Courtesy MLB.com

(August 10, 2009) The joke is that Paul Splittorff, who won more games than any Royals pitcher in history, is on injury rehab and working his way back. Bob Davis, a longtime broadcasting partner, kids him that he'll have to call a couple of games at Omaha before he returns to the Majors.

Splittorff, sitting in the Kauffman Stadium press box a couple of days ago, could only just smile and nod. Because, unmistakably, the good news is that the popular left-hander is on his way back to the Royals' TV booth.

Diverted this season by a problem with his speech and voice, Splittorff is easing his way back with FOX Sports Kansas City by doing commentary on the pre- and postgame TV shows at home games.

"This is the second homestand," Splittorff said before last Saturday's game. "I'm not one hundred percent yet. We talked about doing pre- and post- only at home -- no traveling involved yet. I don't know if they've made a decision for the rest of the year on the games. ... I don't think there's any big hurry."

Splittorff's problem developed as he fought off a virus last winter. In addition to losing weight, he lost something of his ability to talk as he did before. For a guy that calls Major League Baseball and college basketball games, that's devastating.

"It's a reaction -- side effect, after effect -- of medications for the virus I had over the winter," he said. "They said I'm going to have 100 percent complete recovery. They told me 80 percent of it would be in two months so I thought I would be over it and back working and the whole bit. But the 20 percent that I need is the one that's taking the longest, so it might be all this year. I don't know."

Is there a medical term for his affliction?

"Yeah, but don't ask me what it is," Splittorff said. "Is it common? They said, 'Well, it happens.' But it happened to me, so it doesn't make any difference how common it is. It's affected me. But I've been given a clean bill of health, I feel good and I'm going about this and a lot of people have gotten worse breaks than me."

Now he's been appearing on "Royals Live" with host Joel Goldberg when the Royals are at home.

His associates say Splittorff has made great progress since he determinedly worked on the Opening Day telecast at Chicago before going on hiatus. He's worked with a speech therapist and trained diligently to get his verbal fastball back. Still, at times, the words don't roll out just right.

"Now that he's on the air, I think people are getting used to what he sounds like," TV producer Kevin Shank said. "I think he's made huge improvements since the beginning of the season and he's very easy to understand."

Splittorff is not satisfied yet. "I don't like the way I sound, I'm not 100 percent. I'd like to be that and they want me at or close to that before I come back and do it," he said.

Shank says there's been no letdown in Splittorff's insight or analysis. "His thoughts are just phenomenal, just fantastic," Shank said.

Fortunately, the Royals had their Gold Glove second baseman, Frank White, on the staff. Splittorff was slated to scale back his schedule this year and White was booked to take his spot for 41 games. But instead White took on an expanded role and joined Ryan Lefebvre on all the telecasts home and away.

"Frank probably needs a break. I know he didn't sign up to do this," Splittorff said.

White, still learning the broadcast business, took tips on how to prepare for his analyst role from Splittorff who was often at the home games. Now Splittorff is giving White a break from the pre- and post-game programs in Kansas City.

"It's just good to see him come back as much as he wanted to work," White said. "You can hear the energy when he's doing his broadcasts. He's just waiting on his voice to get back, but his information is good and his energy level is outstanding."

While Splittorff misses full-time involvement in baseball, there have been plusses.

"I've really had a good summer," he said. "I've never had one off before."

Splittorff and wife Lynn, accompanied by children Jennifer and Jamie, went to the Lake of the Ozarks for the Fourth of July. He went to a cousin's wedding in Sioux City. There were visits to his properties in Florida and Minnesota. He's going to Chicago this month to be with his mother who'll have hip replacement surgery.

"Playing golf, not getting any better at it, but playing," he said. "It hasn't been the summer that I wanted or anticipated but I've made the most of it."

Splittorff played 15 years for the Royals, won 166 games, became their first 20-game winner in 1973, was on four playoff teams and the '80 World Series club, and was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame in '87. All through his playing years, he never considered taking on broadcasting as an ex-player.

"No, because I'd heard some guys who sounded like they didn't work at it," Splittorff said. "In football, I'd heard them and they were good. But, in baseball, I wasn't impressed."

But Fred White, then a Royals broadcaster and now their director of broadcast services, encouraged him to give it a try.

And then he was nudged into it during the 1984 season.

"They wanted to get me off the roster in '84 when (Bret) Saberhagen, (Mark) Gubicza and (Danny) Jackson all made the team and were all pitching good and they wanted to turn it over," Splittorff said.

By then a 37-year-old infrequently used veteran, he took voluntary retirement and accepted the club's offer to stay around and try broadcasting. So he retired on July 1, 1984, took two weeks off and went on the next road trip in front of a microphone.

"It was fun, I liked it and I guess I was OK to listen to and we did it again the next year," he said.

For a couple of years he and Davis did pre- and postgame radio shows. Then the club established separate announcing teams, Denny Matthews and Fred White continuing on radio with Splittorff joining Denny Trease on TV. Davis also was a TV partner for several years.

"He's worked so hard at [broadcasting], he didn't just show up to do games," Davis said. "He really has worked at it. He really didn't start just doing Major Leagues, he was doing high school games on a little radio station in Blue Springs and he was taking it seriously as a second career."

As a former basketball player at Morningside College in Iowa, Splittorff has also been a successful analyst in that sport as well, most recently for the Big 12 Conference.

Splittorff hopes his recovery will allow him to return to basketball this winter.

"I'm hopeful for basketball, I want to do Big 12 basketball again and they're holding that job," Splittorff said. "The ESPN guys have been awesome, the Big 12 guys have been awesome, the SIDs and coaches have gotten in touch. I mean it's really been nice."

His goal is to return to the Royals' game telecasts by next year if not before.

"Absolutely," Splittorff said. "I want to do something this year, game-wise, if it sounds good. I don't want to be a distraction and I don't want to be a burden for the guys I work with."

Typical Splittorff attitude, Davis will tell you.

"He is what he is, he's not phony, he's down to earth," Davis said. "He's just a good guy."

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