The NFL stakes claim to "America's team" with the Dallas Cowboys, but the franchise (and its owner, Jerry Jones) is way too polarizing to really back that up. In baseball, the Atlanta Braves have used national television exposure on TBS to make a similar argument. However, an ongoing rebuilding process and a lack of national relevance in recent years has stripped that way.
In our opinion, there is only one professional sports team going with the necessary prerequisites for such a weighty moniker. Here's 3 Reasons Why The Kansas City Royals Are Now America's Team.
1. Doing It Right
General manager Dayton Moore took a heck of a lot of criticism before the team's 2014 run to an AL pennant. His focus on the long haul had yet to bear fruit, and fans were starting to get testy and worried that a decade's worth of organizational building was for naught.
However, Moore stayed the course -- investing in the farm system and fashioning together a mixture of homegrown talent and free agents who have bought into the system. Rather than carelessly spending mid-market money and looking to catch fire one year out of ten (hello, Miami Marlins), Moore has built a team that's the envy of baseball through sheer hard work, gumption and plain old stubborness.
2. These Guys Love The Game
Watch a random Yankees game on a dog-day August afternoon and you're bound to find a handful of veterans robotically spitting out sunflower seeds and staring blankly into the distance. That's not to say that the kids on the Royals can't/won't get there some day, but every game looks/feels like a college football National Championship game when these guys play.
Just watch Alex Gordon in left and Lorenzo Cain in center. Or Salvador Perez taking deflection after deflection behind the plate and coming back with a smile. The energy they bring to the field is infectious. It also makes watching the game so much more entertaining and rewarding.
3. October Bandwagon
There is no pro sports team in recent years that's captured the imagination of the casual baseball fan quite like the Royals. This past October, you couldn't go anywhere around the nation without finding a Royals fan -- whether it be a lifetime die-hard or a new convert embracing a new baseball superpower that just feels different.
For any franchise to take on the mantle "America's Team," they have to inspire those with no previous stakes in wins and losses to care. With a group of guys who make baseball look like a game rather than a cutthroat business, and a fan base that is well-practiced in joyous delirium and makes you feel it through the television screen, that's what the Royals do better than any other pro team going -- make people care.
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