Dear Kansas City Royals,

I suppose I should start by telling you that I am your No. 3 fan. I would like to be No. 1, but if I am being honest with myself, my dad and my brother have me beat. To be fair, they’ve been around longer so they have an advantage.

I love baseball. I grew up eating Sno Cones and playing Skip-It outside of the dugout watching my dad coach and my brother play. The first song I learned to sing was “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” (I once sang, “Root root root for the Yankees” and my dad still won’t let me forget it.) I remember getting to go to Royals games and convincing my mom that I needed both a Sno Cone and cotton candy, and searching for my pal Slugger. Baseball is in my blood.

But I am proud to be a Royals fan for reasons that go much further than my love of baseball. When I moved away for college, I downloaded the ESPN app to keep up with my favorite team. Every time I get an alert, I picture my parents and my brother watching the game on different couches, in different states, cheering for the same players I'm cheering for. You keep me connected to my parents, to my brother and to the city that claimed me long before I was ready to claim it.

You taught me to be true fan. True blue fans stick around when you at your lowest (we don’t have to talk about our struggle years, but know I had your back then, too). I stood in the stands and checked every alert when we were the butt of baseball jokes. So last year, I celebrated that much more.

Last year was a rough year for my family. October hit us hard. We lost someone important to all of us. We were broken. We needed you. After the funeral my whole family squeezed onto our couch and we cheered for our team. We needed something to believe in. Something worth cheering for. You gave us that. And I am eternally grateful.

So thank you, Royals, for being a team worth cheering for, for being another reason I love coming home and for showing up when we needed you most. No go and take that crown.

Love,

A true blue fan