If Bobby Witt Jr. spends career with Royals, George Brett says ‘kiss my numbers goodbye’

Through 2,707 regular-season games over 21 seasons with the Royals, George Brett tended to get fidgety during the day-in, day-out marathon. So he’d pace. Or go down the dugout steps to cool off. Or maybe go back into the locker room to chat with the clubhouse guys.

Except for when Bo Jackson was stepping to the plate.

“I never left,” Brett said.

That memory came to mind the other day because he has the same sense of anticipation and wonder now … when Bobby Witt Jr. is coming up. Even watching at home, Brett said, he won’t leave the room when Witt is about to bat.

“I’m just going to sit down,” he said, “and watch.”

As the only Royal in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and the only player in franchise history ever to have seasons comparable to what Witt is unleashing in 2024, Brett views Witt with a certain clarity and perspective that few others could offer.

He sees a young man more talented than he was and who he’s thrilled signed a long-term mega-contract, a rarity in Royals history.

“I’m so happy the Royals had enough sense to go ahead and make that investment in him,” Brett said.

Never mind what could happen if Witt plays his whole career in Kansas City.

“I can kiss my numbers goodbye,” Brett said with a laugh in a phone interview with The Star.

Of course, sustaining this over time is the hallmark of true greatness. And it would take years and years and years of remarkable consistency from the 24-year-old to transcend Brett in any way. So many years that the 71-year-old Brett reckons he’ll either be gone or too old to know it by then.

But one fascinating set of numbers surfaced to the forefront on Friday at Kauffman Stadium, where the Cardinals beat the Royals 8-5 in Kansas City’s 117th game of the season.

As my ever-aware colleague Blair Kerkhoff pointed out to me the other day, that’s the same number of games Brett played in (because of injuries) during what we like to call The Summer of George: the 1980 season when he flirted with hitting .400 (finishing at .390) on the way to being named American League MVP.

And while Brett’s average was much higher than Witt’s (.346 after a hitless Friday night), there’s an almost eerie resemblance in many of the stats:

In those 117 games in 1980, Brett had 175 hits, 33 doubles, nine triples, 24 home runs and 118 runs batted in with 87 runs scored.

In the same number of games this season, Witt has 162 hits, 33 doubles, 10 triples, 22 homers and 84 RBIs with 99 runs scored. (He leads MLB in hits, average and runs scored.).

That’s the stuff of MVP credentials, along with the fact that as of game time on Friday Witt led MLB with an fWAR of 8.1 — already the fourth-best for a position player in franchise history behind Brett (9.1 in 1980), Brett (8.3 in 1985) and Brett (8.3 in 1979).

“How great would it be if he could win (MVP) at such an early age, you know?” Brett said. “It’s just incredible.”

As Brett and I began talking about Witt the other day, I told him I’d found my jaw dropping at some of his recent play — including his .489 average in July eclipsed in club history only by Brett’s .494 in July 1980.

“Jaws dropping on a lot of us now,” Brett said.

Brett believed in Witt from the first time he saw him in spring training in 2021, saying he would have bought stock and futures in him then.

But what’s happened since has eclipsed anything Brett, or the Royals, for that matter, could have hoped to see by now.

Brett still could hardly believe what he had seen a few days before, when Witt’s fourth hit of the night against the White Sox was a grand slam that gave the Royals an 8-5 lead that Witt helped preserve with two stellar defensive plays in the ninth inning.

“He makes an unbelievable play to start the inning off … way to his right on the outfield grass, catches it shoulder level and just turns and rifles it to first: perfect throw,” said Brett, then pointing to Witt’s diving stop that ended the game after he virtually in one motion rose to his feet and lasered another throw to first.

It’s crazy, Brett said, that Witt is such a complete player.

And no doubt part of Brett’s admiration is Witt’s old-school sensibilities, particularly his work ethic and hustle.

“Every time he hits the ball, he’s thinking double (from) out of the box,” he said. “You don’t see that (anymore). You just don’t see that.”

What Brett called the “burn and turn” is another one of the ways Witt changes the very dynamics of games: by adding so many extra bases, forcing outfielders to contend more often with in-between hops because of the threat and firing up fans and teammates.

Game knows game, as the saying goes.

Brett figures some 100 or so of his 665 career doubles were delivered by that seize-the-extra-base attitude.

And he also knows a little something about how Witt has been able to sustain such a groove.

Counterintuitively enough … it’s easy to do once you get there.

Because when you’re this hot, Brett said, “you don’t have any negative thoughts going through your mind. … When you’re swinging the bat that good, your mind is blank.”

While getting there is its own adventure, that state of mind is almost easier to explain by what’s not happening than by what is.

“You don’t have to think about your fundamentals, because your fundamentals are locked in,” Brett said. “Basically, what happens, I think, is that when guys are in a slump, they’re thinking about their fundamentals. And they’re going up there and they might be saying to themselves, ‘OK, I’ve got to stay back, I’ve got to stay back, I’ve got to stay back. OK, I’ve got to get my arms extended. OK, I’ve got to have rhythm. I’ve got to do this.’

“There’s always a swing thought that might be in the back of their mind. Now, when they have any swing thought at all besides seeing the ball, they’re (darned). You can’t read the ticker tape (on TV news) and hear at the same time, right? Your mind can only do one thing at a time.”

To illustrate the point, Brett tried to put me through an exercise randomly reciting Nos. 1-5. For each number I might say, I was to hold up my right hand and hold up a different amount of fingers.

“Just keep doing it and tell me if you can do it,” he said.

Since I wasn’t quite sure I understood what he meant, I kept mangling the drill. Then, well, he was right: I couldn’t sustain it for more than a few turns.

“Exactly,” he said. “Or sometimes people can’t even say a word because they’re putting up fingers.”

If you’re Witt right now, though …

“There’s nothing to think about!” Brett said.

But plenty for the rest of us, including Brett, to ponder as we watch an irresistible phenomenon unfold.