Pitchers and catchers will report to spring training soon. In 1971 the Kansas City Royals invited pitchers, catchers and anyone else to the Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy.
The academy was the brain child of Royals owner Ewing Kauffman. It was his goal to bring in some of the top athletes in the country hoping to develop them into first rate baseball players. This was nothing new in sports. Pro football teams like the Dallas Cowboys had been doing it for years. But to baseball fans and purists, the Royals Baseball Academy was considered to be daring, creative and a little foolish.
Until 1971, the traditional way of developing talent was to sign young men with baseball experience to contracts and assign them to minor league clubs. The Royals decided that they would take it a step further and invite anyone who met a list of criteria which met the physical and mental skills established by testing 150 players within the organization. Over 1,000 young men across the country passed and made their way to Sarasota, Florida. The goal of the academy was not only to teach these young men baseball, but life skills as well.
The Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy lasted for only five years (1971-1975) played in the Gulf Coast League and did not produce many baseball players. The main reason is that most of those invited had little or no baseball skills and many had never played the game. An example of what the academy was about is a player who actually made it to the major leagues, U.L. Washington.
Washington was a high school football player from Stringtown, Oklahoma. He was given a shot at the academy after his brother who was a Royals employee asked them to try him out. Washington arrived at the Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy with no baseball skills, went to shortstop and missed every grounder hit to him. Then he picked up a bat and missed way more pitches than he hit. He failed every test the Royals gave him except vision. But Kansas City liked his speed and arm strength so Washington was given a chance.
Eventually, Washington improved. He was called up to the majors in 1977 and enjoyed an 11 year career as a shortstop and second baseman.
Another name player from the Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy to make it was second baseman Frank White. He was an academy original and the Royals brought him up in 1973. White would spend 18 seasons with Kansas City, play in five all-star games, earn eight Gold Gloves and help the team to its only world’s championship in 1985.
The academy was shut down in 1976, because of a lack of returns on the cost. It was just too much money for the Royals to pay for so little talent production.
It has never been reproduced in the United States, but academies like it have been formed in the Dominican Republic and other countries.
The Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy may not have been a rousing success, but its legacy lives on.
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