Why Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. thought Kauffman Stadium felt like Arrowhead on Saturday
Along with a number of Royals teammates, Bobby Witt Jr. attended the Chiefs opener on Thursday night at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, site of the Guinness World Record for loudest crowd roar (142.2 decibels) in 2014.
As the Chiefs fended off Baltimore 27-20 in the NFL opener, Witt naturally appreciated that “it got pretty loud” and all.
Just the same, after the Royals completed their exhilarating 4-2 rally over Minnesota on Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium, he thought “this might have topped it.”
Along the way, maybe there was no greater surge than when he stepped to the plate in the eighth inning with the score tied 2-2 and runners on the corners — a scenario all the more electric since the Royals had mustered all of one hit in the first seven innings.
With chants of “Let’s go Royals” reverberating, the phenom absorbed the scene in every way.
“That’s what you dream of,” he said. “That’s the moment you want to be in.”
So much so that he didn’t even feel like he had to suppress his adrenaline.
“Not really; just be there in the present moment,” he said. “You don’t have to do too much. It’s the same game. Maybe a little louder.”
Louder yet after his single gave the Royals the lead en route to their 37th comeback win of the season (second most in the majors) and 78th win overall (34 more than they had through 143 games last season).
Most to the point, at 78-65 they took another step back into the American League Central race (3.5 games behind Cleveland) and further entrenched themselves in a Wild Card spot.
Back to the crowd of 29,160 for a second, though.
That’s nearly 45,000 fewer than the 73,611 at Arrowhead the other night. So, technically speaking, it probably wasn’t really louder.
But this is less about the literal than the vibe and context and impact.
And what Witt’s feeling said both about this team and the hunger of its fans who have only been able to enjoy two postseason berths since 1985 — each of which made for about the best of what sports can mean to a community, especially one that had been utterly conditioned to defeatism when it came to Kansas City’s MLB and NFL teams.
As Witt spoke about the feeling of Saturday night, that was what he really was getting at.
Hearing that kind of roar, he said, glancing down at his arms, “it gives me kind of chills.”
Because he loves baseball, to be sure, but also because it reminds him of other crowd bursts he’s heard.
Not at a Chiefs game, though.
In footage of 2014 and 2015, when the Royals stunned baseball and galvanized the area and a generation-plus of fans with back-to-back World Series appearances and by winning it all in the encore season.
“You watch those videos … (and) you could hear it,” he said. “And that’s kind of what it brought me back to. You could hear the buzz. It was just like an eruption.”
One that woke up the echoes.
Because this team, too, has captured the imagination of fans, especially after so many recent years of misery.
It began to earn that with an offseason spending spree that included ponying up more than $100 million to free agents, crucially including starting pitchers Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, and signing Witt to an 11-year, nearly $300 million contract.
And the Royals have made good on that thanks to crafting an enviable starting rotation after the opening nightmares of the last few seasons; the morphing of Witt from star-in-the-making to a prime American League MVP candidate; the gift that keeps on giving of Sal Perez; the breakout season of Vinnie Pasquantino (what a shame that thumb injury was) and the midseason acquisition of bullpen revelation Lucas Erceg.
And a host of other contributors helping spackle it all together.
Like, say, all who played a role in the eighth on Saturday: Freddy Fermin with a single; Robbie Grossman hit by a pitch; Dairon Blanco pinch-running for him; Kyle Isbel singling in Fermin; Tommy Pham squibbing an infield single that led to an error that brought in Blanco … and brought up Witt.
MJ Melendez knocked in Pham to account for the final score.
All of which speaks to a collective identity and culture that has been carefully cultivated by general manager J.J. Picollo and manager Matt Quatraro and their staffs.
The group mindset, Quatraro said before the game, is “genuine. And it’s understanding that they’re pulling for each other as much as they’re pulling for themselves. That attitude, that selflessness, that drive to achieve one goal, I think that’s what permeates this whole locker room.”
More than ever as the season goes on.
“Because you can weather the storm,” he said. “You can put some good runs together. You can bounce back from adversity. Nobody panics.”
In a sense, this game was a microcosm of the season — especially since it represented a third straight win after a season-long seven-game losing streak and served as a reminder of this team’s fundamental resilience.
“We’ve seen these guys never give up … the way they keep fighting, the way they stay in the game,” Quatraro said afterward. “And we talk about that all the time. I mean, the pitching kept us in the game, and anything can happen.
“I mean, two runs, sometimes it feels insurmountable. But it’s not, and it just takes a couple things to happen.”
Something Royals fans are sensing more and more.
This story was originally published September 7, 2024 at 11:42 PM.