, and sharp.  You come out these camps gaining a confidence you didn’t have going in.  There so much more these camps offer you as well.  They offer you a chance to be a part of something special.  Seeing these talented players on the field up close is a blessing and these camps humble you and make you feel special.

What is the most unbelievable moment that has happened during a game you were working?

I think the most unbelievable moment for me was doing a quarterfinal game for Perfect Game and I got to see a kid throw a seven-inning no-hitter at the age of 17.

Occasionally we see umpires get hit by the ball, what’s the worst injury you’ve sustained working behind the plate?

The worst one I had was getting hit in the mask by a foul ball.  I had to be taken out of that game. 

Ouch.  Sounds painful.  I know concussions are a concern for umpires too.

Yes they are.  The catchers do a great job in trying make sure we don’t get hit but it happens.

Have you officiated any other sports besides baseball?

Yes.  I do football and softball.

As we know umpires get more than their fair share of verbal abuse.  What is the funniest or strangest (family-friendly) thing a player or coach has said while arguing a call?

Hahahahahaha yes we do from time to time.  I think the funniest thing was when a parent told me that I’m supposed to ask for help on a check swing every time. 

What is your advice for someone looking to pursue a career in umpiring or officiating?

Always be humble, work hard on your mechanics on and off the field.  Always remember someone is watching you no matter the level game you’re calling.  Be professional, don’t be afraid to fail or make a mistake.  Get and stay in your rule book.  And lastly have fun.  As Harry Wendelstedt once said, “You can’t hide a good umpire.”

Derek, thank you for taking the time with me today.  I look forward to seeing the continued progress of your umpiring career.  And once again congrats for working the Perfect Game All-American.

Thank you so much John.  I had a great time doing this interview.

Derek working the third base line during the Perfect Game All-American Classic

----by John Tuberty 

Follow me on Twitter @BloggerTubbs

Sources: Perfect Game, MLB Network telecast of Perfect Game All-American Classic

Stat links to players mentioned: Freddie Freeman, Buster Posey, Bryce Harper, Kris Bryant, Andrew McCutchen, Gerrit Cole, Kevin Gausman, Zack Wheeler, Rick Porcello, Chipper Jones, Greg Maddux, CC Sabathia, Andruw Jones, Matt Holliday, Carl Crawford, Lou Collier, Clint Hurdle, Luis Gonzalez

Links to Perfect Game All-American players mentioned: Elijah Green, Dylan Lesko, Jayson Jones, Carsten Sabathia, Druw Jones, Jackson Holliday, Justin Crawford, Cam Collier, Luke Heyman

 

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