The result of this year’s Hall of Fame election, in which no payers were elected, is already controversial enough, but the number of votes for some players who appeared on the ballot for the first time is what could set the stage for vehement arguments for years to come.

Known steroid users Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds graced the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this year, and each received slightly more than one-third of the vote. That’s fine. Two-thirds of the Baseball Writers Association of America voting members said they don’t think steroid users should be in the Hall of Fame, at least not yet.

The “not yet” part is what could get really messy in future years.

Mark McGwire, who was one of the first steroid-era players to reach the Hall of Fame ballot, received about one-quarter of the votes in his first year of eligibility, and his percentage of votes has steadily decreased each year. This time he received 16.9 percent of the vote.

Similarly, Rafael Palmeiro, who has more than 3,000 hits and 500 homeruns but tested positive for steroids, received just 8.8 percent of the vote. He received 11 percent in his first appearance on the ballot three years ago.

In one sense, the relatively high number of votes Clemens and Bonds received could mean attitudes have softened toward steroid users in part because time continues to distance the sport from the height of the steroid years.

It’s human nature for old wounds to begin to heal. Someone who gets punched in the face will want to punch the other person back immediately at the time of the altercation, but it takes a heck of a lot of effort to hold a grudge that burns just as hot many years later.

However, if Clemens and Bonds receive more votes in future years because voters start to think steroid players should be elected, players such as McGwire, Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa should also see their vote totals rise. Otherwise, Clemens and Bonds simply got lucky to retire years after other players took the brunt of the punishment for using steroids.

Some people try to use the logic that Clemens and Bonds were great before they started using steroids. That’s a possibility, but none of us know when these players started using steroids.

Yet even with that sort of reasoning, McGwire set the rookie record for homeruns in a single season with 49 homeruns in 1987. Surely he was already considered a special player at that point.

The greatness-before-steroids argument shouldn’t even matter. We don’t know when players began using steroids, and we never will. But, if Clemens and Bonds start to receive more Hall of Fame votes in upcoming years, so should McGwire, Palmeiro and Sosa.

This problem even extends to current players. People talk about Alex Rodriguez as a future Hall of Famer even though he’s admitted he used steroids. He’s done the exact same things the 1990s steroid guys did, so why should his chance at being elected to the Hall of Fame be any better than the rest?

There’s no easy answer to any of the current Hall of Fame debates. Given the voters relative inconsistencies, the cruelest part might be that the generation of baseball fans who watched and attended games in the steroid era might never know what to think of the greatest players of their time.

Had his life spanned a more recent era of Cardinals baseball, Jack Buck’s Hall of Fame speech might’ve included his gratefulness for the arm of Chris Carpenter or Adam Wainwright, and he probably would have touted the bat of Albert Pujols. But I think there’s little doubt that he’d have been thankful for the glove of Jim Edmonds.

Edmonds’ 8 years as a Cardinal provided fans with almost nightly amazement!

I grew up watching Cardinals baseball in the 1980’s, and in doing so developed a love for defense at a very young age. You don’t spend your childhood watching Ozzie Smith win 13 straight gold glove awards and not take notice as to how important solid defensive skills are. Edmonds brought back to the forefront an important piece of the game that, much like bunting for a hit, seems to have faded in recent years: He brought back a focus on defensive excellence.

“80% of the earth’s surface is covered by water, the other 20% is covered by Jim Edmonds.”

That’s one of my favorite sayings, and I grin every time I hear it, because it truly seemed that way–a ball hit into the air & anywhere near centerfield was far from safe. And if you’re thinking of hitting a HR over the 400’ sign on the CF wall, you’d better hit the ball at least 408’, or there’s a good chance Jimmy’s bringing it back! I can recall twice seeing a player on television mouth “Oh my gosh!”. My favorite was Pettitte’s (obviously), but Edmonds did it too…after he amazed even himself by robbing a homerun (in, I believe, Cincinnati). Watching Edmonds made me truly appreciate the Endy Chavez catch–the finest catch I have ever seen…and that coming from a guy who watched Jim Edmonds play every day.

Eight gold glove awards, two top-five finishes in MVP voting, four All-Star appearances, one big game six homerun, and countless catches that left many-a-jaw on St. Louis area floors over the years are just a few of the ways we’ll remember “Jimmy Ballgame”. A member of the “MV3”, Edmonds was no slouch at the plate & could handle the lumber with the best of them. A beautiful left-handed swing, comparable to Griffey Jr, and that famous upper-cut made Edmonds’ stance & swing recognizable to millions.

Oct 20, 2004: Edmonds’ 12th inning HR forces game 7

Towards the end of his career, he bounced around the National League Central division, spending time with the Brewers, Cubs & Reds after he left the Cards & headed to San Diego. If not for “the catch”, it’s possible that some may even forget that Edmonds actually spent seven years in the American League West as an Angel (‘93-’99). But he will be remembered by most for his years in St. Louis as the Cardinals’ centerfielder, and I suspect there would be little question as to which team logo he’d choose to wear on his cap, should he one day enter Cooperstown (a conversation for another time).

For different reasons than his former teammates, Aaron Miles & Scott Spiezio, when Jim Edmonds took the mound this past Thursday, it was for a ceremonial pitch–the first pitch of the 2011 season. He was very well-received by the fans at Busch that afternoon, and I suspect he’ll always be welcomed & appreciated in Cardinal Nation.

Thank you, Jim Edmonds for the memories, the highlights, and for keeping the flame of exciting & superb defense alive for another generation of Cardinals fans!

Photo courtesy of Minda Haas

Jeff Montgomery held his tongue long enough. For 10 years he quietly watched as the Royals lost nearly 1000 games. He was gone, but not forgotten. He was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2003. But he contented himself with raising four children and observing his former team’s losing ways from afar.

During the post-Jeff Montgomery decade of 2000 to 2009, the Royals won 672 games, lost 948, had one winning season, and posted a “winning” percentage of .414.

In 2010, however, the former relief pitcher decided it was time to start talking again. He began providing pre and post-game commentary for the Royals’ TV broadcasts, first on a trial basis, and now full-time going into 2011.

Montgomery played 12 seasons with KC, notching 304 saves and playing in three All-Star games. He spoke about his playing career and his new broadcasting venture in a previous article on I-70baseball.com.

Like the average Royals’ fan, Montgomery suffered through the promises of “rebuilding” and “youth movements” with very little to show when it was all over. But as he moves into a new phase of his career, he believes the Royals are moving into a new phase of their history as well, one in which things are finally being done the right way.

“It’s been a very frustrating period,” Montgomery said recently. “I think the most difficult part is that there have been on-again, off-again movements toward rebuilding the organization. The Royals fans have been given promises that we’re going to go young and we’re going to build. The problem with that is that it’s a very time consuming process.”

Montgomery will be watching first-hand as the Royals attempt to transition the top-rated farm system in baseball into a competitive major league team. Under the direction of Dayton Moore, the team is working to develop a home-grown cast that can matriculate together to the big leagues.

At the time of Montgomery’s retirement in 1999, the Royals were launching a youth-movement that appeared headed for success. In 2000 the lineup consisted of Mike Sweeney (26 years old), Carlos Febles (24), Mark Quinn (26) Carlos Beltran (23), Jermaine Dye (26) and Johnny Damon (26). Salary demands forced the Royals to part with a few of those key pieces, but yet the team amazingly succeeded in 2003 to post 83 wins, narrowly missing the playoffs. That success proved to be fool’s gold, Montgomery said, causing the team to lose sight of its long-range plan.

“You know, in 2003, the Royals had a winning record – the only time in about 16 or 17 seasons that that’s happened. But after that, going into the 2004 season, they kind of got off track. They brought in Juan Gonzalez and traded for Benito Santiago, and tried to win again. And everybody expected that, and it was a huge disappointment. And as a result of that, it kind of threw that plan off track again.”

Montgomery believes that Moore’s approach – to stockpile quality pitchers in the minor leagues and to eschew quick free-agent fixes – will be successful.

“In 2006, when Dayton Moore came in, he was essentially given the time and the flexibility to start from scratch, focusing primarily on pitching,” said Montgomery. “As Dayton put it, pitching is the currency of baseball. We’re going to add arms to the organization at the minor league level, at the major league level. We’re going to build around pitching, just like when he was involved in the rebirth of the Atlanta Braves going back a couple of decades ago.”

When Moore signed on with the Braves in 1994 as a scout, the team was enjoying the fruits of the labor of developing Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Steve Avery. The current Royals boast a handful of talented pitchers in the minor leagues that Montgomery envisions developing into quality major leaguers.

As many of the Royals’ prize prospects have climbed to the Double A and Triple A levels of the system, Montgomery believes fans won’t have to wait much longer.

“I think right now the organization is about 80 to 85% through that process, but they are not going to defer, and try to bring in guys that are going to get them off that track,” he said. “They are so close. I’ve compared it to running a marathon. They are about 25 miles into their marathon race and they’ve just got a little bit to go. There’s no guarantee they’re going to finish this race, but they’re getting close. And there’s no reason to get off course now.”

Montgomery knows this is same song, umpteenth verse to long-suffering KC fans. But he believes this time it’s different.

“The difference I think now is that there is not just one or two guys in the minor leagues that everyone is banking on. If you go back over the years, there was Zack Greinke who everyone said was going to be a standout pitcher, which he turned out to be. There was Alex Gordon, the college player of the year, who everyone expected to become the next George Brett. So far that has not occurred.
But the difference again now is that there are literally dozens of players. The organization is very rich in young talent both from a pitching standpoint and from an offensive standpoint. There are going to be some busts along the way. Some of those guys are not going to work out. They’re going to become injured or they’re not going to play to the level everyone expects them to.

“But if you’ve got such a large amount of players who have all got such a high level of expectations, some percentage is going to hit, and you don’t have to have all of them. You’ve got a deep enough system now, that even if only a fraction of them hit, you’re going to be ok.”

Just as Frank White is cutting his official ties to the Royals franchise, another member of the team’s hall of fame is becoming more visible in his respective role.

Jeff Montgomery, reliever on the Royals’ squads of 1988 to 1999, is back with the team after keeping a low profile for a decade. Montgomery has lived in Kansas City since his retirement, raising four children and suffering silently from a distance as the team collapsed.

Montgomery’s relationship with the Royals was rekindled last season when announcer Jamie Quirk traded his microphone for a Houston Astros uniform after the 2009 season.

“I was approached by a Royals official to see if I’d like to have my name thrown into the hat (to replace Quirk),” Montgomery said. “They had an opening, and they asked and I said I’d like to give it a shot – it really kind of presented itself to me.”

While Montgomery’s experience in front of the camera was limited to his work on the mound, he took to broadcasting. After pouring his energy into being a full-time father, he says he is ready for the new challenge of pre and post game commentator.

“It’s given me a chance to become officially reconnected with the ball club so I enjoy that,” Montgomery said. “I want to work hard to get better. If I’m going to do it, I’d like to turn it into a sort of ‘semi-second career.’”

Montgomery returned mid-season in 2010 to the field where he saved 304 games, and was three times named an All-Star. Though his teams never qualified for the playoffs, he played in an era when the Royals were an exciting, competitive team. He hopes the same qualities that made him successful as a player will help him succeed as a commentator. Looking back to his playing days, Montgomery describes himself as patient, consistent, hard working and faithful to the team concept.

“Everyone who’s given the opportunity to play on the professional level has some ability,” Montgomery said. “I think (my success came from) the ability to identify my strengths and work off of my strengths or my assets, as opposed to trying to be a cookie-cutter type guy and do what everyone else did. I just focused on doing what I did best.”
The native of Wellston, OH was drafted by Cincinnati in the 9^th round of the 1983 draft after starring at Marshall University. He worked his way up through the minors before reaching the big leagues in 1987 at age 25.

“What got me there was patience, and a willingness to get better at every level,” Montgomery said. “I just focused on going from being a good A ball player to being a good Double A ball player, and so on and so forth. It was just a matter of moving up the system, and eventually being given the opportunity to play at the major league level, and establish myself as a consistent, contributing major league pitcher and becoming a consistent player year in and year out.

“Like a lot of guys, my first day in the big leagues was a special thing. I grew up in Ohio and was originally drafted by the Reds. And I made my debut as a Cincinnati Red. Playing for Pete Rose was a big milestone for me.”

Montgomery didn’t set any worlds on fire in his first season – pitching mainly in relief and running up a 6.52 ERA. In February of 1988, the Reds decided to deal him to KC for outfielder Van Snider. The change of scenery was just what he needed.

Just three seasons removed from a world’s championship, the Royals were trying to hold together their nucleus of George White, Frank White and Willie Wilson while adding talented youngsters like Bo Jackson, Danny Tartabull, Kurt Stillwell and Kevin Seitzer. The team finished above .500 in five of Montgomery’s first seven seasons in KC.

“I have great memories from playing in those days when baseball in Kansas City was on a high note,” the right-handed reliever said. “We were packing the stadium and having a lot of fun. It was (a highlight) having a chance to play with some phenomenal players in the Royal Blue. George Brett obviously number one, but also the Willie Wilsons and the Frank Whites, and the Bret Saberhagens.”

Montgomery was no slouch in his own right. He proved himself in 1989, notching 18 saves with a phenomenal 1.37 ERA. His save totals increased each year until 1993, when his 45 saves and 2.27 ERA earned him his second straight All-Star spot and some MVP support.

Montgomery’s 304 saves rank 19^th on the all-time list: they were all recorded during his 12 seasons in a KC uniform, placing him first on the team’s list. He names his 300^th save and being inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame in 2003 as his greatest personal achievements.

Montgomery doesn’t, however, consider his career extraordinary or his abilities overwhelming.

“I was not a real standout guy, but just a more consistent, reliable guy,” Montgomery said. “Every year I went to spring training, I wanted my manager to know that he could count on me for 162 games, to be there day in and day out for my team.

“I think I was able to be a consistent, reliable closer and play at a high level for a period of time of about seven or eight years and put up some nice numbers but never had one season where I was more dominant that the others.”

Montgomery regrets that he never was able to bring playoff baseball back to Kansas City. He hopes as an announcer he’ll be describing playoff games soon and he is excited to see the direction the team is moving.

A second article will contain Montgomery’s perceptions of the Royals’ rebuilding efforts.

“It’s been a very frustrating period,” he acknowledged. “They are so close. I’ve compared it to running a marathon. They are about 25 miles into their marathon race and they’ve just got a little bit to go. There’s no guarantee they’re going to finish this race, but they’re getting close. And there’s no reason to get off course now.”

“What might have been?” Four sadder words were never uttered by a sports fan, and we all know a story for which those words fit.

Look no further than Bo Jackson, his career in both football and baseball cut short by a horrific hip injury. Or Gale Sayers, the most electrifying runner in football before knee injuries in back-to-back seasons stole his ability at just 26 years of age.

The most graceful, powerful, gifted of athletes are not immune to injury, and few things are more tragic than when an immense talent is neutralized by such an injury.

Baseball, like all sports, has countless numbers of such stories. Well documented in recent years is the plight of Mark Prior, one of the most coveted of pitching prospects in history. Prior was Stephen Strasburg before the media hype. He signed an enormous rookie contract, dominated every level of his rise to the major leagues and was set for stardom at age 22 when injuries began plaguing him. Now 30, he hasn’t pitched in a major league game since the age of 25.

Strasburg is now in the same boat as Prior, battling to return from Tommy John surgery at just 22.

The Royals regrettably have their own “what might have been” story. A name burned not only into the minds of older Royals fans but one forever etched in the team’s Hall of Fame, Steve Busby fell victim to arm injuries when he was poised to become the Royals’ first great pitcher.

The Royals drafted Busby out of USC in 1971, where he’d attended originally because of a dream of playing football. Injuries had already plagued Busby. A high school knee injury proved a red flag to the San Francisco Giants, who drafted him in 1967. They reduced their contractual offer to Busby, prompting him to elect to go to college. The injury also nixed his plans to play football.

When Busby arrived in Kansas City in 1972, the ace of the staff was Dick Drago, who’d been the mainstay of the Royals’ staff since the team’s inception in 1969. Drago had accumulated a record of 49-56 over the team’s first four seasons. Paul Splittorff was establishing his role in the rotation, having gone 20-22 over his first couple of campaigns. Busby joined the team in September and notched a 3-1 record, including a complete game victory in his debut. In five starts he posted a 1.58 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 40 innings.

The team was on the verge of contention, and Busby fit right in with the other two young starters. In 1973, the team shot to 88-74 and Busby, at just 23, recorded a 16-15 mark and a 4.23 ERA. Busby’s WAR was 2.9 that season, and he probably wouldn’t have garnered much attention, were it not for a start against the Detroit Tigers on April 27. Busby became one of the youngest players to throw a no-hitter. Busby walked 6, struck out 4 and bested Jim Perry for just the fifth win of his young career.

In 1974, with a year under his belt and a fastball/slider combination clicking, Busby became the Royals’ biggest star. He was named an All-Star and led the team with a 22-14 record. His WAR of 6.1 was by far the team’s highest. But it was on June 19 in Milwaukee that Busby made history by throwing his second no-hitter, allowing just one walk in a 2-0 win over Clyde Wright and the Brewers.

Only 27 pitchers have thrown two no-hitters to this day, and at the time only 22 had thrown two. That day, Busby became the first pitcher to throw no-hitters in each of his first two full seasons.

One red flag during the 1974 season was that Busby threw 20 complete games and 292 innings. While not abnormally high totals for that time, Busby tended to throw a lot of pitches in his outings.

1975 was another All-Star season for Busby. The team rebounded to 91-71 and Busby went 18-12 with a 3.08 ERA, and his WAR was again 6.1, far exceeding anyone else on the pitching staff. He pitched 260 innings and 18 more complete games that season.

Winning 90 games and their first division championship, 1976 was a glorious season for the Royals. But it proved disastrous for Busby. He said he first noticed a lack of strength in his shoulder during the 1975 season, and it grew progressively worse. After just 13 starts in 1976, Busby was diagnosed with a “rotator cuff tear.”

At the time, surgery for such an injury was unheard of. Legendary doctor Frank Jobe advised that Busby attempt to “throw through it” because surgery was a last option. But finally, Busby had no choice but to go under the knife – the first “rotator cuff surgery” – and he was forced to watch as the Royals reached the playoffs for the first time.

By that time, the team had several established stars, led by George Brett and Hal McRae who battled down the stretch for the batting title. Splittorff, Dennis Leonard, Doug Bird and Al Fitzmorris took up the slack in the rotation that season.

The team went on to win 102 games in 1977, with additions of pitchers Jim Colburn, Larry Gura and others. Busby meanwhile rehabbed and threw a three-inning trial in Daytona that season.

In spite of their success, the Royals did not give up on Busby. He attempted to return to the team’s rotation in 1978, making five starts. He also pitched in 14 minor league contests en route to recovery.

1979 looked promising for Busby. He pitched in 22 games, 12 as a starter, and went 6-6 with a 3.63 ERA.

But the shoulder just wasn’t what it used to be, and in the Royals’ World Series run of 1980 Busby could only manage a 1-3 record in 11 games. He pitched well in eight starts in Omaha that season, but sadly the Royals finally gave him his release on August 29, just before the playoffs. He was just short of his 31^st birthday.

Busby did attempt one last comeback, signing a contract with St. Louis in January of 1981. But he never pitched in another game. Busby has since worked in broadcasting and worked in baseball instruction. He was enshrined in the inaugural class of the Royals Hall of Fame in the 1986.

Busby dispels the legend that he often threw as many as 200 pitches in a start – he guessed the most pitches he ever threw in a start was about 130, although he did pitch a 12 inning game in 1975. Busby also says that, contrary to legend, he is not the first player to be put on a “pitch count” when he attempted a comeback. He says that was common for players who were recovering from injury.

Busby admits that if he had come along after medical advancements had been made on rotator cuff injuries, he would have stood a much greater chance of returning from the injury. He says that had doctors known then what they know today, he wouldn’t have let the condition go undiagnosed for nearly as long, that he wouldn’t have done such great injury to the shoulder by trying to press through it, and his recovery would have been aided by improved rehabilitation techniques.

While the Royals rose to their greatest heights following Busby’s best seasons, he was the team’s first pitching star. Throwing no-hitters and going to All-Star games before the age of 26, the sky seemed to be the limit for him. Had he stayed healthy, Splittorff, Leonard and others might have looked to him as their ace.

By age 25, Busby had a record of 59-42. Busby’s 6.1 WAR total, which he posted in both 1974 and 1975, has only been bested 9 times in KC history, three times by Bret Saberhagen and by Kevin Appier, and once by Charlie Leibrandt, Mark Gubicza, David Cone, and Zack Greinke.

Had Busby been able to pitch on the great Royals teams of 1976 to 1985, who knows what kind of numbers he could have posted?

But like Prior, Mark Fidrych, Kerry Wood and others, injuries robbed him of his effectiveness at an all-too-early age. Every team has its “what could have been” story, and sadly, Busby is the Royals’.