The biggest Royals fan in the White House takes in an ALCS game

The man who normally acts as President Barack Obama’s voice, wearing a suit and standing behind a lectern, stood Saturday on Eutaw Street, ready to watch his boyhood baseball team play in the American League Championship Series.

Josh Earnest, a Kansas City native and the current White House press secretary, stood amidst a sea of orange T-shirts, wearing a blue Royals cap and clutching a tallboy in his left hand on a rare day off.

“What are the odds?” Earnest said. “The Royals are in the playoffs, and it’s in Baltimore.”

On most days in Washington, Earnest can be found conducting press briefings at the White House. On Saturday, he made the hour drive to Baltimore with a couple of friends as the Royals defeated the Orioles 6-4 and took a 2-0 lead in the ALCS. His job responsibilities aside, Earnest also has an 8-week-old son at home. So the playoff schedule took some finagling.

“I had to expend a lot of domestic political capital in order to attend a few hours in Baltimore,” Earnest joked.

Still, he wasn’t going to miss this.

When Earnest, 37, was growing up in Kansas City, he worshipped George Brett. Earnest was coming of age just toward the end of the Royals’ glory years of the 1970s and 1980s. Don Earnest, Josh’s father, each year would make a deal with Josh and his younger brothers. They would go to six or seven Royals games a year, but none in April and none in September. Dad required warmer weather.

“Opening day would roll around and we’d say: ‘Dad, can we go to the game?’” Josh Earnest said. “And he said: ‘We’ll go in May!’”

Inside the Beltway in Washington, Earnest’s devotion to the Royals has become something of a cause celebre. There are not many diehard Royals fan in Washington, he says, and even fewer in the White House.

When Earnest replaced departing White House press secretary Jay Carney in June, the official announcement noted that Earnest was a “lifelong Royals fan.” His bio on the official White House Press Secretary Twitter account also mentions his allegiance to his hometown team: “Kansas City native & life-long Royals fan.”

So, yes, Josh Earnest is proud of his roots.

“There aren’t a lot of Kansas City people in DC,” Earnest said. “So the fact that I’m a Kansas City sports fan and a Royals fan, it’s a pretty distinguishing feature. After all these late-night games, people have been emailing me congratulations.”

As the Royals have advanced in the postseason, Earnest says he’s tried to instill some Royals fever in the White House. Obama, of course, is a devoted fan of his hometown White Sox, though Earnest concedes that his boss has never been a diehard baseball fan. At least, not like Earnest.

“He’s excited about the Royals,” Earnest said. “He likes the good story. I’ve been in his ear a little bit.”

During Sporting Kansas City’s recent trip to the White House, Obama referenced the Chiefs’ victory over the Patriots on Monday Night Football and the Royals’ thriller over the A’s in the Wild Card Game.

“It’s a pretty good day to be from Kansas City,” Obama said. “You guys are kind of cocky right now.”

Earnest, perhaps, couldn’t have said it any better. On Saturday afternoon, in Camden Yards, the perfect postseason continued.

This story was originally published October 11, 2014 at 9:06 PM with the headline "The biggest Royals fan in the White House takes in an ALCS game."