Originally Posted by Coach
(Post 10963157)
From Joe Posnanski's Facebook:
-- Once asked Dan Quisenberry if he missed the cheers. He said, 'Nah, I just go to the ballpark, listen to the cheers and I pretend they're for me."
-- Once heard George Brett explain that the only way to hit a home run is to try not to hit one. Royals zen!
-- Once heard John Mayberry explain his strategy for catching those tricky foul pop-ups. He would look up at the sky, gather himself, and yell at the top of his lungs, "FRANK! FRANK! FRANK!" Then Frank White would catch them.
-- Once heard Jim Sundberg say what it was like catching a young Bret Saberhagen. He said, "It was like holding up the canvas for Picasso."
-- Once heard pitcher Al Fitzmorris recount a mound conversation he had with John Mayberry on one of those impossibly hot Kansas City days, when the air was 100 degrees and the turf 120 and the players would soak their feet (spikes and all) in ice buckets between innings. Fitzmorris got in some trouble, and Mayberry wandered over from first base to settle him down. "If you don't throw strikes," Mayberry said as sweat poured off his face. "I'm going to kill you."
-- Once heard Hal McRae's response when the Yankees Cliff Johnson challenge him to a fight before a Yankees-Royals playoff game. The teams despised each other, and the series had been one collision after another, and before the game McRae and Johnson got into an argument, and finally Johnson said, "Let's settle this under the stands." McRae said: "Cliff, I don't fight extra men."
-- Once heard Brett's words to Texas' ferocious Willie Horton when, during a brawl, Brett had unwittingly torn Horton's jacket off. Horton turned to see Brett holding the tattered remains of the jacket, and Brett saw the fire in this big man's eyes, and he said, simply, "Here's your jacket Mr. Horton."
"Next thing," Brett said. "I was looking up at the sky."
-- Once heard Frank White define the best Royals teams this way: "Ninth inning, two outs, game on the line, you had eight fielders on the team and every one of them was thinking the same thing: Hit it to me."
The Kansas City Royals in the playoffs for the first time since 1985. Enjoy this moment Kansas City. And, yes, hope for more.
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