With apologies to Steve Busby, Paul Splittorff, and 1972 Roger Nelson, the first true ace of the Kansas City Royals was a Brooklyn, New York native named Dennis Leonard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
After graduating from high school, Leonard walked onto the baseball team at Iona University, a small Catholic (4,000 students) college located just north of the Bronx. Leonard began concentrating solely on pitching and, with some exceptional coaching, turned himself into a prospect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Arm injuries scared off several teams, but the Royals stayed committed and selected Leonard with their second-round choice in the 1972 draft. Leonard shot through the Royals\u2019 minor league system, moving from Rookie League Kingsport to Waterloo to San Jose to Omaha in just three seasons. Despite having already thrown 223 innings at Omaha in 1974, the Royals brought Leonard up at the tail end of the season for a cup of coffee. By his own admission, Leonard said his arm was tired \u2014 and the results showed: 22 innings over five appearances with a 5.32 ERA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Leonard was primarily a fastball-curveball pitcher at this juncture of his career. He started the 1975 campaign in Omaha but was recalled to Kansas City when Lindy McDaniel went down with prostate problems. Leonard, under the tutelage of Royals pitching coach Galen Cisco, overcame a slow start and caught fire after the Fourth of July, winning 12 of his final 15 decisions. He finished the season with a record of 15\u20137 and was named the Royals Pitcher of the Year, an award he would win three times in his career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
When evaluating the career of Dennis Leonard, you must break it into two pieces: regular season and postseason.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Often brilliant in the regular season, Leonard was a bit like Clayton Kershaw. He struggled at times during the postseason. Why? Who knows. I\u2019m sure some of it was arm fatigue. Leonard was a true workhorse, averaging 272 innings per season over the Royals\u2019 five-year playoff run from 1976 to 1980. Some of his postseason troubles were just plain bad luck.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In the 1977 ALCS, manager Whitey Herzog temporarily lost his managerial compass and called on Leonard in the ninth inning of Game Five to protect a one-run lead and deliver the Royals to their first World Series. At that point, Whitey was desperate, having burned through three pitchers in the eighth. Watching the game on TV, I felt confident with Leonard in the game. After all, he was one of the top pitchers in baseball. Three outs? No problem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In retrospect, Whitey probably should have stuck with lefty Steve Mingori, who recorded the final two outs of the eighth, or gone to his closer, Mark Littell. As the saying goes, if \u201cifs\u201d and \u201cbuts\u201d were candy and nuts, we\u2019d all have a Merry Christmas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Paul Blair led off the inning with a bloop single. No knock on Blair or the hit \u2014 he was a professional hitter and did what he had to do: get on base. Roy White, another underrated player of the era, drew a walk. Instead of letting Leonard work his way out of it, Whitey panicked and brought in another starter, Larry Gura. Mickey Rivers singled to tie the score.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Now Whitey was in a full-blown meltdown. He called on Mark Littell to try to escape the inning with the game tied. Littell, a great guy who was possibly still scarred by the 1976 ALCS, got Willie Randolph on a liner to center that was deep enough to score White. Littell then got Thurman Munson to ground out before former Royal Lou Piniella hit a tough one to George Brett at third. Brett booted it, allowing Rivers to score the insurance run. Littell retired Reggie Jackson, but the damage was done.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Royals Stadium was a morgue. Sparky Lyle, a true closer, came in and put the Royals down 1-2-3, the final two outs coming on Freddie Patek\u2019s smash to Graig Nettles, who calmly started a 5-4-3 double play to end the game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
How much of that was on Leonard and how much was on Whitey? It doesn\u2019t matter now. It\u2019s ancient news.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Thanks to the strike and split schedule in 1981, the Royals became the first team in baseball history to make the playoffs with a losing record. Leonard was cruising in Game One, holding the powerful Oakland A\u2019s scoreless into the fourth inning. With two outs, Tony Armas hit a ball to George that should have ended the inning. Unfortunately, it didn\u2019t. George booted that one too, putting runners at first and third. The next batter, Wayne Gross, made them pay by cranking a three-run home run to give Oakland an insurmountable lead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
How often do we see that happen? An error on a ball that should have ended an inning, and the next batter takes one downtown. It happens so often there should be a nickname for it. Send in your suggestions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Despite his postseason disappointments, Leonard was a standout in the regular season. Between 1975 and 1981, Leonard won 130 games, the most by any right-hander in baseball. Understand, there were some pretty good right-handed pitchers at the time \u2014 guys like Tom Seaver, Fergie Jenkins, Nolan Ryan, Jim Palmer, Catfish Hunter, and Luis Tiant, just to name a few.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Leonard won 20 games three times in his career, back when winning 20 meant something. It\u2019s crazy how starting pitching has changed. In Leonard\u2019s day, a starter was asked to throw 225\u2013300 innings and make 35\u201340 starts every season. He was expected to go at least seven innings, if not longer. Leonard did all of that and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
His name still dots the Royals\u2019 single-season and career pitching records. His career marks of 103 complete games and 23 shutouts will probably never be broken. He still holds the single-season team records for starts (40), complete games (21), innings pitched (294.2), and strikeouts (244). I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if those records stood for a long, long time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
His best season was 1977, when he led the league with 20 wins and finished fourth in the American League Cy Young voting. Amazingly, Leonard never made an All-Star team, which is one of the great injustices in baseball. He was almost always a slow starter, but once the weather warmed up, there was rarely anyone better.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Over his career, he had many outings that would be considered gems. The guy had 23 career shutouts, so that alone gives you some idea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
I think his best game came on September 17, 1980, at Royals Stadium, when Leonard pitched a brilliant three-hit complete-game shutout against the Angels. He struck out nine and walked only two in a game that took just 2:17 to complete and scored an 88. Leonard retired 17 of the last 18 Angels he faced, striking out seven of them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n