UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, December 8,1994
9A
McRae uses KU class as stepping stone
Continued from Page 1A.
two cities, attending two schools and having different sets of friends each year. During the Royals regular season, McRae and his family lived in Blue Springs, Mo. And during spring training, they moved to Bradenton Fla. McRae's birthdate 27 years ago
Though his dad wasn't around most of the time while he was growing up, McRae doesn't seem to have minded.
"That was his job," McRae said. "It was his job to travel the country and play games. Some people's fathers were dentists, some were doctors. My dad was a baseball player.
Tom Hedrick, instructor of radio and television at KU, answers a question from Brian McRae during his sports broadcasting class. McRae said he took the class during his spare time, due to the major league baseball strike, so that when his baseball career was over he would have the skills for sports broadcasting.
"But, if their dad makes a mistake it was not all over the television."
Hal McRae would not return phone calls for this interview about his son. He lives in Bradenton, Fla., and Hedrick said Hal McRae is a hitting instructor for the Cincinnati Reds.
While his dad was batting, 300 and driving in runs, McRae would hang out with neighborhood friends learning how to play the game that his father was famous for.
McRae remembers borrowing lawn mowers from neighbors to create baseball diamonds out of fields around his house. While his dad swung away in then Royals Stadium, McRae hit to an open prairie. Well, not quite an open prairie.
There was the woman who lived in left field who was the driving force that turned McRae into a switch hitter. He learned how to bat left-handed because she wouldn't return any of the long balls that landed in her yard.
"Damn, she was mean," McRae recalled. "She must have ended up with 12 dozen baseballs."
Hitting left-handed sent his fly balls into right field and eliminated any dealings with the wicked witch of left field.
During those years, McRae and his younger brother Cullen were always close.
"Dad was never around and it was always just us," Cullen. 21. said.
McRae did not start playing organized baseball until he was in the seventh grade. In the ninth grade, McRae played his first football game at Blue Springs High School. It was football that almost led him to KU in the past.
"He was an All-Star player," said Fred Merrell, McRae's football coach at Blue Springs. "Athletics are in his genes."
On the field, McRae never wanted to be in the spot light.
"He didn't play for himself, he played for the team," Merrell said.
Merrell first heard rumors about Brian McRae when the athlete was in the third grade at Thomas Ultican Elementary School.
"My wife was his teacher," Merrell said. "One day she came home from school and said: 'You better hope you get Brian McRae to play for you someday. He runs around recess all day and everyone wants him on their team.' I looked out for him ever since."
Blue Springs assistant coach Bud Young coached
Brian McRae's career statistics
acquired; selected in 1 st round of 1985 June Free Agent Draft
ht: 6-0 wt: 185
bats: switch throws: night
Major League service: 3 years
McRae for two years in football.
Young said he had never met anyone with a stronger work ethic in all his years of coaching.
"He stayed after practice to work harder. He always wanted to work harder," Young said.
McRae was offered a full scholarship to play KU football in 1985, but he heard rumors that he might be drafted into professional
baseball. When he was notified by the Royals that he was their No. 1 draft pick, it was a chance he could not pass up.
"I wrote a list of the pros and cons of playing baseball over football," McRae said. "And three weeks later I was off to the minors."
"But," McRae admitted, "football is my favorite sport."
--football jersey, his high school baseball shirt, his minor league baseball shirts and shirts he has collected from other athletes.
McRae wears a gold pendant around his neck that reads "#56." He chose the numbers because they added up to the number his father wore when he played for the Royals. And he talks about the hard times he had in the minor leagues.
McRae sits on his couch holding the remote control and watching football on TV. His collection of athletic memorabilia hang on his wall: his high school
"I was thrown in the real world at 17. I had no family or friends and I lived in a dump," McRae recalls. "I was broker than broke."
McRae had been dined and
"I remember my friend Kenny had an injury to his shoulder and had to quit," he says. "A few years later he killed himself. I didn't want to get close to anyone."
McRae can't remember very many friends in the minors.
"I was thrown in the real world at 17.I had no family or friends,and I lived in a dump."
"Everyone is out for themselves in the minor leagues," he says. "There's a lot of dissension between players. When I would try to fit in, I was always alienated because: 'I was only there because I was Hal McRae's son.'"
dazzled, cheered and complimented until he signed with the the Royals in June 1985. But once he signed \on the dotted line, the glory was long forgotten.
His days in the minors included 10- to 12-hour bus trips, dirty laundry, cooking and pressure.
Brian McRoe Kansas City Royals centerfielder
Mctae made few friends in the minor leagues. He was always skeptical — people came and went so quickly. People would quit. Friends would be released.
Sometimes he would watch college football games as 60,000 fans rooted the players on and think: "They are treated first class, and I've been forgotten."
"I questioned what I was doing many times," he says. "Not only did I have to prove myself to the coaches, but I had to prove to the team that I was there because of my athletic ability and not because I was Hal McRae's son."
McRae thought he had made a mistake.
McRae made few friends in the minor leagues.
After five and a half years McRae was finally called up to the majors where he got the last laugh.
A year after McRae joined the Royals, his dad was named manager. Hal McRae was only the fourth manager in history to manage his son behind Connie Mack, Yogi Berra and Cal Ripken Sr.
"Dad called me and asked me what I thought about it," McRae says, "At first I was a little skeptical, but he treated me like any player."
Though McRae had pressure as Hal McRae's son, the elder son says he feels sorry for the
expectations placed on Cullen, his younger brother. Cullen plays second base for Florida A&M, his father's alma mater.
Cullen is proud of the successes his family has had in the sport. Next year, he wants to wear his brother's number, 56.
When Cullen is home the closeness shows.
"We play catch together and I work out with him and the team," Cullen said. "I don't get to hang out with him a lot, not as much as I did when we were little.
"We're still close. I call him and tell him about my games," Cullen said. "And he calls me and tells me how bored he is. Brian said the strike was fun for a couple of days but then he was bored. I couldn't believe it when he told me he turned into a college student."
Brian McRae works out on the treadmill at the Athletic Club of Overland Park. McRae tries to work out everyday.
Keep It Clean
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FREE 6'SUB
SUBWAY'S GRAND OPENING SALE!
with purchase of a medium size drink, during hours listed below
This special offer available:
FRIDAY 5 P.M.-8 P.M. DEC. 9th
SATURDAY 11 A.M.-3 P.M. DEC. 10th
Subway has opened new doors & we're celebrating with a deal you can really sink your teeth into!
Good only at 6th & Minnesota location 1530 W. 6th
annotation with any other offer. Limit one per customer. No package necessary. Other restrictions may apply.