Royals fans flock to Bartle Hall for first day of FanFest

Just for the sake of Kansas City Royals fan history, know this:

Jeff Huerter of Lenexa, a 44-year-old tech specialist with AT&T, huddled in the cold for almost four hours to be the first fan waiting in line Friday as the glass doors to Bartle Hall opened for the 2016 Royals FanFest.

“Six-fifty,” Huerter said. That’s the time, in the dark some 40 minutes before sunrise, when Huerter arrived.

When the doors to the downtown convention center opened at 10:30 a.m., he was followed by a fast-moving stream of 500 or more fans who stood in a line that snaked all the way west beneath the convention center and then around the building and south down Broadway.

“To be here this morning, you have to be a die-hard fan,” said Tyler Boxberger, 30, a grade-school physical education teacher from Shawnee. He’d put in for a personal day off.

For the record: Boxberger was fourth in line, following Nick Brown, 23, of Overland Park, and his girlfriend, Peyton Taylor, 22, who works the overnight shift at an animal health company.

“I normally am sleeping right now,” said Taylor, who checked out of work at 6:30 a.m. and, about 20 minutes later, was standing beneath Bartle.

There was no place they’d rather be, they said. At last year’s FanFest, 25,000 fans greeted the Royals as American League champions, double the number from the year before. This year, as World Series champions, the Royals expect 30,000 fans over the two-day event.

Down the entire line, Royals fans toted souvenir balls and bats, helmets, cups, baseball cards and posters, eager to get them signed. They called out the names of the players whose autographs they sought.

“Salvy,” many yelled, meaning catcher Salvador Perez. “Gordon” for left-fielder Alex Gordon.

Jeremy Hughes, 33, of Pleasant Hill, stood in line with a moose antler hardhat and a backpack full of merchandise.

“I’ve got two bats, two stadium banners, two jerseys and a ball I want to get signed today,” he declared, and it didn’t matter signed by whom, although he was hoping Mike Moustakas would be willing to scribble his name on the hardhat.

Bryan Schmuck, 39, of Lee’s Summit, arrived with a framed World Series champion poster and two 5-gallon buckets filled with World Series commemorative baseballs. He also arrived with his kids Hayley, 20, Hannah, 14, and Brennyn, 11, and nephew Cody, 13, and a strategy to get them all out hunting for signatures.

Inside, a baseball play land greeted fans, who passed through an entrance flanked by 20-foot-tall posters of the team’s now-storied players. Spotlights painted arcs of light on the ceiling.

After attendees last year spoke of a crush of fans, the Royals this year announced they would use a new ticketing system. To control the flow of fans, the tickets allow entry at the beginning of allotted hours. On Friday, crowds appeared highly manageable, with lines long but moving.

Arrayed in an area larger than a football field and carpeted in Royals blue were games that included a miniature baseball diamond, a giant slide and cages for batting and pitching, where kids could judge their arms against a radar gun.

“I’m so going to win,” Zoe Reith, 10, of Shawnee, said just before racing her friend Grace Burger, 9, at the Steal Home Challenge, running the 90 feet between bases and timed by a digital clock. Zoe outpaced Grace by three-tenths of a second.

On the north main stage, Daylen Vaughn, 12, of Hays, Kan., stood with hundreds of others to watch Perez and a handful of fans from the audience play a version of Family Feud against another group led by fellow catcher Drew Butera.

Question, with top five answers on the board: Name a city where you’ll find sad fans.

No. 1 answer: New York, where the Royals defeated the Mets in the World Series.

“Oh, by the way, you do know we’re world champions, right?” the host said to the crowd.

For Daylen, this trip to Kansas City was a Christmas present from his mother and father, Kendra and Johnathan Vaughn. The family had driven four hours just for the day.

“All the spirit in this place is just amazing,” the seventh-grader said.

Chris Krueger, 55, a longtime Royals fan from Great Bend, Kan., similarly traveled for hours. He had been standing no more than 20 minutes, he said, to get to the front of a serpentine line where his picture was taken with the World Series trophy, shimmering atop a column.

Royals players and coaches were scheduled to sign autographs at six stations set up throughout the hall. Katherine Perryman, 9, of Independence felt slightly disappointed that first baseman Eric Hosmer was not at FanFest. The best she could do was stand for a picture with a full-size cardboard cutout.

“It is a letdown,” agreed Katherine’s mother and fellow Hosmer fan, Dawn Zans, who judged the cutout a meager substitute. “He’s not as hot.”

As hectic as FanFest can get, with thousands of fans expected Friday and Saturday, veterans of previous FanFests said there is a method to the autograph madness.

“Stay in one line,” said Steven Whipple, 52, of Kansas City, who is a practiced hand. By the time a fan makes it to the front of the line, nabs an autograph, returns to the end and then gets to the front again, the player signing autographs typically has changed.

Richard Slates, 47, of Cameron, Mo., queued up in one autograph line with his son, Griffin, 13, about 2:30 p.m. for a 4:30 p.m. signing, hopeful that they’d get the autograph of one of the prime Royals players. He didn’t mind waiting, he said.

“Guess we’ll see. … Rumor is Escobar,” he said, referring to shortstop Alcides Escobar.

Stephen Kasper, 48, of Topeka, said there’s more to FanFest than autographs.

“How many events can you come to where (Royals owner) David Glass is around with the fans?” Kasper said. “It’s just a very fan-friendly atmosphere.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 12:15 PM with the headline "Royals fans flock to Bartle Hall for first day of FanFest."