KANSAS CITY -- John Wathan always said he only ever wanted to bleed Royal blue. After spending 47 of his 52-year career in baseball with the Royals, it’s safe to say he pretty much already accomplished that.
But now he has the blue blazer to prove it.
Wathan was inducted as the 32nd member of the Royals Hall of Fame on Sunday in a pregame ceremony at Kauffman Stadium after being elected this spring through the Veterans Committee voting process.
“I always thought in the back of my head that there might be a chance,” Wathan said. “I knew I didn’t have the credentials for what I did on the field, but about seven or eight different jobs in 47 years, I think I kind of paid my dues. When you think about it, I was a utility player who played left field, right field, first and caught a lot. In my post-playing career, I was pretty much a utility player, too, because I did a lot of different things, and hopefully helped the organization."
Affectionately known as “Duke,” Wathan’s career with the Royals spans six decades and several different roles on and off the field. Selected fourth overall by the Royals in the 1971 January Draft, Wathan’s Major League playing career spanned 10 years. It was perhaps the best era in Royals’ history from 1976-85, with the club’s first American League West championship in 1976, capturing an American League pennant in 1980 and their first World Series title in 1985.
Wathan logged 572 games as a catcher, 196 as a first baseman and 64 as an outfielder with a career .262/.318/.343 slash line, 656 hits, 90 doubles, 25 triples, 21 home runs and 105 stolen bases.
“Of course, George [Brett] rode my coattails all those 10 years,” Wathan joked, never failing to take a jab at the Hall of Fame third baseman and one of his longtime teammates and friends.
In 1982, Wathan stole 36 bases as a catcher, a single-season Major League record that still stands.
“All the catchers that I knew that I would see from time to time would pat me on the back and say, ‘Way to go, we’re not slugs. We’re not slow. We can do stuff like that,’” Wathan said. “... It was a fun year. It’s always nice to have a record of some sort, especially for all the years of baseball that have been played -- to have a record like that, it’s pretty cool. Any kind of record, because baseball’s been around for so long.”
After his playing career, Wathan returned as a member of the Royals’ Major League coaching staff in 1986 and was Triple-A Omaha’s manager in 1987. When the Royals dismissed Billy Gardner in August 1987, Wathan took over managerial duties for the big league club.
From 1987-91, Wathan led the Royals to a 287-270 record (.515 winning percentage), including 92 wins in 1989. After coaching with the Angels and Red Sox, Wathan returned to Kansas City as a broadcaster in 1996 and then spent the next two decades working as a scout, roving instructor and special assistant in player development before his retirement in 2022.
Beyond playing, Wathan said working in the Minor Leagues was his favorite job.
“I still remember Salvy, when he was 16 years old and came over here,” Wathan said. “To see the improvement of young kids is so gratifying. When you might throw them a kernel of something that maybe they can use for the game, and it happens, they try it, and it works, and they get better. Then you see them from one year to the next getting better and then better and better. It’s really rewarding to see that progress with Minor League kids.”
Wathan’s entire family was in attendance on Sunday, including his wife, Nancy, sons Derek and Dusty, and daughter, Dina -- which is fitting because anyone who knows Wathan knows he loves two things: Baseball and his family.
Often, the two are intertwined -- at least for the Wathan family. All five members have worked for the Royals in some capacity in their lives. Derek and Dusty played in the Royals’ Minor Leagues, and Dusty made his MLB debut with Kansas City in 2002. Now, he’s the Phillies' bench coach, which allowed him to be in attendance for his dad’s ceremony, catching the ceremonial first pitch from him before Sunday’s game.
Dina worked in the Royals’ community relations department for several years. Even Nancy put some time in making breakfast burritos in Spring Training for a few years.
“They made a lot of sacrifices along the way, obviously, with me being gone,” Wathan said. “We’ve been married 55 years, and I tell everybody who travels that we’ve lived together for about 30. That’s just the way it is in baseball. You have to have that support at home, obviously, to be able to do what I did for all those years.”