Inductees

He’ll forever live in Kansas City Royals lore for his “Mad Dash” to the plate in Game 5 of the 2015 World Series, his sprint from third base forging a tie and helping the club ultimately win its first championship in 30 years.

Top of the ninth. Down 2-1 with one out. A Salvador Perez grounder to New York Mets third baseman David Wright. And Hosmer took off once Wright’s throw headed to first base.

“You just realize at that point in time that you’ve got to take a chance,” Hosmer told MLB.com. “It’s just the way we play the game. We’re aggressive. We don’t play the normal style of baseball according to some people. It’s just the way we do it.”

The play defined Hosmer’s career, and what a career it was, because the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted the former Royals slugger with the Class of 2024.

Hosmer helped fuel the Royals’ second Golden Era, helping the team win the 2015 World Series a year after Kansas City won its first American League pennant since the 1985 World Series championship season.

The third overall selection of the 2008 MLB Draft, he reached the big leagues in 2011 and retired after the 2023 season.

He spent his first seven seasons in the majors with the Royals, joining Alex Gordon (MSHOF 2020), Lorenzo Cain (MSHOF 2023), Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar and Salvador Perez on resurrecting a franchise starved for success.

Hosmer hit .284 with 127 home runs and had a .781 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) and won four Gold Gloves as a first baseman.

The Royals won Game 5 of the 2015 World Series in extra innings. A year later, he earned his lone All-Star selection and was named All-Star Game MVP.

He later played for the San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, finishing with 1,753 hits, including 198 home runs and 893 RBI.

“I’m very satisfied with my career,” Hosmer told FOX Sports last season. “I feel like I accomplished a lot, was around a lot of great people and have a lot of good stories to tell.”

Folks may not quite grasp the importance of Hosmer in Royals history.

When Hosmer was drafted in 2008 as the third overall selection, the franchise had continued on with hard times, having not been so much as a division contender for the better part of 14 seasons, with 100-loss summers almost the norm.

Hosmer emerged as a prospect while a teenager at American Heritage High School in Plantation, Fla. Across the country, Moustakas was becoming the all-time home run king of California high school baseball.

“The way (Hosmer) carried himself and to watch his teammates gravitate toward him was truly unique,” former Royals general manager Dayton Moore of scouting Hosmer in high school. “He was the man on the field. And everybody knew it. But the unique thing about Eric Hosmer. … I noticed how everybody gravitated toward him, but he treated everybody else like they were the star. … That was a very important moment for me, as we began to narrow down who we were ultimately wanting to select.”

Hosmer and Moustakas ultimately converged at spring training in 2009, telling Baseball America magazine that they loved the idea of helping the Royals climb from the cellar to the sweet taste of championship champagne.

Hosmer helped Double-A Northwest Arkansas win the Texas League pennant in 2010 and, a year later, made his big-league debut.

“There’s no question in my mind he won’t end up being a special player because he’s got all the attributes to being a special player,” then-Royals manager Ned Yost (MSHOF 2020) told ESPN.com.

Said Moore, “His arrival to the major leagues, we called it, ‘Operation Flip the Switch.’ It was just a very significant moment in the history of our franchise. The beginning of a new era, and the growth of a player and a team that ultimately won the World Series.”

A left-handed slugger and first baseman, Hosmer enjoyed a ton of success with the Royals as they mattered again. Only Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants, in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, kept the Royals from winning it all.

But that night in the clubhouse, Hosmer and Royals teammates set their goals for the 2015 season. Yes, right then and there, they vowed to return to the World Series and win it all.

A mad dash in October 2015 helped make it all possible.