It’s time for the Royals to honor George Spriggs
Our only alumni
The Royals have made some significant moves this spring, inducting Bo Jackson, John Schuerholz and Cedric Tallis into the team’s Hall of Fame. Now that Tallis has been inducted, I’ll need to find a new windmill to tilt at. Bringing attention to the Tallis oversight has been one of my main passions the last five years and I’m very happy for the Tallis family to see this long-overdue honor.
My second passion has been to publicize the history of George Spriggs’ Kansas City baseball career. I know you might be asking George who? Even for old fogies like me, Spriggs is a piece of long-ago history. He only appeared in 74 games for the Royals during the 1969 and 1970 seasons, ending his Royal career with a slash of .195/.275/.289. No, Spriggs impact was bigger than the numbers. He was and will forever be, the Royals’ only alumni of the famed Negro Leagues.
Many of you are familiar with Kansas City’s rich history with the Negro Leagues. The League got its start right here in KC in 1920 after a meeting at the Paseo YMCA. The Kansas City Monarchs were one of the Negro League powerhouse teams for several decades. If you want to read more, I did a five-part series on the history of the Negro Leagues in May of 2020.
But change came slowly to major league baseball. Going back to Kansas City’s early franchise, the Athletics, the team had five Negro League alumni, the first being Bob Trice, a right-handed pitcher who started his career with the Homestead Grays. The Athletics signed him in 1953. Trice pitched in Philadelphia during the 1953 and 1954 seasons before moving west with the team in 1955. He appeared in only four games for the Athletics while in Kansas City.
The Athletics' second alumni was a hard-hitting outfielder Joe Cephus Taylor, who originally played for the Chicago American Giants. Taylor joined the Athletics in the same deal that brought them Hector Lopez. Taylor’s Athletics career was short, as he only appeared in 18 games, hitting .224 with just one home run. He was sold to Cincinnati prior to the 1956 season and appeared in 33 games for the Reds. In December of 1957, the Reds traded Taylor and Curt Flood to St. Louis for a trio of players. He split the last two years of his career between the Cardinals and the Orioles before retiring.
The Athletics last three alumni were signed after the team moved to Kansas City. The first was outfielder Bobby Prescott, who only appeared in 10 games, collecting just one hit. The final two were pitchers John Wyatt, who had played for the Indianapolis Clowns, and John “Blue Moon” Odom, who pitched for the Raleigh Tigers. Both Wyatt and Odom had significant success with Kansas City. Wyatt had two stints with the Athletics, six seasons in Kansas City and the final year of his career in Oakland. He appeared in a league leading 81 games in 1964, a season in which he made his only All-Star appearance. In June of 1966, Kansas City traded Wyatt (along with Rollie Sheldon and Jose Tartabull) to Boston for Jim Gosger, Guido Grilli and Ken Sanders. Wyatt played a significant role in the Sox “Impossible dream” 1967 season. He appeared in 60 games, including many critical ones down the stretch, throwing 93 innings with a 2.60 ERA. He was the winning pitcher in Game Six of the World Series. There were a lot of Kansas City connections on that Red Sox team. George Scott, Joe Foy, Dave Morehead, Galen Cisco, Ken Brett and Jerry Adair later played for the Royals, while Wyatt, Ken Harrelson, Tartabull, Jim Landis, Dan Osinski, Bill Landis, Jose Santiago and Norm Siebern all spent time with the Kansas City Athletics. Later in his career, Wyatt was traded from the Yankees to the Tigers for Jim Rooker. Rooker never appeared in a game for the Yanks, having been selected by the Royals in the expansion draft.
Odom made his Kansas City debut in 1964 at the age of 19. He enjoyed the best season of his 13-year career in 1968, when he went 16 and 10 with a sparkling 2.45 ERA over 231 innings of work. He made two All-Star appearances in 1968 and 1969. He was one of the more colorful characters in Athletics history.
All of this brings us back to Spriggs, who was among the last group of Negro Leaguers to make the jump to the majors. The final five were Paul Casanova, who signed with the Washington Senators in 1965, the same year that Spriggs signed with the Pirates. Hal King signed with the Houston Astros in 1967 and Ike Brown signed with the Tigers in 1969. The final player who made the jump is somewhat debatable. Many people say it is Billy Parker, a hard-hitting outfielder who played with the Indianapolis Clowns from 1961 to 1964. The California Angels signed Parker in 1971 and he hit a walk off home run in his debut. Parker played 94 games for the Halos between 1971 and 1973, followed by three seasons in the Yankees minor league system before retiring at the age of 34. You see, with Billy Parker, the age was a bit of a question mark. Turns out he was actually five years older than he claimed, a tactic used by many Negro League and foreign ballplayers. All they wanted was a chance to play, and if that took fudging your age, then so be it.
The other player who could lay claim to being the last Negro League alumni is the diminutive Harry Chappas, who played for the Indianapolis Clowns, who by that time were a mixed race, touring ball club. Chappas, who stood between 5’3 and 5’5, was drafted and signed by the Chicago White Sox in 1976 and so impressed Sox owner Bill Veeck that he got into 20 games in 1978, made the cover of Sports Illustrated in March of 1979, a year in which he hit his only career home run, off the Brewers Bill Travers. Now does Chappas, a white man, deserve the title of the last player to make the jump from the Negro Leagues? Or should that honor belong to Parker? I’ll let the readers fight that one out.
White Sox owner Veeck was always an innovator and early adopter of Negro League players. He tried to buy the struggling Philadelphia Phillies in 1942 and floated the idea of stocking the roster with Negro League stars. When baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis heard the plan, Landis had the National League take over the Phillies, and were ultimately sold to lumber baron William Cox. The Phillies shamefully didn’t integrate until 1957. And Landis? Despite all evidence pointing to him being an unapologetic racist, he’s still in the Hall of Fame.
Veeck moved on to the Cleveland Indians where he famously signed Larry Doby in July of 1947. Veeck would go on to sign several Negro League stars such as Satchel Paige, Minnie Minoso and Luke Easter.
As for George Spriggs, after serving a two-year stint in the military, he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates assigned him to their Class A team, which at the age of 26, and with his experience, was a mistake. Spriggs spent the next six seasons wrecking various levels of the Pirates minor league system. Unfortunately for him, the Pirates were loaded with topflight outfielders. The Bucs had Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell, two Hall of Famers, and at various times employed Bill Virdon, Matty Alou, Manny Mota and later a young Al Oliver. Even Mota, who was a career .304 hitter, had trouble getting at bats with the Pirates.
The Royals, always on the lookout for talent, bought Spriggs from the Pirates prior to the 1969 season. By this time Spriggs was 32 and we all know what happens as players crest over that age. Spriggs bounced between Kansas City and Omaha for two seasons, struggling to get playing time in KC then subsequently tearing up AAA pitching. Spriggs was the American Association MVP for the 1970 season.
He had some moments though. His first hit as a Royal came on April 13, 1969, a single off Blue Moon Odom, in what may have been one of the last matchups between former Negro League players. His best game came on April 17th, 1970, in a game at Anaheim. Batting leadoff and playing rightfield, Spriggs went four for five, scored three runs and recorded five putouts in leading the team to a 7-5 win. He hit his only big-league home run on September 21 off the White Sox Joe Horlen. His last hit came a little over a week later, with a first-inning single off the Twins Jim Perry in a game at Municipal. With young outfielders like Lou Piniella and Amos Otis getting most of the playing time, the Royals sold Spriggs to the Mets in March of 1971. He missed most of the 1971 season with a knee injury but did come back to play 41 games in 1972 for the Met’s AAA team at Tidewater, before retiring at the age of 35.
George Spriggs passed away on December 22, 2020, after battling health problems for several years. Over the years, I’ve gotten acquainted with Spriggs’ wife Daphne and have tried to stay in touch with her, so in a sense, this quest has become personal. Inducting Cedric Tallis into the team’s Hall of Fame was the right thing to do and doing something to honor George Spriggs is also the right thing to do. I’m not asking for him to be put into the team Hall of Fame, but some recognition would be appreciated. Maybe a plaque in the team’s Hall of Fame or a banner at the Stadium. The Royals have something here that not every team has and with Kansas City being home to the fantastic Negro League Hall of Fame, it just seems like the right thing to do.
I’d also like to give a shoutout to my friend Duane McDonald. I met Duane in 1989 and he could easily be described as a guy who didn’t know a stranger. We bonded over our love of the Chiefs and the Royals, plus we were both Big 8 guys, Duane being a Missouri grad, and me from K-State. Duane was always the leader of our small group of friends, the sun around which we all rotated. Once a year, four or five of us would load up into a minivan and make the drive to Ames to watch Missouri play. Duane also spearheaded our men’s softball team which naturally was named after a long-gone, local bar: Halley’s Comets. He also outfitted us with audacious shirts. During a time when most teams wore white, grey or blue, Duane outfitted us in hot pink. Another year it was lime green. One year the color could best be described as Kidney Stone red. You get the idea. We stood out. Duane pitched while I played short, and we were good, always battling our archrivals Rudy’s Tacos and Harnack for top spot in the local Thursday night C division. After games, we’d repair to the parking lot for cold beers to rehash the game. Later in life, Duane moved back to Kansas City and as sometimes happens, our contact became less frequent. Duane died this week from complications of Parkinson’s disease, gone to soon at the age of 73. So long and farewell my old friend.