The Kansas City Royals had their best win in a very long time on Tuesday night. However, only a relative handful of Royals fans saw the pivotal game.
Alex Gordon continued his unlikely MVP candidacy with a two-run walkoff home run to give the Royals the win and helped them get even closer to their first playoff bid in almost 30 years.
However, only 13,847 fans watched the Royals beat the Minnesota Twins. That lack of support was enough to have Royals manager Ned Yost calling out the fans on what should have been a nice night for the franchise.
“I mean, what, 13,000 people got to see a great game?” Yost sarcastically quipped, according to The Kansas City Star.
Yost was far from done.
“We’re in a pennant race, yeah,” he added. “We’ve been working on trying to build this team for the last three or four years to put ourselves in a position where we can contend for a championship. And not only the division, but we want to contend for a world championship. It’s really, really important we have our fans behind us at the stadium.”
The manager acknowledged the fact that it was a school night and that fans have other means — TV, Internet — to watch games. However, Yost pleaded with fans to come out and support the club.
“But there’s a real need for our fans to be a part of this,” Yost continued, according to the Star. “We had a great crowd last night, and I was kind of hoping we’d have another great crowd tonight, and we really didn’t.
“They’re a big part of our success, especially at home. Because the electricity they provide, the energy they provide, helps you get through games like this. You know? We’ve been working hard to make our fans happy and make our fans proud for a lot of years, and we’d like them out here to enjoy a night like this with us. Because this was a special night. This was a fun night. I just wish there could’ve been more out here to enjoy it with us.”
You can see where Yost is coming from, but it’s also hard to criticize a Royals fan base for being skeptical after seeing its team fall all over itself for almost three decades.
