posted on 8/22/2009
Willie Wilson never got to say a proper goodbye to Kansas City. Until Saturday, that is, when he started in center field and led off for the T-Bones after signing a one-day contract.
A beloved and central figure on the Royals’ 1985 World Series championship team, Wilson spent his first 15 seasons in Kansas City from 1976 to 1990 before wrapping up a 19-year career with the Oakland A’s and Chicago Cubs.
Local baseball fans showered Wilson, the Royals’ all-time leader in steals, with cheers and gave him several standing ovations during the T-Bones’ 3-2 victory over the Joliet JackHammers at CommunityAmerica Ballpark.
Fans stood and cheered as he came to the plate. They stood and cheered some more as he headed back to the dugout following a three-pitch strikeout, which included a mighty hack at a first-pitch fastball that Wilson fouled to the screen.
But the loudest ovation from the 9,613 fans, the third-largest crowd in T-Bones’ history, was saved for the start of the third inning when Aharon Eggleston replaced Wilson in the field.
“It’s fun to play in front of the Kansas City fans and to get out there and hang out with the guys,” said Wilson, who played in the Mallard All-Star Game in Madison, Wis., one evening earlier. “It’s good just to be on the baseball field even if I’m a little sore and a little low on gas.”
There was just as much adoration for Wilson in the T-Bones’ dugout.
“I used to go watch him play all the time,” said second baseman Damian Rolls, who grew up in Kansas City, Kan. “I was at every picture day. I told him all these stories as soon as he got here. Growing up, I loved watching him play. I wore No. 6 in Little League, and my first two weeks of preschool, my teachers thought my mom’s name was Miss Wilson, because I told them my name is Willie Wilson.”
Rolls even mimicked Wilson’s pop-up slide in the Price Chopper parking lot at 78th and State Avenue.
“If I was sitting in this crowd and I wasn’t playing on the field, I’d be here with my Willie Wilson shirt on,” said Rolls, who admitted to being a touch wide-eyed in Wilson’s batting-practice group. “I don’t know what our fans will do, but I think Willie Wilson is loved on both sides of the border in Kansas City. Everybody in Kansas and in Missouri knows and loves Willie Wilson.”
The fans showed that love. And when the game finally started, it didn’t take long for the baseball to find Wilson, who patrolled center with his black socks pulled high, like always.
Joliet’s leadoff batter, Adam Klein, singled sharply up the middle and right to Wilson, who bent down to a knee and then — youngsters take note — hit his cutoff man. Just another opportunity for Wilson’s fans to pay their respects.
Baseball always has come easily to Wilson, a two-time All-Star and 1982 AL batting champ. At 54 years old, though, easy is a relative concept.
“It’s more for charity than anything else,” said Wilson, who donated his salary and money raised from an autograph session Saturday night to his foundation. “I’m not going to get hurt, but the juices of wanting to do good are flowing. Mentally, my mind is telling me one thing and my body’s telling me something else.”
During the game he didn’t get to showcase his skills, but an aging Wilson showed he’s still got it during warmups.
He was still more likely to swat a line drive into the outfield than not during batting practice.
Once he warmed up, Wilson blasted a drive to the crook in the left-field wall, short-hopping the 352-foot marker just under the sign honoring Buck O’Neil’s appearance with the T-Bones in 2006.
“That’s all I got,” Wilson said as he exited the batting cage following the warning-track fly.
Briefly clowning around with the T-Bones regulars, eliciting broad smiles and hearty laughs following his cuts in the cage, Wilson helped collect the scattered balls and then headed to center field to shag a few fly balls.
And after getting a handle on the sun’s angles and the new outfield dimensions, Wilson’s trademark glide returned.
The Willie Wilson Foundation’s latest project, Team Smile, which provides free dental care and screenings for underserved children, was the primary beneficiary of Wilson’s appearance with the T-Bones.
