Wow, this is a big one. Steve Balboni turns 55 today.
Balboni was one of the notable figures on the 1985 World Championship team and because of the context of the mid-1980s, his fame was bigger than perhaps now makes sense. Video games and his straight-from-central-casting appearance also helped.
In five seasons with the Royals, Balboni hit .230/.294/.459. From 1984-86 Balboni was at his best, hitting .231/.304/.474, which was good for an OPS 109. Balboni hit .320/.433/.320 in the 1985 World Series. His 36 homers in 1985 are still the franchise season record. Balboni is 9th in team history with 119 home runs, a position he should hold for a few more years. Billy Butler or Alex Gordon will likely pass Balboni sometime in 2014.
We don't really do retrospective sabermetrics for non-Hall of Fame players, but Balboni was probably one of the more overrated players of the 1980s, for all the reasons you can imagine. But today, we honor him.