Royals’ Biancalana Gets the Last Laugh : Light-Hitting Shortstop’s 2nd Homer in as Many Days No Joke to Angels

Someone had better wire David Letterman quickly and tell him to pull the file on Buddy Biancalana.

If Letterman, the host of television’s “Late Night,” thought he had fun with him last year, wait until he hears about this.

Biancalana, the light-hitting, light-hearted shortstop of the Kansas City Royals, clubbed his second home run in as many days Sunday to help the Royals defeat the Angels, 6-5, at Anaheim Stadium.

For those keeping track, it was career home run No. 5 for Buddy, three of those coming against the Angels.

And while two homers for the season doesn’t sound like much, it’s hard to ignore the man’s ratio of home runs to at-bats. Biancalana, who’s all but been crazy-glued to the bench these days after becoming sort of a cult hero last season, has been to the plate just 28 times in 1986.

That works out to an average of a home run every 14 at bats.

Is it too late for a Roger Maris watch?

Last season, Letterman kept a running chart of Biancalana’s pursuit of baseball’s all-time hit record when, of course, this Buddy had as much chance at the record as Buddy Ebsen.

Around the stadium Sunday, the sports world went scurrying for nicknames. How about the Late Night Bomber?

Dick Howser, Royal manager, came up with “Bye Bye Biancalana” but insisted that it had nothing to do with his future as a Royal.

Biancalana isn’t so sure. Being a celebrity isn’t easy when you go to sleep at night with a lifetime batting average of .194.

Show business is funny that way. One night you’re a star and the next they’re hooking you with a cane.

“The problem,” Howser said, “is that he’s never hit.”

And that’s why he’s not playing.

Biancalana should have known right off that this wasn’t going to be a great one.

When shortstop Onix Concepcion was released by the Royals in spring training, he decided to give up the game entirely.

“If I can’t beat out a guy like Buddy Biancalana, I don’t deserve to play baseball,” said Concepcion, who has since been re-signed by the Royals and is playing in Class AAA.

But Biancalana seems to be handling his rise and subsequent fall from stardom.

“I never let myself get too high or too low,” he said.

He was pretty low, though, when the Royals traded for Angel Salazar and made him the starting shortstop.

Coming into the series against the Angels, Biancalana had appeared only once in the Royals’ last 11 games.

He started Friday night at second base and reached base three times.

Then he spelled Salazar at shortstop Saturday and lined his first home run of the season off Don Sutton.

Buddy was hot, and Howser knew it.

He started again at shortstop Sunday and, in the fifth inning, homered off Angel starter Ron Romanick.

Then came the needles from the Angels’ dugout.

“Reggie (Jackson) was all over me,” Biancalana said. “He said I had to work on my home run trot.”

Reggie, of course, was right.

“Yesterday, I didn’t know the ball was gone,” Biancalana said. “I ran too hard. I hadn’t hit one in so long. Today, I slowed down a little bit, to enjoy the good times.”

He did so because he knows they may not last.

Howser said that Biancalana would start today against Oakland, but he wouldn’t comment beyond that.

“I don’t like to get locked into something like that,” he said. “Heck, I hope he leads the league in hitting.”

At this point, though, he’d almost have to double his career average.

Biancalana hit just .188 last season, though he hit .250 the second half of the season and was an unexpected pest against the Cardinals in the World Series with a .435 on-base percentage.

Biancalana still is a crowd favorite in Kansas City and around the league, but that isn’t going to get him back in the lineup.

“I don’t want to be on the bench,” he said. “But that’s the way it’s going to be. But I’m not going to mope. I’ll just continue to work hard.”

And that’s all Howser is asking.

“He’s a favorite,” Howser said. “If I didn’t have a multiyear contract, he’d be our shortstop.”