Mic'd up and anxious: Royals' Kuntz had to be careful during World Series
The officially-licensed film commemorating the compelling story of the 2015 Kansas City Royals is available now, and its release came with at least one consequence: showing and hearing just what first base coach Rusty Kuntz was shouting at players all Series long.
The Royals' coach wore a microphone throughout the Fall Classic, and as he told the Kansas City Star's Pete Grathoff before the film's premiere last week he was fully aware of the mic's presence on his body but still couldn't keep himself in check verbally:
“I’m as nervous as all get-out,” Kuntz said. “Oh, what did they put on? They assure me that it was all good, but you know how that all goes.
“I would rather been quiet in those situations. I’m never really comfortable being mic-ed up because I never know what’s going to come out of this mouth.”
Having to choose his words carefully on the biggest possible stage in MLB - circumstances in which emotions run high and four-letter-words aren't that uncommon - was among the challenges Kuntz said he faced during the Series.
“I know every night that I had to put a microphone on,” Kuntz said, “it was a little stressful for me, because there was so much stuff I wanted to talk about that I couldn’t because I didn’t want to leak it out. But it was what it was.”
In the end, of course, everything turned up roses for Kuntz and the Royals...and their fans, about whom he's very happy:
“To see the response and the love and the energy from the Kansas City people,” Kuntz said, “it’s been a long time, I get that, and I haven’t been a part of that that long, but it’s so refreshing to see baseball fans just love and appreciate everything that Dayton Moore has done, Ned Yost turned it into a reality and all the response from the people has been tremendous,” Kuntz said. “I couldn’t be happier for the city of Kansas City.”
Here's a clip of the film, narrated by Royals fan/actor Paul Rudd: