Hall of Famer George Brett Spring Training Q&A

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SURPRISE, Ariz. — In his 52nd year with the Royals organization, there’s no other place George Brett would rather be than in a dugout or watching batting practice.

You can find him on the back fields of the Royals’ Spring Training complex watching hitters or in the dugout during Cactus League games, having conversations with Minor Leaguers, big leaguers and coaches.

MLB.com caught up with the Hall of Famer last week in Surprise. (Note: This Q&A was edited for length.)

MLB.com: Fifty-two years in the organization. What does that number mean to you?

Brett: It means that the organization had a lot of confidence in me. They had a lot of trust in me. At the same time, I had a lot of trust in it. You look back at my career, ‘74 was my first full year, and the Oakland A’s were the world champions. They were in our division. In ‘75, we scared them a little bit, but they won the [division] again. In ‘76, ‘77, ‘78, we made the playoffs. In ‘79, we missed by three games. In ‘80, made the playoffs, ‘81, made the mini-playoffs because of the strike. In ‘84, made the playoffs — that’s the last contract I signed. In ‘85, won the World Series. I only played in two World Series, but I wasn’t one of those guys that was going to go be a free agent. I enjoyed playing in the postseason. And seven out of my first 12 years in the big leagues, we were in the playoffs.

There aren’t many of us who played for 20 years for the same team, and it’s one of the things I’m proud of most. They had enough confidence in me, I had enough confidence in them.

MLB.com: There have been quite a few Royals alumni in camp this week. What stories do you swap with guys like Steve Busby, Dennis Leonard, Willie Wilson, Bo Jackson and Mike Sweeney? And newest Royals Hall of Famer Ned Yost, too.

Brett: Busby doesn’t come around much, so it’s been nice to see him. Leonard likes to tell stories about Paul Splittorff, because they were best friends. Willie always tells golf stories. We both love golf. I’ll tell you a story I just heard. Me, Bo, Sweeney and Ned were in there, and Ned was talking about playing in Double-A against the Memphis Chicks. He was saying, “Bo, I don’t know if you remember this, but I was catching, and you hit a ball over the tower in left field.” And Bo told the whole story….