Paul William Splittorff Jr. (; October 8, 1946 – May 25, 2011) was an American professional baseball player and television sports commentator. He played his entire career in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher for the Kansas City Royals from to . After his playing career, Splittorff became a television color commentator for the Royals. He was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame in . Early years Splittorff was born in Evansville, Indiana and grew up mostly in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Arlington High School produced several major league baseball players, including Fritz Peterson, Dick Bokelmann, and George Vukovich. Peterson and Splittorff pitched against each other twice during their careers, with Peterson winning both matchups. On August 17, 1971, the Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 2-0 at Yankee Stadium (in the days before the designated hitter, both pitchers went 0-2 at the plate), and on August 22, 1975 at the old Royals Stadium, the Indians beat the Royals, 9-5. He was drafted by the Royals in the 25th round of the 1968 Major League Baseball Draft out of Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, where he was a member of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and also played basketball. He pitched for the Corning Royals in 1968 (a year before the major league club existed), and has the distinction of throwing the first pitch in Royals organization history. He went 28–27 with a 4.01 earned run average in three seasons in the Royals' farm system before receiving his first call to the majors in September . He took the loss in his major league debut, pitching seven innings and giving up three earned runs against the Chicago White Sox. Kansas City Royals Splittorff began the season with the Omaha Royals, but after going 5–2 with a 1.48 ERA in eight starts for Omaha, he earned a second promotion to the majors. He stayed with Kansas City for the rest of the season, going 8–9 with a 2.68 ERA. From there, he became a fixture in the Kansas City rotation. He enjoyed his only 20-win season in , when he went 20–11 with a 3.98 ERA. Splittorff was the starting pitcher in the inaugural game at Kauffman Stadium (known at the time as Royals Stadium) on April 10, 1973; Splittorff earned the victory that evening in a 12–1 rout of the Texas Rangers. After finishing second to the Oakland Athletics