Back in the Kansas City Royals clubhouse in the early ’90s, slugger Bo Jackson used to rub the little guy’s head for luck before each game. “And Junior would imitate Bo’s batting stance, and say he’d be in the big leagues some day.”
That’s John Mayberry Sr. talking about his son, John Mayberry Jr., who indeed may follow in Jackson’s—and his father’s—cleat tracks. A two-time All-Star first baseman, Mayberry Sr. played major league baseball for 15 seasons with the Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees and Royals.
Today, Senior runs clinics and fantasy camps for the Royals, but he’s happiest when he’s on the road, watching Junior play with Team USA or the Cape Cod Baseball League or at Sunken Diamond. “I hope he gets drafted in June, but it won’t stop there,” he says. “He’ll have the minor leagues, then the big leagues, then the All-Star game. There’s always a challenge in baseball.”
A first-round draft pick by the Seattle Mariners out of high school, the junior first baseman had to choose between his lifelong dream of playing pro ball or accepting a baseball scholarship to Stanford. “It was very difficult,” he says. “But we figured if I came here and played as well as I was capable of, I would be in the same spot in three years, and I’d also have my degree. And then I found out John Elway went here ...”
Mayberry pauses, listening to the thwack of bats striking balls on a glorious spring day. A trim 6-feet-5, he’s a designer prototype for first base. His strong arm—he guesstimates he throws the ball at about 90 mph—and elegant reach anchor the Cardinal infield, and he’s second on the team with a .344 batting average. Mayberry and teammate Jed Lowrie, ’06, are candidates for National Player of the Year.
As Mayberry has closed his batting stance this year and become an even quieter, more efficient hitter—“there’s not a lot of wasted movement in the setup”—he has watched the No. 10 Cardinal (18-9) adjust to the loss of nine players last spring to pro ball. He thinks the team’s prospects are good for a sixth consecutive College World Series appearance in June. “We have great pitching and great defense, so definitely, we’ve got a good shot at it.”
Like a lot of kids, Mayberry grew up playing Little League and collecting baseball cards. (He still has a Cal Ripken rookie card, though “not the one that’s worth an unbelievable amount of money.”) But he had access to better coaching than most. “The fact that I grew up in a household that always talked about baseball, I couldn’t help but pick up the game,” he says. “I started playing as soon as I had the motor skills to hold a bat.”
If his father’s influence on the playing field has been considerable over the years, Mayberry says his mom has always been on the sidelines, motivating him. “She gets me pumped up and makes sure I’m feeling good about myself,” he says. “She’ll say, ‘Go get ’em, Johnny,’ that sort of thing, to keep me loose before a game.”
When he was in high school, Janice Mayberry drove her son from their home in Kansas to a Jesuit school in Missouri every day. When he committed to attending Stanford, she was there to see that he finished his degree. “I’ve always said to him, ‘Do not start something—I don’t care whether it’s knitting or crocheting or baseball—and not finish it.’” As the family looks ahead to the June draft, she is just as clear about what her son’s priorities should be. “I hope he signs and does what he’s capable of doing,” she says. “But I want him to be a good person first, and then play ball.”
