Royals In Monarchs Duds: June 22, 2008

The 2008 Salute to the Negro Leagues turned into a wild affair against the San Francisco Giants. The Royals donned uniforms based on the 1951 and '52 Monarchs style, seen here (hall-of-famer Willard Brown on left):

The visiting Giants presented a bit of a challenge, as there is little Negro leagues history on the west coast. A design based on a 1927 Royal Giants team was chosen; according to Around The Horn, an official Royals blog, the Royal Giants were an all-star team that toured through California, as well as a 1927 tour through Hawaii, Korea and Japan. That's hall-of-famer Biz Mackey second from right:

The Royals had the daunting task of facing eventual Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum. Kyle Davies started for KC, and had a short nightmare of a day, giving up five runs while only lasting one and a third innings. The Giants were up 6-0 after three innings, and 10-3 after four and a half. The Royals win probability at that point was 3%. The Royals made Lincecum work, and crawled to within 5-10 before knocking him out after just five innings and 109 pitches. The Royals jumped all over the San Francisco bullpen in the sixth, coming all the way back to tie the game at 10 by piling up eight base runners and five runs. In the seventh, Joey Gathright singled Alberto Callaspo home, and the Royals clung to a 11-10 lead for the duration. After a parade of ineffective pitchers from both sides, Ron Mahay came in for KC and breezed through the seventh and eighth, and Joakim Soria nailed down the ninth. The two teams trotted out 11 different pitchers, and the eight and a half inning game dragged out for four hours. According to the Kansas City Star, it was the second biggest comeback in club history.

The Royals did a great job of covering the salute on Around The Horn.