10 Things You May Not Have Known About The Kansas City Royals

1. Hall Of Famer George Brett Inspired A Hit Song And Also Coined A Key Baseball Phrase

Within his 21 years playing for the Kansas City Royals, George Brett had 3,154 career hits, which is the most of any third baseman in Major League Baseball history. Brett is also one of four MLB players ever to log over 3,000 hits and 300 home-runs beyond a career .300 batting average. In turn, it is not at all surprising that Brett was inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame just a few years after his retirement as a player; his voting percentage beat that of Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays.

Brett notably came up with the term "The Mendoza Line," which describes a baseball batting average below .200 as being unacceptable by MLB standards. It reflected the on-going batting slump of former MLB shortstop Mario Mendoza, who would later be inducted into the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall Of Fame.

But more notably, as legend would have it, seeing a photo of George Brett in Royals uniform from a 1976 issue of National Geographic inspired New Zealand singer/songwriter Lorde to write her 2013 hit "Royals." The song won the 2014 Grammy Award for "Song Of The Year" and the two actually met backstage at a Lorde concert in Las Vegas. However, as of this article's writing, Lorde still has not visited Kauffman Stadium.

Contributor
Contributor

Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. In the years following, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Format Magazine, Businessweek, The Improper, Chicago Tribune, the L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Darren is also the host of the "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" podcast, as co-produced with PureGrainAudio. He is also the author of two published books, including 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press).