KC Royals: Bo Jackson Ten Best Plays As A Royal (Video)

Bo Jackson’s best play’s as a Kansas City Royal player: 9. Bo Blows Up Rick Dempsey

Ok. Back in the stone ages of baseball, catchers were supposed to block the plate. It was manly, old- school baseball that showed the game’s hard-nosed roots.

Now, catchers were usually big, strong, squat guys that were like trying to run over a fire plug for most players.

Typically, the big, slugger-type guys were so slow it wasn’t hard to tag them. The fast guys who could be a problem on the bases, were pretty easy to block for the catchers of that era.

Then there was Bo Jackson.

Bo weighed 230 lbs, and could run like a world-class sprinter. Trying to stop Bo Jackson at home plate was like getting in the way of a high-speed bullet train—as veteran catcher Rick Dempsey discovered on July 21, 1987.

As the telecast made clear, Rick Dempsey broke his thumb on the play. Bo Jackson walked away like he ran through a paper banner before a high-school football game.

There really wasn’t anything on a baseball field that Bo couldn’t do. In fact, Bo could pretty much do anything at an elite level. That includes base-running. He was a guy that could hit a home run, rob you of a home run, steal a base, and score a run on a bunt squeeze play.

Unfortunately, Bo Jackson never devoted full time to baseball. His skills needed refinement, which you knew was possible given his ridiculous athletic ability. Sometimes I fantasized about combining Bo Jackson’s physical gifts with George Brett’s baseball skills.

The resulting baseball machine would have put Babe Ruth to shame.

Next: April 18, 1988