In memoriam: Royals that died in 2024

Rest in peace.

With the year concluding, it is time to reflect on those we lost this year. The baseball world lost greats like Willie “The Say Hey Kid” Mays, Hit King Pete Rose, and stolen base champ Rickey Henderson, as well as greats like Rico Carty, Ed Krranepool, Bud Harrrelson, Ferrnando Valenzuela, Luis Tiant, Ken Holtzman, Rudy May, Don Gullett, Carl Erskine, and manager Jimy Williams.

We also lost members of the Royals community in 2024.

Doug Bird

James Douglas Bird was from southern California and was drafted out of high school by the Royals in 1969. He was nearly sent to Vietnam only to have his records destroyed in a fire at the draft board. Instead, he began his pro baseball career and was in the big leagues by 1973. He became a trusted “fireman” out of the pen and led the team with 20 saves in his rookie year, fourth-most in the American League.

From 1973 to 1975 his 41 saves were fifth-most in the AL, and he had a 2.99 ERA over that time. Whitey Herzog moved Bird to the rotation in 1976 and he responded with a 12-10 record and a 3.37 ERA, leading the league with the lowest walk rate. He picked up the win in relief in Game 4 of the ALCS against the Yankees that fall.

Bird went back to the bullpen the next year, joining a colorful cast of characters that included lefty Steve Mingori, Al “The Mad Hungarian” Hrabosky, Marty Pattin - known for his Donald Duck impressions, and Bird. Herzog referred to his bunch as “Mungo, Hungo, Duck and the Bird.”

Bird had his worst season in 1978 with an ERA of 5.29, and he gave up a critical home run to Thurman Munson in Game 3 of the ALCS against the Yankees. The Royals traded him to Philadelphia after the season and he hung around the big leagues for five more seasons playing for the Phillies, Yankees, Cubs, and Red Sox. Bird passed away on September 24 at the age of 74 at his home in Asheville, North Carolina.

Orlando Cepeda

Orlando Manuel Cepeda was a Hall of Fame first baseman best known for his time with the Giants and his MVP season with the Cardinals, before playing his final season with the Royals in 1974. The son of a famous Latin American ballplayer, Cepeda grew up in Puerto Rico and signed with the Giants at age 16. He was in the big leagues by age 20, winning the 1958 Rookie of the Year Award by smacking 25 home runs and a league-high 38 doubles while hitting .312.

Cepeda won a home run title in 1961 with 46 home runs and led the league with 142 RBI. But the Giants had another future Hall of Famer at first base in Willie McCovey, so in 1966, they sent Cepeda to St. Louis for pitcher Ray Sadecki. The next year he won his only MVP award, batting .325/.399/.524 with 25 home runs and a league-leading 111 RBI.

The Braves acquired Cepeda in 1969 for Joe Torre, and he finished seventh in the NL in home runs with 34 in 1970. After a short three-game stint in Oakland, he had a career resurgence in 1973 with the Red Sox, winning Designated Hitter of the Year. But they released him in 1974 to go younger. In August of that year, the Royals needed some offensive help and signed the veteran. He played in 33 games and hit just .215/.282/.290 with one home run. Cepeda ended his career with 379 home runs and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.

Mike Ferraro

Michael Dennis Ferraro was a New York kid who got to be on the Yankees by age 21. But he spent just 33 games with them before being selected by the Seattle Pilots in the 1969 expansion draft. He only played a handful of games with them and bounced around before rejoining the organization - now the Milwaukee Brewers - for his only season as a regular in 1972 when he appeared in 124 games as a third baseman.

He went into coaching in the Yankees farm system and by 1979 he was the third base coach at the big league level. He served under skipper Dick Howser in 1980, and got a shot at managing his own club in Cleveland in 1983, lasting just 100 games. In 1984, he joined Howser in Kansas City and they won a championship in 1985.

At the 1986 All-Star Game, AL manager Dick Howser complained about headaches and players noticed he was quiet and prone to gaffes such as misremembering player names and positions. He disclosed he had a brain tumor and immediately resigned as manager of the Royals, leaving Ferraro to run the team in the second half. The team actually played better under Ferraro with a 36-38 record, but the team lost 86 games overall, their worst season since 1970. Ferraro rejoined the Yankees coaching staff the next year and stayed until 1991. Ferraro died on July 20 at the age of 79.

Al Fitzmorris

Alan James Fitzmorris was originally signed by the White Sox as an outfielder in 1965, but moved to the pitcher’s mound the next year. They left him unprotected in the expansion draft, and the Royals selected him with the 40th pick, bringing him up to make his MLB debut in their first season in 1969. He became a swingman, starting and relieving, and he improved his numbers each year before breaking through with a 2.83 ERA and 3.3 rWAR in 1973.

In 1974, Fitzmorris moved to the rotation and won 13 games with a 2.79 ERA, good for 4.5 rWAR despite the second-lowest strikeout rate in baseball. On June 4 he tossed a complete game shutout against the Orioles, the first such start with no walks and no strikeouts since 1951, a feat that has been accomplished just seven times since then. He won a career-high 16 games in 1975, and was second in wins with 15 for the division-winning 1976 club, leading starters with a 3.06 ERA.

Whitey Herzog passed on using Fitzmorris in the ALCS, and the Royals left hin unprotected in the expansion draft, losing him to the Blue Jays, who traded him to Cleveland. He pitched two more seasons for the Indians and Angels. He later became an ambassador for the Roayls and hosted the pre- and post-game show on Metro Sports in Kansas City for several years. He was also an accomplished musician and active in the Kansas City community. Fitzmorris died on December 4 at the age of 78.

Billy Gardner

William Frederick Gardner enjoyed a ten-year career as a second baseman for the Giants, Oriroles, Senators/Twins, Yankees, and Red Sox, but he is best known to Royals fans for managing the team in 1987 after Dick Howser had to step down.

Gardner first joined the Royals in 1972 as a minor league manager, leading the Double-A team in Jacksonville and the Triple-A club in Omaha. He moved on to the Expos and then the Twins, taking over Minnesota in the middle of the 1981 season. He led the Twins for parts of five seasons, failing to finish with a winning record.

In 1987, the Royals hired him as a third base coach and a contingency plan in case manager Dick Howser, who was battling brain cancer, would not be able to return to the bench. Howser would retire on the first day of spring training, handing over the team to Gardner.

Known as a player’s manager, Gardner led the team to a hot start and they were in first place by July 5. But the team slumped and fell under .500 by the time he was fired on August 27 with a record of 62-64. His son, Billy Gardner Jr., was drafted by the Royals and spent a few years in the minors before becoming a long-time minor league manager. Gardner died on January 3 at the age of 96.

Jerry Grote

Gerald Wayne Grote enjoyed a 16-year career as a big league catcher most famously with the Mets where he was a two-time All-Star and backstop for their 1969 “Amazin’” championship team.

Grote was a San Antonio native who signed with the Houston Colt .45’s, his team for the first two years of his big league career. They traded him to the hapless Mets where he became their regular backstop and guide for a young pitching crop that included Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan and Tug McGraw. They would develop into a surprising contender in 1969, and he caught every inning of the post-season as the Mets won their first title.

Grote was traded to the Dodgers in 1977, and after the 1978 season he decided to retire at the age of 35, turning down an offer to be the backup for the Yankees. But in 1981, his former Mets teammate Billy Connors, now a pitching coach with the Royals, asked him to come out of retirement and come to Kansas City.

Grote handled the layoff well, hitting .304 in 22 games, but on June 3 he was downright Ruthian. Grote went 3-for-4 against the Mariners, falling a triple shy of the cycle, and setting a club record with 7 RBI, a record that would stand until 2015. Grote ended the season with the Dodgers before hanging up his cleats for good. He died on April 7 at the age of 81.

Whitey Herzog

Dorrel Norman Elvert Herzog was better known as “Whitey”, pioneering an aggressive style of baserunning that led to success as a manager in the 1970s and 80s. He grew up just east of St. Louis in Illinois and signed with the Yankees. He enjoyed a decent eight-year big league career as an outfielder, including a stint with the Kansas City Athletics, but it was his coaching career that would lead him to Cooperstown.

Herzog got his first big league managerial job in 1973 with Rangers, but didn’t even last a full season. When Rangers executive Joe Burke came to the Royals, he brought Herzog with him in the middle of the 1975 season to replace Jack McKeon. The team won 62 percent of their remaining games, then won three consecutive division titles. In 1977, he led the team to 102 wins, a club record that still stands today.

A lack of post-season success and clashes with owner Ewing Kauffman caused Herzog to be fired after the 1979 season. He was hired by his hometown Cardinals and led them to a title in 1982. He faced his old Royals club in the 1985 World Series, falling in seven games. He won a third pennant in 1987, before finally retiring from the bench in 1990 with an overall record of 1281-1125, a .532 winning percentage. His .574 winning percentage with the Royals is the highest in club history. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010. Whitey Herzog died on April 15 at the age of 92.

Dave McCarty

David Andrew McCarty was a college standout who found a role with the Royals as a slick-fielding first baseman. He was named Baseball America College Player of the Year in 1991 and was selected third overall in the draft by the Twins. Towering over players at 6’5’’, McCarty was the rare player that threw left-handed but batted right-handed. He didn’t live up to expectations in Minnesota and he became a Triple-A journeyman, going from the Reds organization to the Giants, to the Mariners, to the Tigers, to the Athletics.

McCarty wouldn’t give up on his dreams however, and the Royals purchased him in 2000 as a defensive replacement for Mike Sweeney. He proved to be valuable with the bat, hitting .278/.329/.478 with career highs in hits (75), home runs (12) and RBI (53).

He spent three seasons overall with the Royals from 2000-2002 before moving on to the Devil Rays and Athletics. In 2003 he landed with the Red Sox, and he had a number of key hits in 2004 for the championship-winning club. McCarty died on April 19 at the age of 54 due to a cardiac event.

Héctor Ortiz

Héctor Ortiz spent four years in the big leagues, including parts of three seasons with the Royals. The Puerto Rican born catcher was drafted by the Dodgers out of junior college, but never made the big leagues with them and moved on to the Cubs organization. The Royals signed him in 1997 to be a minor league catcher, and brought him up to make his MLB debut for a few games in 1998.

After a year in the Dodgers’ minor leagues, Ortiz returned to the Royals in 2000 and came up for 26 games. He hit .386, the second-highest batting average by any Royals position player with at least 20 games played behind only George Brett’s 1980 season. He was the Opening Day catcher for the Royals in 2001 and played a career-high 56 games at the big league level.

Ortiz spent 2002 with Texas, and bounced around the minors for a few more seasons before a long career coaching with the Rangers. He died on February 28 at the age of 54 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

UL Washington

UL Washington hailed from tiny Stringtown, Oklahoma with a unique name - his initials aren’t short for anything, that’s his name, UL. He was a switch-hitting shortstop whose trademark was looking cool with a toothpick hanging out of his mouth as he played.

UL was a product of the Royals Baseball Academy that took raw athletes and turned them into ballplayers. Just five years after his brother convinced the Royals to give him a tryout, he was in the big leagues. By 1979 he was the regular starter at shortstop for the Royals, and he hit .364 against the Yankees in the ALCS in 1980. He hit a career-high .286 in 1982, and stole a career-high 40 bases the next year, seventh-most in the AL.

The Royals traded him to the Expos in 1985 and he spent his final two seasons with the Pirates. He later got into coaching, spending time with the Dodgers, Twins, and Red Sox. He died on March 3 at the age of 70 from cancer.

We also lost a number of Kansas City Athletics in 2024.

Rocky Colavito was one of the few legit stars that played for the Kansas City A’s, a nine-time All-Star and 1959 home run champ. His best years came in Cleveland and Detroit, but the A’s acquired him in 1964 and he was an All-Star, hitting .274/.366/.507 with 34 home runs and 102 RBI. Colavito later became a hitting coach with the Royals from 1982 to 1983. He notably was ejected from the infamous “Pine Tar Game” for arguing with the umpires.

Bud Daley spent ten years in the big leagues with the Indians, Athletics, and Yankees. He was a two-time All-Star in Kansas City, twice winning 16 games in a season. Daley won two rings with the Yankees, tossing eight shutout innings out of the pen in his post-season career.

Pete Daley was no relation to Bud, but he teamed up with him in 1960 to make a “Daley Double” battery. Pete hit .262/.311/.390 in his only season with the A’s after five years with the Red Sox.

Hank Foiles spent 11 years in the big leagues as a catcher, and was an All-Star in 1957 with Pittsburgh. The Athletics acquired him in 1960, but traded him to Cleveland after just ten games in which he went 4-for-7.

Ozzie Virgil was the first Dominican-born player in the American/National League. He played third base for the Giants and Tigers before the A’s acquired him in 1961 for 11 games. He later became a big league coach and coached his son Ozzie Virgil, Jr. at the 1985 All-Star Game.

Jerry Walker was an Oklahoma kid who made his MLB debut at age 18 with the Orioles and was the youngest pitcher to start an All-Star Game at age 20. He was traded to the Athletics in 1961, but struggled in his two seasons in Kansas City.