Royals historian Curt Nelson delivers an All-Star lesson

Curt Nelson is the self-proclaimed “king of the geeks.” Nelson is the director of the Royals Hall of Fame, and his windowless office, buried under the museum, which is beyond left field, is cluttered with bats, jerseys and other memorabilia.

In 1999, Nelson began working for the Royals’ marketing department and started curating the hall in 2007. And it’s no wonder that he was selected to curate the team’s past. Nelson recites facts, stats, dates and figures about the Royals with a savantlike level of precision. Perhaps the Tulsa native’s ability to retain tidbits and factoids is due to the team’s existence mirroring his own life, nearly down to the month.

“The Kauffmans were awarded the team on January 11, 1968, and I was born on February 16, 1968,” Nelson says. “So the club’s only about a month older than me. When the Royals won the World Series in 1985, I was in my senior year of high school, so my entire childhood sort of revolved around these Royals moments.”

In his role at the Royals Hall of Fame, Nelson educates baseball fans not only of the team’s history but also of Kansas City’s broader baseball past.

“Since 1884 until now, there has been only one year in Kansas City where there wasn’t at least one — sometimes there were multiple — professional baseball team,” he says. “That was 1968, because Charlie Finley moved the A’s, and we had to wait one year to get the expansion Royals.”

For Nelson, who gets animated and raises his voice as he discusses the game, teaching fans about the city’s rich baseball history seems like the reason he gets up in the morning.

“One of the most rewarding and challenging parts of this job is trying to explain to people what a tremendous history of professional baseball there is in Kansas City,” he says. “It’s a history most people don’t know.”

Nelson graciously offered The Pitch the use of his steel-trap mind to guide All-Star Game visitors and local fans through Kansas City’s All-Star past and some lesser-known pieces of baseball history in the city.

1960

The July 11, 1960, game drew 30,619 fans to the Kansas City Athletics’ Municipal Stadium at 22nd Street and Brooklyn Avenue. The game was the first of two played that year (the other was played at Yankee Stadium). The National League shut down the American League 5-3 in the Kansas City game.

“One of the guys that would lead to that victory was Ernie Banks for the Cubs,” Nelson says. “He hit a home run in the first inning. And what’s interesting about that is that he played for the Kansas City Monarchs.”

The 1960 season also marked the beginning of the end for the Athletics’ time in Kansas City. A news brief in the July 11, 1960, issue of Sports Illustrated began: “Kansas City may lose its baseball team. The death of Owner Arnold Johnson posed some interesting tax problems for his widow, whose addresses — New York, Palm Beach and Chicago — perhaps indicate the extent of her hometown interest in Kansas City. The best guess is that she will unload the Athletics to the highest cash bidder.”

It turned out to be prophetic. In December, Charlie Finley, perhaps the most colorful owner in MLB history, snatched up the club.

After eight years of stunts at Municipal Stadium, including a donkey mascot named Charlie O., a robotic rabbit named Harvey that brought baseballs to umpires, and sheep grazing beyond the outfield fence, Finley moved the team to Oakland, where it became the dynasty Kansas City has never had.

[page]

1973

The last All-Star Game in Kansas City — July 24, 1973 — came at a time when the city felt like it was on the brink of becoming a major American metropolitan area. During this period, the city’s businesses were running a PR campaign called the Kansas City Prime Time News Bureau (not far from the team’s 2012 motto “Our Time”) to attract positive stories about the city.

Kauffman Stadium — then Royals Stadium — was the jewel of MLB homes and had opened only three months earlier. News accounts from the time indicate that fans were mesmerized by the scoreboard, which cost Ewing Kauffman $2 million and was computerized, a newfangled concept for the era.

“The scoreboard was astounding at the time. It was huge,” Nelson says. And the fountains beyond the outfield fence were referred to uniformly as “the water spectacular.”

While the All-Star Game and the new ballpark gave Kansas City its moment in the national spotlight, there was far more going on to make Kansas Citians swell with sports pride in the early 1970s. Arrowhead Stadium had opened less than a year before, and Kemper Arena was being built that summer. It was the beginning of Kansas City’s brief period with all four major professional sports. The NHL’s Kansas City Scouts and the NBA’s Kansas City Kings both would begin playing in Kemper in 1974. The city’s four-sport era ended in 1976, though, when the Scouts fled for Denver to become the Colorado Rockies. The Kings resettled in Sacramento in 1985.

Additionally, the Royals were on the verge of a string of successful seasons.

“Seventy-three was a huge year in Kansas City for the Royals because the ballpark opened, hosted the All-Star Game,” Nelson says. “And George Brett had debuted, and earlier than that, Frank White debuted.” Brett and White are two of only three Royals to have their numbers retired.

The game followed all-day rain showers that washed out batting practice. The Kansas City Star noted that ground-crew members used gas-powered blowers to dry the artificial turf, and a tractor dragged squeegees across the drenched outfield. A sellout crowd of 40,849 came out and saw their hometown stars perform admirably in a game that the NL mostly dominated. Royals first baseman John Mayberry hit a double and had a walk, and center fielder Amos Otis knocked in the AL’s only run in the 7-1 loss.

Royals fans, with their new stadium and new team, were in an especially unforgiving mood toward Finley and the six Oakland A’s on the AL squad. A Sports Illustrated article recapped the game: “Those fans showed their continued hostility to Finley by booing every Oakland member of the All-Star team.”

The SI story also recounted that A’s ace Catfish Hunter, who played his first three seasons in Kansas City, hurt his hand in the game while trying to catch a line drive barehanded. The Royals went on a tear after hosting the game and closed in on the A’s in the AL West standings. That led Royals brass to get a little cocky.

SI reported: “[L]ast week Royal officials were making contingency plans, including ticket-printing schedules, not only for a divisional playoff but for a World Series. ‘I hope putting on the All-Star Game, strenuous as it was, turns out to have been a rehearsal for staging the playoffs and the World Series,’ said the Royals’ publicist, Bob Wirz.”

The team was getting ahead of itself. Alas, Hunter recovered, as did the A’s, who went on to win the World Series for a second consecutive season and would win a third the following year. The Royals would have to wait until 1980 to reach the World Series and until 1985 for their first championship.

[page]

Notable Royals All-Star Performances

Nelson says there are two All-Star Game moments that are forever cemented in team lore. The first came in the 1989 game in Anaheim. Royals outfielder Bo Jackson led off for the American League in the bottom of the first and crushed a Rick Reuschel pitch for a monstrous 448-foot home run.

Legendary Dodgers announcer Vin Scully, who was broadcasting the game for NBC, memorably exclaimed: “Look at that one! Bo Jackson says hello!”

In game tape, President Ronald Reagan, who was visiting with Scully in the broadcast booth, can be heard marveling at the shot.

A more depressing memorable Royals moment in the Midsummer Classic happened during the 1986 game at Houston’s Astrodome. As the manager of the reigning American League champions, Royals skipper Dick Howser managed the AL during the game.

“The 1986 game is one of the most memorable for Royals fans because Dick was managing the game,” Nelson says. “While he was there, he was sort of having trouble remembering names and was generally not feeling very well. They sent him to the doctor after he got back [to Kansas City] and that’s when they found the brain tumor, and he never managed again.” Howser died of brain cancer in 1987.

But there was a happy Royals memory associated with the game, Nelson explains.

“One of the last managerial decisions he made was to send Frank White up to bat against Mike Scott late in the game,” Nelson says. “Mike Scott was one of the best pitchers in the league and playing for the Astros. And [he was] pitching in his home ballpark. Frank came in and hit a home run. That provided the winning margin.”

The AL won 3-2.

Origin of the Royals’ Name

Although it might make sense to think the Royals name was a takeoff of the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues, it’s a homage to the American Royal rodeo and livestock show that has been an annual summer event in Kansas City since 1899.

Lou Gehrig’s Final At-Bat

Baseball fans worth their Cracker Jacks know the Iron Horse’s record of 2,130 consecutive games played ended on May 2, 1939, after he took himself out of the Yankees lineup. But that wasn’t Lou Gehrig’s final game.

On June 12 of that year, the Yankees were in Kansas City to take on their top-level minor league club, the Kansas City Blues. Ailing from the little-understood amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Gehrig gave 23,864 fans at Municipal Stadium the special treat of seeing him play a few innings. He grounded out in his only at-bat.

In 1999, teammate Tommy Henrich told the Associated Press that Gehrig played “for the sake of those fans,” he recalled. “But he did swing and hit the ball. That’s about all he could do.”

The next day, Gehrig arrived at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, hoping to find out what was making him ill.

“So, all his teammates get on the bus and go back to New York, and he and his wife get on a train and go up to Minnesota,” Nelson says. “And that’s where he got his diagnosis of ALS. So, it was indeed the last time he was on the field to play.”

Not So Much Beatlemania

The only time the Beatles played in Kansas City, they weren’t even supposed to. In the midst of nonstop touring in 1964, the Fab Four had a precious off day scheduled for September 17, between gigs in New Orleans and Dallas. Finley decided he had to get the Beatles to play Municipal Stadium.

[page]

According to a story told by many band biographers, Finley offered $50,000 or $60,000 for the band to play a short concert on the field. The band told its manager, Brian Epstein, that they’d rather have the day off.

Finley, an eccentric to the end, wouldn’t be denied. He came back with an offer of $150,000 for the performance. According to rock lore, it was a record price at the time.

The Beatles said yes — their seventh straight night of performing — and played a 32-minute set. The most expensive ticket price for the show was $8.50, which was the highest ticket price charged during the tour. Maybe the seats were too expensive or Kansas City’s teens just hadn’t cottoned to the British Invasion. The show didn’t sell out, drawing only 20,207. The stadium could have held 35,000.

The Beatles opened the set with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller’s “Kansas City.” Finley lost money on the show. The Beatles never came back to Kansas City.

Jackie Robinson’s Royals Past

“This is how you can win a bar bet: Say, ‘Did Jackie Robinson ever play for the Kansas City Royals?’ ” Nelson says, setting up one of Kansas City’s most obscure pieces of baseball trivia. “And, of course, everybody will say, ‘No, it’s not possible. His career was long over before the Royals played in 0x000A1969.’ Which is true but incorrect.”

In 1945, Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues. Then he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, quit playing for the Monarchs, and went west to play in the California Winter League. There he played for former Monarch Chet Brewer’s team, which he named after the American Royal in Kansas City.

“He couldn’t call his team the Kansas City Monarchs, so he called them the Kansas City Royals,” Nelson says.

Just to make it even more confusing, after Robinson left California’s Kansas City Royals, he played for the Dodgers’ minor league team in Montreal, also named the Royals.

Where the Antelope Roam

Kansas City also was the site of a game that supposedly happened in the 1860s, when the Kansas City Antelopes played on the same piece of ground where Sprint Center is located today.

“The tale goes that the Antelopes — their big rivals were the Atchison Pomeroys, and they played each other a couple of times,” Nelson says. “They played here once and the Antelopes won big, and they played out there once and the Pomeroys won big. And they both felt like they were ripped off because of bad umpiring, hometown umpiring. So the story goes that they decided to play a third game, but they had to find somebody to umpire the game, and they never could figure out who could do that. And they found Wild Bill Hickok, the famous gunslinger who was in Kansas City during this particular time frame.”

The teams agreed that Hickok would make an impartial ump.

“He had a liking for baseball, and he supposedly had friends on both teams, being a person who roamed around,” Nelson says. “So they all agreed that he would umpire the game. So, supposedly, he umpired the third game, which the Antelopes won. And he umpired the game with his two six-shooters around his waist, just to make sure there would be no hooliganism during the game.”

Of course, there’s little documentation to back up the legend. But a dash of myth has never bothered baseball historians.

[page]

“Whether there’s complete truth to that story, I don’t know how we would ever find out,” Nelson says. “But it’s a beautiful story nonetheless.”