If you close your eyes and transport yourself back to 2011—you know, shortly after television was invented, or thereabouts—the Kansas City Royals were a sorry, sorry franchise. It had been a quarter century since they had last went to the playoffs, and eight years since the team had a winning record.
But the contrast between Opening Day and one day in mid August that year was stark. On August 10, some player named Salvador Perez made his Major League Baseball debut. And he was one of seven players who played in that game and weren’t on the Opening Day roster.