The tributes to Steve "Mingo" Mingori all mirror one another.
His former battery mate with the Kansas City Royals, John Wathan, said Mingori was "a good person, a good teammate." Warren Turner, who played alongside Mingori years earlier at Pittsburg State University, said he "enjoyed life, and he loved the game of baseball."
Mingori carved out a dominant senior season as a left-handed pitcher for the Gorillas in 1964 and parlayed that success into an eventual 10-year Major League Baseball career with the Cleveland Indians (1970-73) and ultimately his hometown Royals (1973-79).
In less than two weeks, Mingori will be posthumously inducted into the Pitt State Athletics Hall of Fame with the Class of 2026, a fitting final chapter to his baseball legacy.
Unknowingly at the time, Mingori became one of the Gorillas' early baseball pioneers, coming to Pittsburg in time for the third year of the program, which was started in 1962. The Liberty, Mo., native began his college career at UMKC, then the University of Kansas City, before moving on to Friends University in Wichita.
He wasted little time in becoming an impact performer on the mound for the Gorillas during his senior campaign.
"He was as dominant a left-handed pitcher as there was around," said Turner, who played for the Gorillas before later enjoying a 30-year ABCA Hall of Fame coaching career at Missouri Southern. "His ball really had a lot of break to it, and he was a highly competitive guy on the mound."
The staff ace put together his signature appearance in an 8-0 win against his former Friends University squad at Wichita on May 5, limiting the Falcons to one hit while fanning 13 batters in a complete-game victory.
Following season's end, Mingori and teammate Gary Haverly became the first two Pitt State players to sign with MLB franchises – Mingori with the Cincinnati Reds and Haverly with the New York Mets.
He spent five seasons in the Reds farm system eventually reaching AAA Indianapolis in 1968. Cincinnati traded Mingori to Cleveland in 1970 and he made his MLB debut on Aug. 5, appearing in 21 late season games with the Indians and posting a 1-0 record and a 2.66 ERA.
His big break came in the 1973 season when Cleveland traded him to Kansas City for right-handed reliever Mike Jackson. Mingori became a fixture in the Royals bullpen over the next seven seasons, appearing in 264 games and picking up 16 wins and 27 saves along the way. He pitched in seven postseason games between 1976-78 as the Royals and New York Yankees battled for supremacy in the American League. Mingori earned a save in game four of the 1976 ALCS, tossing 2.1 innings of relief work in a 7-4 win over the Bronx Bombers.
Wathan, who managed the Royals big league club for five seasons (1987-91) shortly after retiring as a player in 1985, remembers Mingori's durability and fun-loving nature as key attributes.
"Mingo had an elastic arm," Wathan said. "He could pitch every day. He had a tremendous screwball. It was fun to catch him.
"He also loved to play pranks on all the guys in the clubhouse, so we enjoyed returning the favor, too. One time we were playing at Yankee Stadium and I nailed his cleats to his stool in the locker room. Next thing I know, Mingo puts peanut butter in my cleats.
Wathan, widely known across baseball as "The Duke" for his deadpan John Wayne impersonations, chuckled, then offered a thoughtful follow up.
"Aside from the horse play, Mingo was never afraid to take the ball. He wanted to be on the mound every chance he could, and we wanted him there."
Following his playing days, Mingori stayed in baseball as a coach, like Wathan. He landed in the Toronto Blue Jays organization and ultimately earned a pair of World Series rings before retiring following the 1993 season.
Later in life, Mingori helped plant the seed for his grandson Andrew Vogelbaugh's passion for the game. Andrew remembers "a cool experience" when he was eight, where Mingori lined out hitting instructions for him and a pair of cousins with his former Royals teammate and star slugger, John Mayberry.
Mingori also received free tickets from the Royals following his retirement. Vogelbaugh recalls going to 40-50 games a year with his grandpa or other family members thanks to that perk.
Mingori died on July 10, 2008, when Vogelbaugh was 12, but his grandfather's love for the sport never left the grandson.
Vogelbaugh developed into a baseball talent himself at Liberty North High School. He committed to Pitt State early in the recruiting process and later turned away advances from the University of Missouri during his senior campaign, which was punctuated by him earning first-team All-America accolades.
Vogelbaugh followed that up by receiving All-MIAA honors three times during his decorated career for the Gorillas between 2015-18. The first baseman set a pair of school records by smacking 46 home runs and posting 177 RBI. His sophomore season in 2016 was highlighted by him earning NCAA Division II National Hitter of the Week honors after a monster four-game series against Minnesota Duluth.
He credits his grandpa for making it all happen.
"I really wanted to follow in my grandpa's footsteps," Vogelbaugh said. "He was the whole reason I came to Pitt. I wanted to stay loyal to the family. I had a lot of fun being a Gorilla. I think he was there with me."
Mingori's spirit has carried on in Vogelbaugh, and countless others, since his passing 18 years ago; and that spirit will return to campus for next week's ceremonies as well.
According to family, Mingori loved, and often repeated, the metaphorical catchphrase: "Old baseball players never die, they just fade away."
That might ring true, but Mingo's legacy on the ball diamonds still burns brightly.
Steve Mingori will be inducted into the PSU Athletics Hall of Fame, along with 13 additional individuals and the 2016 NCAA Division II National Champion women's outdoor track & field team, in ceremonies Oct. 23-24 on the PSU campus. The formal induction ceremony Friday, Oct. 23, will take place at the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts at 6 pm. The event is free and open to the public. The group also will be honored at halftime of the Gorillas' football game vs. Central Oklahoma on Saturday, Oct. 24.
