KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – They say that, in life, timing is everything. Steve Renko\u2019s timing has been perfect. The Kansas City native pitched a nine-inning no-hitter the day before the 1965 Major League Baseball draft. The Mets selected the Wyandotte High School grad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to buy two suits,\u201d Renko laughed.<\/p>\n
After four minor league seasons, Renko was traded to the Montreal Expos organization, which moved him up to the major leagues. The KU graduate spent the next 15 years in \u201cThe Show.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you got up there and got to meet the guys and watch, it was the same as being on any team, except you\u2019re playing for money,\u201d Renko said.<\/p>\n
Renko is the last three-sport letterman at KU, playing football, basketball and baseball. And along the way, he married his high school sweetheart, Sandra.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it was a good decision, we\u2019ve been married almost 62 years,\u201d Sandra Renko said.<\/p>\n
After eight seasons in Montreal, Renko was traded to the Cubs, where he played at Chicago\u2019s Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n
\u201cCubs park, I didn\u2019t care for,\u201d Renko said.<\/p>\n
He then moved across Chicago to the White Sox before playing in Oakland, where owner Charlie Finley gave Renko a stock market tip, handing him a check for $20,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you ever heard of Wendy\u2019s, it\u2019s gonna be a winner, take this money and invest it,\u201d Renko said Finley told him.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Renko did not follow the advice. He then moved on to play for the Red Sox.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoston, Fenway Park was fun,\u201d Renko said.<\/p>\n
Renko went to the Angels, where he played with the controversial Reggie Jackson.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur oldest son actually caught Reggie Jackson every day before games when we were with the Angels,\u201d Sandra Renko said. \u201cHe was real sweet to him, so yeah, I have a soft spot in my heart for Reggie Jackson.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renko wrapped up his playing career with his hometown Royals.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, that\u2019s the toughest place that I played, only because you\u2019re home,\u201d Renko said.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-6 righthander said he had success against Pete Rose.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got Pete out like a champ. All I did was throw the ball up and away and let him hit a fly ball to left,\u201d Renko said.<\/p>\n
Sandra Renko said she often felt nervous watching her husband pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to get nervous when he pitched. When we were in the major leagues there were a lot of times that I did not go to his games and I would watch it at home,\u201d Sandra Renko said.<\/p>\n
After 15 years, Steve Renko chose to wrap up his playing career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said they\u2019re going to put on my tombstone \u2018She went to a lot of baseball games,\u2019\u201d Sandra Renko said.<\/p>\n
Steve Renko is a Wyandotte High School graduate whose major league dream came true.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – They say that, in life, timing is everything. Steve Renko\u2019s timing has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[5,58086,83978,83980,83979,2291,4,256,1586,83981,41555],"class_list":{"0":"post-658528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-kansas-city-baseball","10":"tag-kansas-city-native","11":"tag-ku-athletics","12":"tag-ku-grad","13":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-mlb-baseball","16":"tag-mlb-draft","17":"tag-mlb-pitcher-career","18":"tag-steve-renko"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116334648647789416","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}