When George Brett stole home on August 17, 1976, it wasn’t just a wild flourish in a tied game. It was a perfect snapshot of the Royals team that was coming into focus - fast, aggressive, fearless, and very much in Whitey Herzog’s image.
That 1976 club had already stamped itself as something real. Seven seasons after arriving as an expansion team, Kansas City reached the postseason for the first time. The Royals finished 90-72 and set the stage for what would become the best decade in franchise history, a run that included five more playoff trips and the 1985 World Series title.
The formula was clear. The pitching staff finished second in the American League with a 3.21 ERA.
The defense was sharp, with only four AL clubs making fewer errors than Kansas City’s 139. Brett and Hal McRae led the league’s best batting-average duo, hitting .333 and .332, and the team piled up doubles and triples.
But the personality of that group showed up just as much in the way it ran the bases.
“We played very aggressively,” Brett said in a recent phone interview.
Denny Matthews put it another way: “reckless, maybe.”
“Absolutely,” Matthews said. “In all ways. No question about it.”
Few moments captured that better than Brett’s straight steal of home against Cleveland 50 years ago on August 17. It was the first and only time Brett could remember doing it, and it remains one of the rarest plays in the sport. According to Baseball Almanac, a straight steal of home has happened only 35 times in MLB history, just three times since then and not at all since the turn of the century.
Even in Royals history, it has been unusual. Kansas City has stolen home 48 times overall, most recently when Josh Rojas did it last month in Minnesota. But a straight steal, with no decoy runner in motion, has happened only seven times for the franchise.
For Matthews, the first one he remembered came in 1972 against the Angels, with Amos Otis breaking for home from third as John Mayberry batted against Nolan Ryan in a scoreless game.
Otis scored the only run of the game on ball four, and somehow survived the gamble.
“If I ever put a steal sign on at a time like that, I’d be arrested for manslaughter,” then-Royals manager Bob Lemon said afterward, adding that his heart had stopped with worry that Mayberry might swing. “If he had, he might have planted Amos into the bleachers.”
Brett’s steal four years later carried a different kind of purpose. The Royals were already eight games ahead in the AL West when they faced Cleveland, but Oakland was still hanging around and would finish only 2.5 games back. Every edge mattered in that race, and Brett’s play came in a 3-3 game in the 10th inning.
The setup began with Dave LaRoche on the mound. Brett knew the left-hander well, both from facing him and from watching him since they were teenagers in nearby California towns, where LaRoche had pitched against Brett’s brother Ken.
Brett noticed a tell.
“He would glance over at third, and then he would look at home, and he would take a deep breath,” Brett recalled. “And his windup was real slow.”
Either before the game or before that 10th inning, according to The Star’s account, Brett had talked with Herzog about LaRoche’s vulnerability to a steal of home. If he got into that situation, he had the green light.
He got there in a hurry. Brett singled, stole second for one of his 21 steals that season, and moved to third on a throwing error by catcher Rick Cerone.
“George in his early years ran the bases like a runaway truck,” Matthews said.
Brett had a joke for that, too: “People think I can’t run because I wear my uniform funny.”
With two outs and Dave Nelson at the plate, Brett and third base coach Chuck Hiller had a quick exchange after a pitch or two.
Brett: “God, I think I can make it. Look how slow his windup was.”
Hiller’s first answer was cautious: “OK, go if you want to. But be safe. Don’t be out.”
Brett remembered it more like this: “Go ahead. It’s the best chance that we have to win.”
Nelson gave him even more confidence. He had stolen home four times in his career and had done it nine days earlier on a straight steal. Brett figured if anyone would understand not to swing, it was him.
“The one fear when you’re trying to steal home is … if the guy swings, you’re dead,” Brett said.
So Brett took a huge lead, broke for the plate as soon as LaRoche looked away and took that deep breath, and beat the throw. LaRoche later told reporters he didn’t see Brett until he was nearly home. Nelson held his swing on a low, outside pitch and made room for Brett to slide in safely before popping up immediately.
Afterward, Cleveland manager Frank Robinson criticized LaRoche for what he called an “elementary” mistake.
Brett, meanwhile, understood exactly what the play meant.
“If I hadn’t made it, I never would have heard the end of it,” Brett said with a laugh in the clubhouse after the game. “Now they’ll never hear the end of it.”
Even now.
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