Only two years removed from a decade in which Kansas City had one of the worst teams in baseball, Royals fans got a crash course last year in how it feels to have a team not only playing in the postseason, but advancing to within two runs of winning the World Series. As victories have mounted, interest in the Royals has expanded from the core die-hards to a whole new generation of fans who weren't around in the late 1970s and early '80s when Kansas City was a perennial contender. Along the way several iconic characters emerged at Kauffman Stadium, their celebrity status driven partly by social media and partly by their consistent presence in front of a fan base that eagerly embraces their antics.
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