During my college years, I made some extra money by working at the UPS store in an affluent suburban neighborhood in Kansas City. One of my most frequent customers was George Brett, the legendary baseball player who spent his career playing for the Kansas City Royals. Brett played first base and third base for the Royals from 1973 to 1993. He is arguably one of the greatest players in Major League Baseball history as evidenced by his Hall of Fame induction in 1999.
One infamous incident that George Brett is well known for is when he hit a home run that was initially disallowed by umpires. Then, at a later date, baseball officials got together and ruled that the home run would stand. The home run was initially disallowed because he had used more pine tar on his bat than was allowed by Major League Baseball’s rules. After the umpires decided to remove the home run from the scoreboard Brett stormed out of the dugout and had one of the more famous arguments in baseball history. To Brett’s and the Royals’ delight, after further review it was determined that the excessive pine tar did not contribute to his hitting of the home run and the initial call was reversed. The controversial call also cost the Kansas City Royals the game versus the New York Yankees so MLB’s solution was for the two teams to re-play the last four outs left in the game after the incident about a week later before an empty stadium.
He was often coming into ship game-used memorabilia to different residents. Often he was sending back game-used memorabilia to that people had sent him to autograph. The sport memorabilia that he was sending consisted of things like a game-worn jersey and an autographed baseball.
George Brett has many different opinions about him as a person in Kansas City. No matter how you feel about George Brett, there is no doubt that he is one of the best players who ever played major league baseball and will be a legend in Kansas City for quite a while. He still works within the Royals organization today and often also serves as a live commentator during their games. George Brett will always be a local celebrity in Kansas City and many people even eat at his restaurant that is located on the Plaza, in downtown Kansas City. If you ever wanted a piece of the Royals, Mr. Brett delivered.