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George Brett: A Royal Hero
George A Royal Hero is the most complete volume ever compiled about the 1999 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee. His legendary career is reviewed in precise detail through articles that appeared in The Kansas City Star from the early 1970s through 1999. No one followed George Brett with greater interest nor wrote of his exploits with greater insight than the sportswriters of the Royals' hometown daily newspaper. Brett's career, 21 years with the Kansas City Royals, included 12 All-Star appearances and one batting title in each of the three decades in which he played.
192 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1999
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Kansas City Star
25 books1 followerThe Kansas City Star is a newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri, that has been published since 1880.
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January 30, 2025
This book is much, much better than the other recent one I read about George Brett. It is a collection of news clippings from Brett's long career for the KC Royals, from his rookie season until his induction into the baseball Hall of Fame. That additional perspective helps give the work more depth. Individual pieces were written by an array of writers over the decades, which increases the diversity of perspectives. Some of them are now well-known baseball journalists, including Joe Posnanski, Tracy Ringolsby, Jason Whitlock, and Bob Nightengale.
The book makes clear that Brett was a remarkable player, hitting home runs in key situations such as the 1980 and 1985 playoffs, which directly contributed to KC making the World Series in each occasion. He met multiple presidents (there are pictures with some, including Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush) and received books written by Richard Nixon from the author. He helped raise money for ALS and built ties to Kansas City even as he remained close with his brothers.
One clear virtue of the book is that it is not a hagiography. George Brett's flaws are discussed here, though sometimes in subtle ways. He was an oft-injured player, missing about 2 full seasons worth of games during his career (and KC was below .500 in those games, p. 113). Different columns make clear that his aggressive sliding (pp. 41, 55), fights with opponents (p. 22), and efforts to break-up double plays (p. 30) cost him weeks at a time. In the Cameron book, Brett's aggression was only viewed as a positive. Here, readers learn of Brett confrontations with reporters leading to broken equipment and punches delivered. In anger, he destroyed a toilet in Minnesota and then had an incident with the reporter who made that known.
Some articles also note that Brett's throwing errors at third base could also be costly. The worst instances were playoff games in 1976 (pp. 16-17) and 1977 (p. 27) that led to NY Yankee runs in close games and series. NY won those games and series. In fairness, the book notes that Brett won the American League Gold Glove for defense at 3B in 1985 (p. 100) though the vote was distributed across many players after other top defensive 3Bs moved to the National League.
Despite those virtues, the book does have some weaknesses. My major bugaboo was the great importance given to batting average. In the modern game, analysts rarely talk about BA as lots of research demonstrates that on-base percentage and slugging percentage are far more important in terms of scoring runs and winning games. I didn't find any references to OBP in the book and saw slugging listed in a chart on one of the last pages (but not on the page with final statistics included at the very end). Brett's career extended well into the era when baseball analysts like Bill James were talking about the importance of OBP and SLG. Were sports writers in KC unaware of the work being doing less than 100 miles away near Lawrence, KS? Did they not realize that Brett led the AL in slugging in 1980, 1983, and 1985, was in the top 10 in 9 seasons, and ended his career with an excellent number (.487)? His career OBP was .367, also exceptional. It was an incredible league-leading .454 in 1980! He was in the top 10, actually top 9, in 7 seasons.
The lack of focus on slugging percentage does not mean that Brett's power was altogether ignored. Again, occasionally, key HRs are noted -- the Pine Tar game comes up repeatedly, in addition to those post-season HRs. And when Brett got to 2800 hits his extra base hit and Total Base numbers are mentioned favorably (p. 157), but the book emphasizes BA again and again and again. In part, this is because Brett won BA titles in 1976, 1980, and 1990 -- and often finished in the top 10 (9 times). In the 1970s, baseball announcers, analysts, players, and teams valued BA very highly. But I knew about Bill James as a grad student at Maryland in 1985 when his baseball annual was a best seller. By the 1990s, and certainly by Brett's HOF induction, writers should have known about his abilities to get on base and hit for power, the two most important offensive skills.
On multiple occasions over the years, journalists took at face value Brett's apparently much-repeated claim that he was not much of a minor league prospect and never expected to be a star hitter. These facts do not bear up with even a little analysis. As a minor league hitting prospect, Brett's statistics reveal more walks than strikeouts. That's a HUGE marker of potential talent, though admittedly not as rare the further you look back at baseball history. He arrived in AAA and the major leagues at a very young age (20). He skipped AA altogether and his triple slash line improved in every category when he made the leap from A ball to AAA (BA/OBP/SLG). The Royals knew they had a potential star, surely, after drafting him in round 2 when he was an 18 year old high school kid. He played his entire first rookie season at age 18.
Finally, I found some minor editing issues with inconsistent claims (regarding All Star appearances, p. 29), missing words (45 less what, p. 26), incorrect measures (an AB streak rather than a K streak on p. 19), and erroneous word choices (waiting/walking, and bench/button p. 89).
The book makes clear that Brett was a remarkable player, hitting home runs in key situations such as the 1980 and 1985 playoffs, which directly contributed to KC making the World Series in each occasion. He met multiple presidents (there are pictures with some, including Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush) and received books written by Richard Nixon from the author. He helped raise money for ALS and built ties to Kansas City even as he remained close with his brothers.
One clear virtue of the book is that it is not a hagiography. George Brett's flaws are discussed here, though sometimes in subtle ways. He was an oft-injured player, missing about 2 full seasons worth of games during his career (and KC was below .500 in those games, p. 113). Different columns make clear that his aggressive sliding (pp. 41, 55), fights with opponents (p. 22), and efforts to break-up double plays (p. 30) cost him weeks at a time. In the Cameron book, Brett's aggression was only viewed as a positive. Here, readers learn of Brett confrontations with reporters leading to broken equipment and punches delivered. In anger, he destroyed a toilet in Minnesota and then had an incident with the reporter who made that known.
Some articles also note that Brett's throwing errors at third base could also be costly. The worst instances were playoff games in 1976 (pp. 16-17) and 1977 (p. 27) that led to NY Yankee runs in close games and series. NY won those games and series. In fairness, the book notes that Brett won the American League Gold Glove for defense at 3B in 1985 (p. 100) though the vote was distributed across many players after other top defensive 3Bs moved to the National League.
Despite those virtues, the book does have some weaknesses. My major bugaboo was the great importance given to batting average. In the modern game, analysts rarely talk about BA as lots of research demonstrates that on-base percentage and slugging percentage are far more important in terms of scoring runs and winning games. I didn't find any references to OBP in the book and saw slugging listed in a chart on one of the last pages (but not on the page with final statistics included at the very end). Brett's career extended well into the era when baseball analysts like Bill James were talking about the importance of OBP and SLG. Were sports writers in KC unaware of the work being doing less than 100 miles away near Lawrence, KS? Did they not realize that Brett led the AL in slugging in 1980, 1983, and 1985, was in the top 10 in 9 seasons, and ended his career with an excellent number (.487)? His career OBP was .367, also exceptional. It was an incredible league-leading .454 in 1980! He was in the top 10, actually top 9, in 7 seasons.
The lack of focus on slugging percentage does not mean that Brett's power was altogether ignored. Again, occasionally, key HRs are noted -- the Pine Tar game comes up repeatedly, in addition to those post-season HRs. And when Brett got to 2800 hits his extra base hit and Total Base numbers are mentioned favorably (p. 157), but the book emphasizes BA again and again and again. In part, this is because Brett won BA titles in 1976, 1980, and 1990 -- and often finished in the top 10 (9 times). In the 1970s, baseball announcers, analysts, players, and teams valued BA very highly. But I knew about Bill James as a grad student at Maryland in 1985 when his baseball annual was a best seller. By the 1990s, and certainly by Brett's HOF induction, writers should have known about his abilities to get on base and hit for power, the two most important offensive skills.
On multiple occasions over the years, journalists took at face value Brett's apparently much-repeated claim that he was not much of a minor league prospect and never expected to be a star hitter. These facts do not bear up with even a little analysis. As a minor league hitting prospect, Brett's statistics reveal more walks than strikeouts. That's a HUGE marker of potential talent, though admittedly not as rare the further you look back at baseball history. He arrived in AAA and the major leagues at a very young age (20). He skipped AA altogether and his triple slash line improved in every category when he made the leap from A ball to AAA (BA/OBP/SLG). The Royals knew they had a potential star, surely, after drafting him in round 2 when he was an 18 year old high school kid. He played his entire first rookie season at age 18.
Finally, I found some minor editing issues with inconsistent claims (regarding All Star appearances, p. 29), missing words (45 less what, p. 26), incorrect measures (an AB streak rather than a K streak on p. 19), and erroneous word choices (waiting/walking, and bench/button p. 89).
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