Eric Hosmer recently pulled back the curtain on one of the most memorable nights from the Royals’ 2017 season, and the story adds another layer to what was already an emotional farewell for a core group that helped define the franchise’s championship run.
That final game came at the end of a season that had briefly kept Kansas City in the race. In mid-August, the Royals were just a half-game out of a wild-card spot and five games back of Cleveland in the division.
But the finish never came together. Kansas City dropped eight of its next 12 games and, even after getting back to .500 four different times in September, could not climb over the line again.
By the time the season ended, everyone knew the moment carried extra weight. Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar were all headed toward free agency that winter, and manager Ned Yost made sure the ending felt like an ending.
With one out in the fifth inning, he pulled all four players at once, sending them off the field together for what turned out to be the last time. Salvador Perez met them at the dugout steps and wrapped them in a hug.
Even though Moustakas and Escobar would eventually come back to the Royals, the night still marked the close of an era.
Hosmer, who later signed with the Padres and is now back around the Royals as a broadcaster after retiring, shared a behind-the-scenes detail about that game while appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show.” The conversation started when a Louis XIII Cognac bottle behind him came up, and Hosmer explained it was a gift from former teammate Danny Duffy.
“So that’s my boy Daniel Duffy with Kansas City,” Hosmer said. “ We all came up (together).
He got drafted in 2007. I got drafted in 2008.
We all played in the big leagues, won a championship, and then 2017 was our last year (before) free agency, and we all played our last game together. We got to stay in the clubhouse after, and Duffy got me that bottle.
Had all the boys sign it, and it was so cool, man.
“We were all supposed to fly out that night and go back home for the offseason, and we ended up staying in that clubhouse for about four or five hours, just having some drinks. Our wives and girlfriends came in there, and we were just talking about the good old days, man.”
It sounds like the kind of night Royals fans would have loved to witness from a few feet away.
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