Baseball was in his blood
George Spriggs reached pinnacle of playing in MLB
George Herman Spriggs was born to play baseball.
Spriggs grew up in southern Anne Arundel County with the diamond game
ingrained in his being. His father, Mordie Spriggs, was an outstanding baseball player before putting away the glove and hanging up the spikes to work full time as a farmer.
Three older brothers — Francis, Norris and Alan — also excelled in the sport.
Mordie Spriggs grew tobacco, corn and wheat on a rented 100-acre parcel known as Lankford Farm. All six of his children worked on the farm in some capacity.
Mordie started a sandlot baseball team with four of the nine starters hailing from his own household. The team was known as the Owings Eagles and played on a makeshift field located on a cousin’s farm off Route 256 (Deale Churchton Road).
George Spriggs, youngest of the brothers, was a phenom from the outset and played third base for the Eagles.
Those were the days of segregation, and the Spriggs children all attended Bates High School in Annapolis. George, who was born on May 22, 1937, did not play baseball for Bates until he was a senior due solely to transportation issues.
The Spriggs farm was located in Jewell, Maryland — one of the last towns in Anne Arundel County along Route 2. It is located just a few miles from the Calvert County line.
“We lived so far from Bates High that if you didn’t take the bus home, you had no other way other than to hitchhike,” Alan Spriggs explained.
When George Spriggs played baseball for Bates as a senior, that is exactly how he usually returned to Jewell — walking along Solomons Island Road with his thumb out.
Merle Watkins, a scout for the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro Leagues, discovered the youngest Spriggs and signed him as an outfielder directly out of high school. Spriggs would never play for the Giants because he enlisted in the United States Army and spent two years stationed in Germany.
After being discharged, Spriggs joined the Detroit Stars of the Negro Leagues. Thus began a 10-year professional career
that culminated with Spriggs reaching the
major leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals.
The longtime Tracys Landing resident, who died Dec. 20, 2020, at age 83, will be inducted into the Anne Arundel County Sports Hall of Fame this month. It is a long overdue honor for the south county legend, whose accomplishments were not fully known by the Hall of Fame selection committee until recently.
“Our family is happy and grateful that George is finally being recognized as one of the great athletes to come out of this county,” Alan Spriggs. “George was a very humble guy and did not talk a lot about his pro career. It’s a shame George didn’t get into this Hall of Fame before he passed away because I know he would have been thrilled.”
Baseball in the blood
George Spriggs was taught how to play baseball the right way by his father and brothers at Gray’s Field, which was the first African American baseball diamond with lights. Mordie Spriggs and his cousin Albert Gray were the keepers of the park, and the Owings Eagles were always among the best teams in a league consisting of teams from southern Anne Arundel and northern Calvert counties.
“All of the Spriggs boys had baseball in their blood. Weekends were for playing baseball and they were delighted to get off the farm,” said Carroll Spriggs Sr., Alan’s son and George’s nephew.
George Spriggs was one of the last players to transition from the Negro Leagues to Major League Baseball. After Spriggs reached the majors with the Pirates in 1965, only three more players made the jump — Hal King, Ike Brown and Billy Parker.
Pittsburgh originally signed Spriggs as a free agent in 1963 and assigned him to Class A Reno, too low of level for a 26-year-old with three years of pro experience. The left-handed swinger with superb speed batted .319 with a .451 on-base percentage — drawing 107 walks in 133 games.
Spriggs moved up to Double-A Nashville in 1964 and led the Southern League with a .322 batting average and 33 stolen bases. He spent most of the 1965 campaign at Triple-A Columbus before receiving a late-season callup to the Pirates and making his major league debut on Sept. 15 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
It was a repeat in 1966 and Spriggs played a total of 18 games in the majors over those two seasons. Pittsburgh’s outfield was loaded with talent at the time with Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente in right, defensive ace Bill Virdon in center and power-hitting Willie Stargell in left.
The Pirates acquired Matty Alou in a trade and he led the National League with a .342 batting average in 1966. Al Oliver, who would blossom into a start for Pittsburgh, was a reserve outfielder.
Spriggs made the big-league club coming out of spring training in 1967 and appeared in 38 games, mostly as a pinch hitter and pinch runner. He was optioned back to Columbus midway through the season and realized the future with Pittsburgh was bleak.
The Boston Red Sox selected Spriggs in the Rule V Draft that year but did not make the major league roster and was returned to Pittsburgh. He spent the entire 1968 season with Columbus, batting .274 with 46 stolen bases.
Making history with K.C.
The Kansas City Royals, an expansion franchise looking to stock their minor league system, purchased Spriggs’ contract from the Pirates. Royals manager Joe Gordon was impressed with the new acquisition during spring training, saying Spriggs “definitely can help us.”
“He slaps the ball around, plays the outfield all right and learns quickly. He’s a good guy to have on the club,” Gordon said.
Spriggs opened the 1969 season with the Royals and played in 23 games before being optioned to AAA Omaha and batting .311. The
33-year-old made Kansas City’s Opening Day roster again in 1970 and enjoyed the finest game of his major league career on April 11.
Batting leadoff against the California Angels, Spriggs stroked four hits in five at-bats,
scored three runs and made five putouts. He was soon optioned to Omaha again and posted terrific statistics across the board, being named American Association Most Valuable Player.
Kansas City recalled Spriggs in August and he hit the only major league home run on Sept. 21 off Chicago White Sox pitcher Joe Horlen.
After playing in 51 games for the Royals in 1970, Spriggs was surprised when his contract was sold to the New York Mets. Limited by knee injuries, he sat out most of the 1971 campaign but came back to play in 41 games for AAA Tidewater in 1972 at the age of 35.
Spriggs, who holds the distinction of being the only former Negro Leagues player to ever wear the Kansas City Royals uniform, retired following the ‘72 season. He returned to Anne Arundel County and built a full-scale baseball diamond behind his Tracys Landing home. It was named Geno’s Field after the only child Spriggs had with first wife Alice.
Geno Spriggs starred at Southern High and Anne Arundel Community College before being selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 31st round of the 1987 MLB Draft. The same scout that signed George was responsible for the Pirates drafting Geno.
Geno Spriggs enjoyed two strong seasons in the minors before tragedy cut short a promising pro career. He died Dec. 2, 1988 at the age of 20 from injuries suffered in a car accident.
“George always said Geno was a better ballplayer than he was,” Carroll Spriggs Sr. said. “Losing Geno absolutely devastated George.”
George Spriggs founded the Tracys Twins and helped organize the Chesapeake Independent League. He and brother Alan were co-managers of the Twins and both played for the team.
Dale Castro pitched for the Galesville Hot Sox and remembers facing Spriggs. Castro, who had been a dominant pitcher for Southern-Harwood before becoming an All-American punter and placekicker at the University of Maryland, was told by teammates not to throw a fastball to Spriggs.
“I’m not afraid to throw him a fastball. He’s 68 years old for goodness sakes!” Castro responded.
Castro delivered a heater over the middle and Spriggs drove it off the wall in right-center field.
“From then on, it was either a curveball or a fastball down and away whenever I pitched to George,” Castro said.