Baseball and Royals Nation lost one of the last trailblazers when George Spriggs passed away on December 22nd at the age of 83, according to his family. Spriggs was on the inaugural Royals team in 1969 and is the only player in club history who once played in the Negro Leagues.
George Spriggs was born on May 22, 1937 in Jewell, Maryland and spent all his early life in the Jewell-Tracy’s Landing section of Maryland. The area is the last piece of open rural space between Washington D.C. and the Chesapeake Bay. A terrific high school athlete, George graduated from Wiley Bates High School in Annapolis and signed a professional contract with the Kansas City Monarchs, who were one of the premier Negro League teams of the day.