On the morning he made his major-league debut two weeks ago, Royals rookie Ryan O’Hearn fielded dozens of messages and phone calls.
Family members, friends, old teammates, mentors and others had flooded his inbox and rang his cell. In the scheme of things, it was a normal occurrence for a minor-leaguer on the brink of his first call-up.
But one of the most poignant conversations O’Hearn had on July 31 began with a hello from Hall of Famer George Brett.
“Which was cool,” O’Hearn said. “He said just go out there and said my goal should be to never go back to Omaha.