Joseph T. McGuff was an American journalist, author, and newspaper editor. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he attended Marquette University and served briefly in the United States Army before being discharged due to asthma. After first working for the Tulsa World, he joined the staff of The Kansas City Star in 1948. He became sports editor in 1966 and was named editor of the Star in 1986. After the Kansas City Athletics departed for Oakland, California at the close of the 1967 season, McGuff played a major role in ensuring that Kansas City would gain a new franchise ? the Kansas City Royals ? in the 1969 expansion. He was named to the writers' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985, receiving the J. G. Taylor Spink Award. He served as president of the Associated Press Sports Editors and also the Baseball Writers Association of America. Named as Missouri's outstanding sportswriter five times by the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters, he was chosen to throw out the first ball for the seventh game of the 1985 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals. He was also the author of Why Me? Why Not Joe McGuff?. 

August 15th, 1926 in   /  Died:   Feb 4th, 2006 - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis