MLB All-Star Game: Why So Many Kansas City Royals Players Were Voted In
Seven players will play in the All-Star Game.
— -- The fans have spoken: Seven, yes, seven Kansas City Royals baseball players are scheduled to participate in Tuesday's All-Star Game.
The polls are now closed after Major League Baseball's 86th All-Star Game voting started in late April. The game -- which will be played in Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park -- will feature, among others, Kansas City third baseman Mike Moustakas.
"We're as much in a state of surprise as anybody," Mike Swanson, the Royals' vice president of communications and broadcasting, told ESPN last month. "Major League Baseball held a conference call in May, and they asked all 30 teams to get out and promote voting and the All-Star Game on Fox. All we've done is what we've been asked to do internally. The only thing we've done different this year is put a 'Vote Royals' on the field behind home plate. We're not doing anything that anybody else isn't doing."
Four Royals players will be starting -- outfielders Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain, shortstop Alcides Escobar and catcher Salvador Perez -- in a game that determines home-field advantage during the World Series.
"It's just been the support of our fans, really, over the last two years," Gordon, making his third straight All-Star appearance, told ESPN. "Winning brings attention, and that's what we've been doing. I think we play with a lot of energy, a lot of fun. People have noticed it."
One of the Royals' famous superfans, and certainly the most famous in South Korea, Sungwoo Lee, told ABC News that he believes other Royals fans were awakened by the team's entry into the World Series against the San Francisco Giants last year. He attributed the seven players' top votes to a "snowball" effect.
"I'm sure last year's magical Royals playoff run [turned] around Royals fans' attention and finally they are starting to believe in their home team," Lee said from his home in Seoul. "Now they enjoy every game, every team's achievement after a 29-year long playoff berth drought."
Of course, Lee said the Royals deserve to have a major presence in the annual game, as they have the best record in the American League so far at 52-34.
"The Royals got lots of love and attention from all over the states as the feel-good underdog story last year, then another strong season record, and energetic, play-hard Royals keep drawing attention from baseball fans," Lee said.
Lee points to Royals manager Ned Yost's comments about All-Star fan voting. According to the Kansas City Star, Yost said: “Instead of complaining about it, go vote. I’m not in charge of voting. I’m going to do what we do here. I’m going to take the team that they give me, and we’re going to go out and do the very best we can with it."