Former Negro Leagues umpire is thrilled Royals are back in playoffs

Sitting in his den filled with Royals memorabilia, Bob Motley, 91, can reflect on a life well-lived.

He has rich memories of being a Negro League umpire. A Royals season ticket-holder since 1973. A fan in the stands for both of the World Series in which the Royals played — 1980 and 1985, when they defeated the Cardinals to be world champions. Attending numerous All-Star Games, and meeting such greats as Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and George Brett.

It’s all there, documented in the many pennants, autographed bats and framed photos filling the walls of his den.

But there is at least one more chapter in his life that is in the process of being written. And he’ll tell you it might be one of the best yet.

Like many die-hard Royals fans, he has waited 29 long years for the Royals to get back in the playoffs. And now that they are, Motley’s excitement has reached at a fevered pitch.

Reaching into a large envelope, Motley dramatically produced one of his prized possessions — World Series tickets printed by the Royals.

“That’s where I’m going to be in a couple weeks,” said Motley, who lives in Kansas City North. “I’m going to be sitting in that seat, watching my Royals.”

Spoken like a true-blue baseball fan.

Motley has been a Royals Lancer, an ambassador for the team, since 1973 and he was one of the top ticket salesmen in his day. He remembers times when tickets were a tough sell; days when it took a good sales pitch to peddle tickets to see a struggling team.

But throughout the bad days, Motley never lost hope. They’ll be back, Motley would say.

“People are funny,” said Motley, who is the last living umpire from the Negro Leagues era. “Your die-hard fans will put up with the losing. They’ll support the team no matter what.

“Then you have your fair-weather fans who want to jump on the bandwagon. They get caught up in the excitement and want to be a part of it.

“The phone has been ringing around here, with fans wanting to know if I could get them tickets to the playoffs and World Series. I guess I have a lot of friends I didn’t know I had.”

Motley chuckled and reflected on his good fortune. Baseball has made him somewhat of a celebrity in Kansas City, where he has been involved in the game longer than most people.

He remembers umpiring Negro League games at the old Municipal Stadium at 22nd and Brooklyn, where he called balls and strikes on such greats as Satchel Paige.

“I remember one game when he called me out to the mound and told me, ‘Ump, I want to pull my outfielders,’” Motley said. “I told him, ‘You can’t do that. The rules say you have to have nine men on the field.’ So he had his fielders stand right on the foul line and he struck out the side.”

Motley grew up in Alabama, where his love of baseball developed at an early age.

“We couldn’t afford to buy baseballs,” Motley said, “so we would take a rock and wrap rags around it and we had our baseball. We’d use tree limbs for bats.

“It didn’t matter to us. We’d play ball for hours.

“My dream was to play in the Negro Leagues.”

But that dream faded when he got a chance to pitch for the House of David traveling team and lasted only one inning. “I wasn’t very good,” he said.

He developed a second dream when he was in a hospital, recovering from being shot in World War II, service that later earned him a Congressional Medal of Honor for his time in the Marines. There was a baseball diamond in back of the hospital and some of the wounded servicemen would pass the hours by playing pick-up games. Motley hobbled down on his crutches one day and was recruited to umpire.

“I loved it right from the start,” he said.

Motley went on to become one of the best-known umpires in the Negro Leagues, where he worked from 1947 until 1958. He wouldn’t merely punch someone out, he would make a show of it, leaping high in the air or doing the splits when he made his call.

His new dream became umpiring in the Major Leagues, but the color barrier stood in the way. He had the credentials, becoming the only Negro Leagues umpire to attend umpire schools and he was widely recognized for his talent. Later in his career, he almost accomplished that goal, umpiring games in the AAA Pacific Coast League. But that’s as far as he advanced.

So Motley stayed in Kansas City, worked at General Motors and became a super fan. He remembers watching the Kansas City A’s and laughing at the entertainment owner Charlie O. Finley brought to town.

“The A’s weren’t very good in the early days, but Finley made things entertaining,” Motley said. “He had that old mule, the bright colors on the uniforms, the white shoes, that mechanical rabbit that would pop up behind home plate to bring the umps the baseballs. He kept things interesting.”

But along with the good times, there were some bad moments.

“I remember when Finley moved the team in the middle of the night to Oakland (in 1968),” Motley said. “I’ve never been so mad.”

Maybe that’s why Motley and others were so excited when the Royals started a franchise here in 1969.

“Joe McGuff (former Star columnist) and Alex George came to get me and drove me over to meet (Royals owner) Ewing Kauffman,” Motley said. “We sat down and talked, and I liked him from the start.

“He told me, ‘I’m not really a baseball man, but I’m going to do everything in my power to bring championship baseball to Kansas City.’

“And he was true to his word.”

Many balls and strikes later, Motley’s beloved Royals are back playing playoff baseball. And you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who is more pleased than Motley.

“I never gave up hope,” he said. “Sure, we had some bad years in there, but I knew we’d come back.

“I have all the patience in the world. I was an umpire.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2014 at 7:40 PM with the headline "Former Negro Leagues umpire is thrilled Royals are back in playoffs."