Kansas City Royals: The reason young fans don’t know Bo

On this day in 1991, one of the most exciting players that baseball has ever seen was hurt in a football game, causing the Kansas City Royals to release him, and his career never to be the same.

Discussions on the best athlete to ever step on a baseball field have been taking place for probably as long as the game has been around, but for anyone who saw him, Bo Jackson with the Kansas City Royals was the clear top choice with his combination of power and speed, along with his way to explosively access both attributes.

Jackson’s dual sport background

Jackson was one of the most heavily recruited high school athletes in the nation in 1981-1982. He was an incredibly gifted running back that ran for over 1,000 yards in his senior season. He then split his spring between baseball and track, hitting 20 home runs in just 25 games in baseball while also winning his second state decathlon championship, also setting state records in the indoor high jump and triple jump.

Jackson was selected out of high school by the New York Yankees, but he was firm in his commitment to getting a college education. He chose to attend Auburn in part due to his ability to participate in all three sports at the school and his relationship with Auburn football coach Pat Dye.

In his college career, Jackson hit .338/.466/.729 with 28 home runs in 90 games. He also rushed for 4,303 yards and 43 touchdowns in his collegiate career. In track, he qualified for the NCAA nationals in the 100-meter dash his freshman and sophomore years.

Time with the Kansas City Royals

After he believed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers sabotaged his final year of college baseball with a paid visit before the draft, Bo refused to sign with the team after they selected him #1 overall. The Royals gambled roughly two months later by drafting him in the fourth round of the draft, and he’d sign with the Royals, actually making the major leagues in September of his draft year.

Incredibly raw on the diamond still, Bo took the majority of the at bats in left field in 1987, hitting .235/.296/.455 with 22 home runs and 10 stolen bases. One of the major issues with his raw-ness on the field would come to bear in that season, as he struck out 158 times in 434 plate appearances. At 36.4% of his plate appearances, that would be an incredibly high strikeout rate now, but in the late 80’s/early 90’s, it was an absurd rate in the era.

Bo’s awesome athletic ability on the field showed in droves starting in that 1988 season. He would be selected to the 1989 All-Star team and placed in the leadoff spot, leading to this incredible moment:

Jackson would tail off from his league-leading 21 home runs at the break that year, but he still hit 32 and stole 26 bases, but he also led all of baseball in strikeouts.

He returned in 1990 with 28 home runs in 111 games with his best slash line of his career, .272/.342/.523, and produced one of the greatest defensive highlights anyone has ever seen:

Many people mentioned that he was “getting it” with baseball in the 1990 season, and there was considerable excitement for what Bo could do in 1991 and beyond if he could continue his notable progress, bumping up to a near-10% walk rate and his first sub-30% strikeout rate.

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Then in his “hobby” in the offseason, Jackson took off in a playoff game for the Raiders against the Cincinnati Bengals on January 13th, 1991, and after gaining 34 yards, he was brought down in what appeared to be a routine manner, but he had actually dislocated his hip on the play.

Jackson’s hip socket would be found to have fractured in the play, and soon after the injury, he had been diagnosed with avascular necrosis of the hip joint. He would never play football again.

Post-injury

Fearing Jackson would never play baseball again, the Royals released Bo in spring training. He signed as the season began with the Chicago White Sox. He would make it to the majors with the White Sox at the end of the season. He missed the 1992 season due to injury.

Jackson would play 85 games in 1993 for the White Sox, hitting .232/.289/.433 with 16 home runs. He’d join the Angels in 1994 as a free agent, but injuries limited him to 75 games. He did put up his second-best OPS of his career, hitting .279/.344/.507 with 13 home runs.

He didn’t play in another major league game, finishing with 141 home runs in 694 major league games with a career line of .250/.309/.474.

Next: Royals offer to Hosmer a mistake

It is a sad thing to consider what might have been with Bo. He was (and still is) one of the most humble players in the game, an incredible ambassador for the game that was lost much too young in his career!