It will be a celebration fit for a king Tuesday in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, as the city honors the Kansas City Royals and their World Series victory.
Given how much the fanbase and city as a whole have rallied around the Royals over the past two years, Tuesday’s parade will be raucous from start to finish.
The city announced the festivities will begin at noon CT, with television coverage on Fox 4 in Kansas City. According to Len Jennings of KMBC Kansas City, KMBC.com will carry a live stream of the event.
Jeff Rosen of the Kansas City Star provided the full parade route, which begins at the Sprint Center and ends at Union Station:
Some fans couldn’t wait until the official celebration. According to Amie Just of the Associated Press, some trespassers vandalized Memorial Stadium at the University of Kansas following Game 5 of the World Series:
A.J. Perez reported for USA Today that Kansas City police were forced to shut down four blocks in downtown’s Power and Light District in order to accommodate all of the fans present late Sunday night and into early Monday morning.
Tuesday’s spectacle will be equal parts exultant and cathartic after the franchise’s long string of losing seasons in the 1990s and early 2000s followed by last year’s defeat in the World Series in seven games.
Plus, fans in Kansas City haven’t had a lot of sporting glory in which to bask over the last three decades.
Sporting Kansas City had previously provided the last championship for a KC-based franchises, but you’d have to go back to the Royals’ 1985 World Series ring for a title in any of the four major American sports. The Kansas City Star posted a photo from that year’s celebration:
You can count on Salvador Perez, Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas receiving massive receptions from the fans Tuesday.
In 2011, Sports Illustrated‘s Joe Posnanski documented how the Royals were turning a corner as an organization with young stars like Perez, Hosmer and Moustakas in the minors. Gordon entered the majors much earlier, but it wasn’t until that year that he truly started emerging as a star.
Those four players have come to symbolize a new era of Royals baseball.
Of the quartet, nobody meant more for the team than Perez.
“He’s a beast,” said teammate Lorenzo Cain of the All-Star catcher, per David Waldstein of the New York Times. “He’s a monster. He’s our monster. That guy gives everything he has. Without him, we aren’t here right now.”
“Salvi has so much desire and heart,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore added. “No matter what, you always want Salvi in the middle of clutch situations.”
Perez took home World Series MVP after hitting 8-for-22 in the series, driving in two runs, in addition to his stellar work behind the plate directing the Royals pitching staff. The 25-year-old was also responsible for the tying run in the top of the ninth of Game 5, with his fielder’s choice bringing Hosmer home.
Royals fans know all too well success can be fleeting in MLB, and the future is never guaranteed. The franchise missed out on the postseason for 28 years in a row after its 1985 championship.
As much as this Royals team looks set up to contend for at least a few more years, that is far from a given.
The fans in attendance at Tuesday’s parade will savor every moment of their team’s championship triumph.
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