As the Kansas City Royals prepare to face the San Francisco Giants in Game 7 of the World Series on Wednesday, take a look at these five interesting facts you may not have known about the 2014 American League champions:
Manager Ned Yost has a few celebrity friends, most notably comedian Jeff Foxworthy who is Yost's hunting buddy. Yost also promised Foxworthy a role as bench coach, though that promise hasn't yet been fulfilled. Yost was also good friends with Dale Earnhardt and even served as a volunteer member on his pit crew during the 1994 baseball strike. Yost worked eight races and remained close with Earnhardt until his death in 2001.
ALCS MVP Lorenzo Cain might never have been a baseball player if he had made his high school basketball team. The Florida native only tried out for the baseball team as a sophomore after failing to make the cut for basketball. He also had no baseball experience prior to trying out. Cain was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers as a 17th-round pick in 2004.
Outfielder Alex Gordon is one of the faces of the franchise, but he was already a huge name before he even played in the Majors. Gordon was the second overall pick in the 2005 draft and was included in Topps' 2006 baseball card set by accident. MLB Players Association rules state that Topps is only allowed to include players in their card sets who played in a Major League game the year before, which Gordon obviously didn't in 2006. Gordon's card ended up in a few packs, making them rare collector's items because they weren't supposed to have them.
Rookie reliever Brandon Finnegan is the first player to play in a Major League World Series and a College World Series in the same year. Finnegan's TCU team made it to the second round before losing to Virginia on June 17.
Earlier this year, Royals mascot Sluggerrr teamed with the Make-a-Wish foundation to make a local child a hero for a day, similar to the "Batkid" stunt in San Francisco. Six-year-old Isai Rojas, who was battling leukemia, dressed up as Muchacho de Hierro and participated in a day-long series of activities that included rescuing Sluggerrr from the KC Cucaracha.
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