The season is finally here.  No more what ifs, no more predictions, just statistics and results.  All the fans can do now is sit and watch what happens on the field.  Many predictions have been made over the last six months about the Kansas City Royals yet like everything else in life all the assumptions account for nothing just the results. All the excitement about the Royals in 2012 can continue with the team having a good productive start to the season or the excitement could taper off like seasons in the past.  Kansas City has not been this excited about their hometown team for a long time, the 1970s and 1980s to be exact.  But this time it is different.  This team wants to win not only for themselves but for the city itself.  Also, not only do they want to win but they want to do it here in Kansas City.  The future is still the future but the present is now and nothing feels greater than to have our team playing in our town right now.

In years past, the city has always been excited about the fact that baseball season has started but that was because they had another option for a night out on the town that started at Kauffman Stadium.  Now, fans have the excitement on the field drawing them in.  They are not just going for Garth Brooks in the sixth inning or hot dogs or over priced cold beverages. Now for the first time in years they are going to watch the likes of first basemen Eric Hosmer, 2011 Gold Glove winner Alex Gordon out in left field, a young gun pitching staff along with the whole cast of Royals.  The team is finally the attraction and they want nothing more than to be the talk of the town.  In years past teams that the Royals organization put out of the field were there to make their money and get on to the next thing.  But this time it is different.  Winning is now the only thing.  Not many people outside of Kansas City are truly giving this team a chance.  Reasons like they are young, they won’t spend the money needed to field a winner, they are breeding the next big New York Yankee or Oakland A, but that is exactly what some of the players on this team want the outside media to say.  The underdog mentality will fuel this young ball club to do what I believe to be great things not only in years to come but this season as well.

The clubhouse has never looked as tight nit as they do now.  This team of young guys who have grown up differently, gotten their shot in the Major Leagues in many ways, have come together to join as a team.  Talent only can get a team so far but if these guys can stick together and be the family that a team needs to be success will come.  All of this aside, what do we do now?  All we can do is sit, wait, and hope that the team the Royals are putting out on the field is what we all think it can be.  Royals teams of the past had their time but for now, like the season slogan states, this is the 2012 Royals time to shine.  And shine they will.

It seems to be celebrity week at Kauffman Stadium. Ned Yost brought his friend Jeff Foxworthy to batting practice on Tuesday, and Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis and Rob Riggle will be at the game tonight playing some whiffle ball, singing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” and promoting their Big Slick charity poker tournament. Riggle told 435 South magazine last year, “I’m a crazy Royals fan. Paul, Jason and I determined that we were all at unforgettable game six of the 1985 World Series.” The comedians’ appearance last year at a game provided some laughs and an enduring rally cry for pitcher Bruce Chen (“C’MON CHEN!”). As luck would have it, Chen is starting tonight.

I am not generally interested in the world of celebrity, but, perhaps because the team is playing so poorly right now, this tweet from Kansas City Star sports writer Sam Mellinger piqued my interest:

If Jeff Foxworthy is a #Royals fan now, he is instantly the team's biggest celeb fan, ahead of David Cook and Wayne Simien. #NotSayingMuch

June 21, 2011 7:34 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@mellinger

Sam Mellinger

That seems to miss on a couple of points: Jeff Foxworthy is bigger than David Cook? And what about Paul Rudd?

OK, lobbying for Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis, Rob Riggle, Preston Lacy and, most convincingly, Garth Brooks. Not bad. #Royals

June 21, 2011 7:43 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@mellinger

Sam Mellinger

Also, nobody's mentioned Rush Limbaugh. I've got my ideas about you people's politics. #Royals

June 21, 2011 7:48 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@mellinger

Sam Mellinger

Foxworthy is probably only a fan so long as Yost is around, but we can include him for now. He said on the TV broadcast, “I’m jumping on board right now with the Royals. I want to be here when things explode.” As for Garth Brooks and Rush Limbaugh, I do not think they are actually Royals fans. They do have some connections to the team: Brooks took part in Royals spring training in 2004 to promote a charity, but the Royals are at least the third team with which he has done that. And the Royals paid him to sing “Friends In Low Places” in a Royals jersey to subject fans to watching it at every single home game, but that hardly makes him a fan. Limbaugh is from the area and worked for the team many moons ago, but I doubt he keeps up with them anymore. If you want to include those guys as fans, they probably take the cake as most well-known.

I did not know who Preston Lacey or Wayne Simien are before Mellinger’s tweet. Lacey is from Carthage, MO and is part of the Jackass gang. Simien is from Leavenworth, KS and played the orange round ball sport.

This article throws locals Don Cheadle and Maurice Green into the mix, but I have not found any other evidence that they are fans. Actor Jon Gries, best known as Uncle Rico in Napolean Dynamite, sported a Royals hat to the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Whether or not Gries is a Royals fan I do not know, but the KC is not typically worn to be trendy. Wichita-born actor David Snell (from The Wire, among others) is a serious Royals fan. The team comes up regularly on his Twitter feed:

Eric Hosmer is reminding me of a guy named Brett!

May 18, 2011 8:58 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@drsnell

David Snell

To get a totally scientific answer to who the biggest celebrity Royals fan is, I have compared how many Google results each name gets:

If Cheadle is a fan, he is way up there with 10.3 million results. Cook might get a small bump by having a common name, but he and Rudd at the top seems right to me

David Cook. Very famous.

Aaron Stilley also writes at his blog Royal Heritage and on the Tweeties.