In writing these pieces about the top five players at every position, it’s become very clear to me that the team I love and have rooted for since their inception has been woefully short of outstanding players. Sure, there’s always one or two who were terrific, but not always five. The catcher position was like that. And so is first base.
There have been guys who’ve had a solid season or two, such as Todd Benzinger, Hal Morris and Doug Mientkiewicz, but when it comes to longer tenured careers of excellence, it’s slim. Even though the Royals were skinny on the talent with first basement, the first basemen did field the best nicknames in the history the team: Hammer, Big John, Brohearn, Papo, Wally World, Bye Bye and my personal favorite, Moose.