KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There’s a famous quote from Jackie Robinson that reads, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
Perhaps it’s a tad heavy-handed in reference to a retirement, but it’s also an appropriate prism through which Alex Gordon’s baseball life, and his impact on the Kansas City Royals, can be assessed and put into context.
Gordon, 36, has made the decision to retire after Sunday’s season finale. He’ll wrap up a career that has included seven Gold Glove awards, one Platinum Glove, three All-Star selections and a World Series championship ring home to Kansas City, where his wife and their three kids have been waiting to spend more time with him.
The loss of his presence in the Royals’ clubhouse, the tone he set and the influence he had on those individuals around him on a daily basis, is difficult to quantify, but it’s undoubtedly part of his legacy. He has played the role — as Royals outfielder and Kansas native Bubba Starling described Gordon — of big brother to every player in the organization.
“The guy is so committed and so dedicated to what he does and sacrifices so much that it’s just astonishing,” Royals All-Star infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield said.
Merrifield, who has lockered near Gordon both in spring training and at Kauffman Stadium for the past couple of seasons, relayed a story from earlier in the week.
The team celebrated manager Mike Matheny’s 50th birthday with cake. Gordon, who famously adheres to a strict diet and has been legendarily disciplined with how he cares for his body, wouldn’t relent even though he knew he had less than a week remaining in his career. He declined the cake even as his teammates urged him to give in, just this once.
His best compromise? He said he’d do it after Sunday’s season finale.
“It’s incredible to see the consistency, the dedication and the sacrifice he makes day in and day out to doing what he does and being the player he is,” Merrifield said. “Whether he realizes it or not, by me being locker-mates with him the last couple years and our relationship growing the last couple years, stuff like that has rubbed off on me without me really realizing it.”
Of course, there’s the example Gordon set as far as work ethic — his almost robotic compulsion to maintaining a daily routine and his unwavering belief in putting in intense and structured work, regardless of results. He still chases down fly balls during batting practice in August as if it were Game 7 of the World Series.
“You could set your watch by his routine,” said veteran reliever Greg Holland. “I think that as a young player, that’s kind of the hardest thing to do is try to find a routine that works for you and that you’re comfortable with. He’s tireless with it. He has been for the last 14, 15 years. It’s remarkable.”
That in itself is admirable, but it’s hardly the only thing that those in close quarters came to want to emulate about Gordon.
Holland, who was drafted in 2007, was part of Royals’ championship teams in 2014 (AL pennant) and 2015 (World Series champs). He also spent 2017-19 in other organizations before returning to the Royals this winter.
Holland described Gordon as a player who had a presence and an aura about him from early on in his tenure with the Royals, but just as importantly Holland insisted Gordon has been the type of guy who’d give you the shirt off his back, along with being a great dad, a great friend, a great husband.
As a younger teammate, Holland said Gordon always took care of him. Gordon was there if he needed to talk or for a ride home. Gordon made it a point to take guys to dinner and make them feel welcome in that team environment.
Second baseman Nicky Lopez has told the story of Gordon relaying his own struggles early in his career during a time when Lopez began to doubt whether he’d ever have success in the big leagues.
Gordon hasn’t always been a vocal leader, though he did more of it late in his career, but many of his teammates took solace in his guidance.
“It’s emotional,” Royals outfielder/first baseman Hunter Dozier said. “We’re going to miss him in that clubhouse. We’re really going to miss him. … He means so much to us in that clubhouse. It’s going to be hard next year not having him around.”
Dozier and Merrifield have known for some time that Gordon likely wouldn’t return next season, but they continued to joke with Gordon that he’s not leaving.
After all, many of them went from idolizing Gordon to playing alongside him and considering him a friend. Watching him walk away is something they’ll all have to come to grips with in their own time.
“Ever since I got drafted, I knew who Alex Gordon was and he was somebody I looked up to,” Dozier said. “When I watched the Royals game when I was in the minor leagues, I watched him. During spring training when I was in big-league camp, I watched Gordo workout. I watched everything he did because he was somebody I wanted to be like.
“You don’t really know how good of a person he is, how good of a teammate he is until you’re actually on the same team. It’s pretty incredible what he does for all of us, what he means to all of us.”
Dozier didn’t grow up watching and cheering for Gordon and the Royals the way Starling did.
Growing up as a Royals fan in Kansas, Starling remembers being in junior high school and watching Gordon’s MLB debut. He knew all the stories about Gordon being in the clubhouse before most other guys, living in the weight room and shagging balls during batting practice like his life depended upon it.
A former three-sport standout at Gardner Edgerton High who was recruited to play football at the University of Nebraska, where Gordon went to college, Starling nearly lost his mind the first time he bumped into Gordon at spring training the year after Starling had been drafted No. 5 overall out of high school.
Starling was in awe that Gordon spoke to him and made a joke about him not wanting to go to Nebraska and play football. As soon as time allowed, Starling got to a phone, called his parents and said, “Gordo just talked to me!”
“It’s kind of emotional, honestly — listening to his press conference made me a little emotional,” Staring said. “It’s just not going to be the same when No. 4 is not in the clubhouse. He’s like that big brother to you, to me at least. It’s going to be tough.”
Over the course of 14 years in the majors and 15 in the organization, Gordon’s influence didn’t stop with his teammates.
Royals strength and conditioning coach Ryan Stoneberg moved up to the major league staff nine years ago after 10 years working on the minor league side. He knew that meant he’d be handling a bigger stage and bigger egos. He’d have to learn to manage people and personalities.
The biggest feather in his cap was getting Gordon to buy into what he was doing. It all came together from there.
“To gain the trust of an Alex Gordon so early was so important because he was the guy who set the tone,” Stoneberg said. “He was a guy who each and every day came into the clubhouse and every moment was accounted for. His workouts were so disciplined. To gain his trust and see him go about his business, it set the tone not just for a team but for an entire organization. Everybody aspired to be someone like him. It made my job so much easier. Everybody fell in line. It was a privilege to coach that man.”
Even Royals manager Matheny, a veteran of 13 seasons in the majors as a player and guy with a no-nonsense approach to preparation, has marveled at the way Gordon has remained focused through his final few games.
Matheny laughed as he conveyed how Gordon interrupted their conversation about his decision to retire because it was interfering with Gordon getting jumps on fly balls in the outfield during batting practice.
“This is a pretty intense conversation. This is an iconic player, and we’re talking about he has finally decided (to retire),” Matheny said. “He basically told me I needed to walk away because he needed to shag better.
“I thought how great of a representation of the kind of commitment and the player that he is that he knew it didn’t matter that he’d just made up his mind and just told his manager that, ‘I’m not going to be playing anymore, but I’ve got to go get some really good balls of the bat right here.’ That might go down as one of my favorite Alex stories.”
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