KC Royals deploy Chiefs' secret weapon for first pitch of Yankees series

Despite picking up the win on Sunday afternoon, the KC Royals undoubtedly enter a midweek series with the New York Yankees on one of the lowest notes possible.

Dropping a series to anyone amidst a tight American League postseason race is never ideal, but dropping one to the al worst Chicago White Sox is this close to rock bottom as rock bottom can get.

Thankfully they avoided getting swept, but they look far from the team that made that late April to early May surge up the standings, as they now sit just two games above .500 at 34-32, fourth in the AL Central and 1.5 games back of the final AL Wild Card spot.

At this point the Royals will look for anything to break out of this current stretch of mediocrity and perhaps before Noah Cameron throws his first pitch in Tuesday night's contest against the New York Yankees, they could find that spark with Kansas City Chiefs star George Karlaftis throwing out the first pitch, as confirmed by Matt Foster of KSHB 41 News.

KC Royals deploy Chiefs' secret weapon for first pitch of Yankees series

Let's address the elephant in the room, obviously Karlaftis’ first pitch is merely ceremonial and has no direct impact on how Tuesday's game will end up. That being said the indirect impacts are certainly prominent.

Karlaftis will certainly bring a spark of energy to Kauffman Stadium as one of the defensive stars of the wildly successful Kansas City Chiefs.

He's a two-time Super Bowl Champion with an impressive resume in his first three seasons in the NFL including 24.5 sacks already.

Perhaps that spark of success is exactly what the Royals need to get the juices flowing and get back on track to the contending team that they were expected to be entering the 2025 season.

Using 2024 as an example, first pitches with significant hype can certainly spark something unexpected on the field. Just look at the 2024 New York Mets.

The Mets would enter June 12 game as one of the worst teams in baseball with a 28-37 record. But June 12 also happened to be the date that McDonald's mascot Grimace would throw out the first pitch.

And from that point on, the Mets seemed to find some life on the field, winning seven straight and 12 of their next 14, en route to a miraculous comeback to not only reach the postseason but make a run to the NLCS.

Grimace would become a fixture of folklore for the 2024 Mets, and could be considered somewhat of a good luck charm.

Whether or not Karlaftis will live up to the hype that Grimace set first celebrity first pitches is a different story for a different day, but at this point the Royals could use any spark they can get in order to light a fire beneath them and get back on track and not squander the wildly talented contending roster that they have.