5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Kansas City Royals

mlb.com

In this series I am going through all 30 MLB teams and presenting five facts you most likely didn’t know about each one.  As a big baseball fan, I thought I knew a lot about the history of the game, but there’s so much I’m learning as I’m going through this, which makes it really fun to put together.  Let’s get started.  Next up, the Kansas City Royals:

1. They have a cheating Hall of Famer

That’s right, Hall of Famer Amos Otis, who played for the Royals for 14 seasons, admitted in 1992 (8 years after his final season) that he used a corked bat about half the time.  “It helped me a great deal,” he went on to say.  Otis batted .277 throughout his 17-year major league career.

2. It took a long time for any player to hit 40 home runs in a season

The Kansas City Royals were founded in 1969, but didn’t have a player hit 40 home runs in a single season until just a few years ago in 2019.  That player was Jorge Soler, who launched 48 home runs to lead the American League that year.

3. The team is named after a livestock show

When you think of the name “Royals,” you probably think of a king, queen, and other members of royalty.  Even the team’s logo has a crown on top of it.  But the name actually came from the annual American Royal Livestock Show held in Kansas City.  The city has a deep history in the livestock industry, which explains why the “Royals” beat out other nicknames such as the “Cowpokes” and the “Mules” in a 1968 naming contest.

4. A former manager was a former NASCAR pit crew man

Ned Yost, who managed the Kansas City Royals from 2010-2019 and is the all-time winningest manager in franchise history, also has “worked on a NASCAR pit crew” on his resume.  And not just any pit crew, but the legendary Dale Earnhardt’s.  While Yost was one of the Atlanta Braves’ coaches in the 90s, he became friends with Braves fan Dale Earnhardt.  Such good friends, in fact, that during the 1994 MLB strike, Yost volunteered on Dale Earnhardt’s pit crew.  He credited Earnhardt and the rest of that crew for teaching him valuable lessons that he would take with him on his journey to becoming a major league manager and winning the 2015 World Series.

5. Lorenzo Cain had a late start to the sport

Speaking of the 2015 World Series team, Lorenzo Cain was a vital part.  He batted .307 that season with 16 home runs and 72 RBI to go along with his stellar defense in center field.  He has posted good numbers over his career, so it’s pretty wild to believe he never played baseball until his sophomore year in high school.  He even showed up to tryouts that year without a glove.  “If I would have made the basketball team, there’s no chance I would have played baseball.”  I’d say baseball worked out pretty good for Lorenzo.

 Did you learn something new?  Find anything interesting?  If you did, feel free to leave a comment or add a fun fact of your own!

Garett