The Kansas City Royals, after so many years of irrelevance, broke through in a big way from 2013-2017. They rejuvenated a dormant fanbase and rekindled a passion for baseball in a town starving for something good. There were many moments that defined this team throughout those years. This is a list of the Top 25 moments. They could be specific moments in time or something that spanned most or all the era. Our No. 20 moment:
#21 – Ned Yost becomes Royals winningest manager
#20 – George Brett returns to the Royals as hitting coach
2013 had started out with optimism. The Royals had a young and very talented core and they had just traded for the likes of James Shields and Wade Davis.
However, after a 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on May 29th, the Royals eighth straight loss and twelfth in thirteen games, the Royals stood at 21-29 and 7.5 games out of first place. The offense had been sputtering, only scoring four or more runs in three of the previous twelve games. Ned Yost decided to switch things up.
On May 30th, Yost fired Jack Maloof as hitting coach and announced that George Brett, the greatest player ever to put on a Royals uniform, would become the hitting coach on an interim basis.
Many baseball experts and fans were convinced this was a public relation move for a team that had not seen a winning team since the 2003 season. However, the Royals started winning games. In June, the Royals finished 16-11 and outscored their opponents 108-89. Then in July they finished 15-10.
Though the Royals won more games than they lost during Brett’s tenure the offense really didn’t show that much improvement. In April and May, the Royals averaged 3.94 runs per game. In June and July, they also averaged 3.94 runs per game. The difference was that Brett helped bring that winning attitude to the clubhouse. Brett would finish up his stint on July 25, 2013, the day after the thirtieth anniversary of the famous “Pine Tar Incident”.
After Brett went back to the front office, the Royals would average 4.1 runs per game. The group also finished 86-76, their first winning season as a franchise since 2003.
Though the Royals failed to make the playoffs that year, it would lead to bigger and better things in the year to come thanks, in part, to No. 5 returning to the Royals dugout.
