The KC Royals have hosted 2 of city’s 3 All-Star Games

Last season, the KC Royals had two players crack the 2021 All-Star roster in Salvador Perez and Whit Merrifield. The game, played in Colorado, marked the eighth straight victory for the American League.

The last time the National League won was in 2012, the second time the Royals hosted the annual competition. They first welcomed the All Stars in 1973 during the inaugural season for Royals (now Kauffman) Stadium. And the Kansas City Athletics hosted the Midsummer Classic at old Municipal Stadium in 1960.

The Athletics were the first Kansas City team to host the MLB All-Star Game.

Although the 28th MLB All-Star Game was played July 11, 1960, Kansas City wasn’t the only All-Star venue that year—the 29th Game took place at Yankee Stadium just two days later. From 1959-1962, the American and National Leagues played two All-Star Games per season. The reason was simple—per an agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association, second game profits went to the players’ pension fund.

Kansas City’s 1960 game featured a plethora of baseball greats and future Hall of Famers, including Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, and Al Kaline, just to name a few.

Mays led off for the National League with a triple. Bob Skinner knocked him in with a single, and Banks smashed a home run to propel the NL to a 3-0 lead in the first inning.

The American League couldn’t muster anything against starting pitcher Bob Friend of the Pirates, who notched two strikeouts and surrendered just one hit through the first three innings. By the time the AL mounted a comeback with Nellie Fox’s RBI single in the sixth and Kaline’s two-run homer in the seventh, it was too late as the National League came out on top 5-3.

The 2012 season was the last time the KC Royals hosted an All-Star Game.

It took 39 years for the All-Star Game to return to Kansas City. When it did, there wasn’t much in the entertainment department for AL fans as the National League clobbered the American League 8-0.

Justin Verlander was the starting pitcher for the AL and after striking out Carlos Gonzalez allowed a single to Melky Cabrera. It was downhill from there as Ryan Braun doubled to score Cabrera and Pablo Sandoval hit a triple to score Braun, Carlos Beltran, and Buster Posey.

Cabrera, a former Royal who was part of Kansas City’s great 2011 outfield, had a big day in his old ballpark, going 2-for-3 with two RBIs to win the All-Star Game MVP award.

As for the Royals, their lone playing representative was Billy Butler. Manager Ned Yost coached for AL Manager Ron Washington.

While Butler went 0-for-2 with a strikeout at DH, his All-Star experience that season will be remembered for the Home Run Derby he didn’t participate in.

Robinson Canó, who won the 2011 Derby, was named 2012 American League Derby captain and was in charge of picking the other AL participants. He did not, however, select hometown favorite and slugger Butler, who’d homered 16 times by the time the All-Star Break came around. Still, the Royals fans had the last laugh—or boo, rather—when they booed Canó whenever he came to bat.

Perhaps there was no sweeter taste for those fans than when Canó made 10 outs without hitting a single homer.

Kansas City has hosted the All-Star Game three times, with the Royals doing so twice. The first KC game had its own rich history of future Hall of Famers, the second had more Hall of Famers and good performances by the Royals, and the third had plenty of boos spurred by a Home Run Derby selection controversy.