The 2015 Royals were sensations off the field, too

From hangin’ with celebrities to showing off their new puppies, the Royals made lots of news off the field this season. Some stories quickly went viral, thanks to Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

Yes, social media are a gift to fans from the baseball gods. Here’s a look back at the stuff that happened (mostly) away from the K.

T-shirts with swagger

The most talked-about T-shirt this season? Hands down the “Straight Outta Kauffman” shirts that riffed on the NWA 1988 hit, “Straight Outa Compton.”

Two “Straight Outta Kauffman” songs also came along, too, one in April by Craig Smith, the other later by hip-hop duo Center of Attention.

Messed with the wrong fans

Cleveland pitcher Trevor Bauer riled Royals Nation in July when he hit designated hitter Kendrys Morales with a pitch. Bauer’s the same guy who hit Alex Gordon last year.

After he plunked Morales, Royals fans went off on Bauer on Twitter — and he fought back.

A typical exchange:

Royals fan: “Paybacks are hell, my friend. Don’t throw at my boys in blue.”

Bauer: “I don’t throw at anyone ... might make an exception if I see you though.”

A moose and a dog

Third baseman Mike Moustakas added another “player” to the bench this season: his miniature Australian shepherd puppy named Gus.

Moustakas took his adorable new fur baby on a stroll around the K in July before the Royals played Pittsburgh.

Then this happened ...

A moose and a horse

On a mid-September Saturday Moustakas set a team single-game record with nine RBIs and two home runs in a win at Baltimore and had a horse named “Moose” after him.

The horse was born at Warm Springs Ranch, a breeding facility located near Boonville, Mo.

Interesting stat: Equine Moose probably will grow to be between 1,600 and 2,400 pounds.

A new celebrity fan

The Royals turned into fans themselves when they got to meet rapper Fetty Wap before an early August game against Detroit.

The rapper’s “Trap Queen” and “My Way” hits took MLB somewhat by storm this season, adopted as walk-up songs by a handful of players.

Royals players started jokingly dropping the number “1738” — a reference from “Trap Queen” to Fetty’s squad — in interviews.

So when the rapper came to town to perform at the Sprint Center he stopped at the K first. Selfies all around.

A few days later Fetty released a promo for his new album that showed clips of his visit to Kansas City, including scenes of him wearing a Royals jersey at the concert.

Julianna’s journey

Second baseman Ben Zobrist’s wife, Christian music artist Julianna, documented her life as a baseball wife on Instagram and took literal center stage when she sang the national anthem before Game 1 of the ALDS.

Zobrist used his wife’s newest single, “The Dawn,” as his walk-up song this season. She is releasing her third album.

But it was her other upcoming “release” that caught fans’ attention. She is due soon with the couple’s third child.

When the Royals played in New York, Zobrist flew her there on a private jet — with her doctor, just in case.

She gave her husband a World Series ultimatum: “You better hit a homer if I have the baby without you.”

Kings of social media

Catcher Salvador Perez and his social-media sidekick, outfielder Lorenzo Cain, became the team’s breakout stars on Instagram last season and kept up the fun this year.

Fans also followed Eric Hosmer, Jarrod Dyson and Alcides Escobar, who immortalized the season on their own Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Jeremy Guthrie soaked up a lot of attention from fans and media with often-goofy posts on Instagram and Twitter. Thanks to social media, we now know his favorite Taylor Swift songs and what kicks the devoted sneakerhead owns.

Johnny Cueto hair

Johnny Cueto brought a new do to town this season, and Royals fans were quick to make it their own — nearly literally.

In his inaugural home outing in August, on-the-ball fans paid homage to Cueto’s trademark long locks by wearing fake dreadlocks to the game. Even Sluggerrr got in on the act, whippin’ around the K in a wig.

Fans could not stop tweeting about, or wearing, his hair. A new Twitter account popped up at Johnny Cueto’s Hair.

Tongues, wagging

Eric Hosmer and local broadcast personality Kacie McDonnell became the hot couple of the season when they let the world know via social media that they were dating.

It didn’t take long for fans to stop talking about how she moved to Kansas City from Philadelphia to be closer to her then-boyfriend, Chiefs quarterback Aaron Murray.

Hosmer and McDonnell posted photos of themselves on Instagram — on dates, celebrating in the locker room and most recently flying to New York after the World Series for his appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”

Our hometown homers

If, by now, you don’t know the names of the Royals’ most ardent homegrown celebrity fans, well, you must root for the Mets.

Two of them — Eric Stonestreet and Paul Rudd — were front and center with their allegiance during the playoffs and World Series.

Stonestreet, a KCK native who stars on ABC’s “Modern Family,” got his co-star Sofia Vergara to record a good-luck video to the team. And he made a bet — and won it — with avowed Mets fan Jimmy Kimmel.

And Paul Rudd? The “Ant-Man” star was admittedly geeked out when he got to celebrate with the team after the World Series win, champagne dousing and all.

Rudd told MLB Network he had “no business” being in the Royals’ clubhouse celebration. “I couldn’t believe I weaseled my way in,” he said. “It was really thrilling.”

A Wonderous announcement

The night that the Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays at the K for the ALCS championship, Stevie Wonder was performing at the Sprint Center.

In a harmonic convergence unlikely to ever happen again, it came upon Wonder to tell the crowd of nearly 12,000 concertgoers the good news.

“The Kansas City Royals are going to the World Series,” he told the cheering throng.

People talked about the moment on social media all night.

Shhh! No ‘fighting’ in the library

From out of the Royal blue came an unusual postseason war of words between the Kansas City Public Library and libraries in Toronto and New York that caught worldwide attention.

The KC library’s social media manager, Liesl Christman, playfully launched the salvos in the form of “book spine poetry,” creating poems by stacking books so that their titles read like verses.

She posted the photos on Twitter, where during the postseason they racked up hundreds of retweets and responses.

After the Royals demolished Toronto in Game 2 of the ALCS, for instance, Christman and colleague Kaite Stover, created this poem: “Canada.” “Sorry You Lost.” “What Bluebirds Do.”

The Toronto library responded the next day with its own book spine poem: “Warning.” “Kansas City.” “It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over.”

When the World Series began, the library went head to head with the New York and Queens public libraries.

And we don’t have to tell you how that story ended.

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 5:20 PM with the headline "The 2015 Royals were sensations off the field, too."