Gordon elected to Royals Hall of Fame
Anne Rogers
@anne__rogersSURPRISE, Ariz. -- The pose is as iconic as the player, Alex Gordon rounding first base, right arm raised toward the sky, looking out toward the outfield after his game-tying home run ball in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series had just cleared the fence.
It’s a moment that will be forever remembered in Royals history, by a player who will be forever Royal -- the organization’s standard for work ethic, dedication, Gold Glove defense and steadiness.
And now a Royals Hall of Famer.
Kansas City announced Friday that Gordon has been elected to the team’s Hall of Fame and will be inducted in a ceremony on June 13 before the Royals play the A’s at Kauffman Stadium.
Gordon, 41, will be the 31st inductee into the Royals Hall of Fame and will receive a blue jacket, joining the likes of his former manager, Ned Yost, and other team legends from George Brett to Bo Jackson.
All these years later, Gordon, who grew up watching the Royals from his hometown in Nebraska, is in the same club as them. As the organization prepared for Friday’s announcement, it shot a promo video broken into three parts to tease the newest member entering the “Hall of Fame Lounge.”
Driving to the location, Gordon found himself in the car with Jackson in his passenger seat, and Brett and Mike Sweeney in the backseat.
“Just something I would never believe would have happened,” Gordon said. “Just a lot of people to thank over the way. It’s a tremendous honor.”
Gordon was elected in his first appearance on the ballot. According to the team, Gordon received 97.8% of the vote, the near-unanimous total speaking to his place in Royals history as a homegrown player who helped Kansas City win an American League pennant in 2014 and the World Series in ‘15.
Gordon’s rise to Kansas City was anything but linear after he was taken No. 2 overall in the 2005 MLB Draft out of Nebraska. Originally a third baseman, he made his debut two years after he was drafted, but by his fourth big league season, he was back in Triple-A and talking with the organization about a position change. Gordon was hitting .194 when the Royals demoted him in May 2010 and asked him to learn left field. A young infielder named Mike Moustakas was quickly rising through the Minor Leagues.
If Gordon wanted to make it back, he was going to have to learn the outfield.
“Obviously, the Royals thought a lot of me to draft me No. 2 overall,” Gordon said. “There were comparisons to my hero growing up, George Brett, and they were losing 100 games over and over. I wanted to be that guy, and it just wasn’t happening at that time. I remember those days in 2010 when I got sent down, I was sitting in Triple-A, and I was like, ‘This is not what I expected this to go like.’ And there were a lot of thoughts of what’s going to happen now.”
What happened next demonstrates why Gordon is so well-respected throughout the Royals’ organization. He worked. Hard. He learned left field and was steadfast in his routines. By the summer of 2010, he was back in the Majors.
Then, in 2011, he won his first Gold Glove Award.
“Going into 2011, there was just a lot of uncertainty for me,” Gordon said. “I was thinking, ‘This wasn’t the path for me.’ But I just wanted to stay positive. I knew that adversity hits for everyone. The only way to get out of it is stay positive and keep your head up and keep working. That’s what I tried to do.”
In 2013, Gordon made his first All-Star Game. He became the model for the talented core the club was assembling, many of whom teamed up with him to bring a World Series back to Kansas City in ‘15. The Royals used to distribute film of Gordon’s pregame work in the outfield to their Minor Leaguers to demonstrate how it’s done. They named an organizational award after him in ‘23, calling it the Heart and Hustle Alex Gordon Award and giving it to the player who plays the game the right way, just like Gordon did.
Gordon was the league standard when it came to outfield defense, manning left field at Kauffman Stadium for a decade and winning two Platinum Glove Awards on top of his eight Gold Gloves. He made a ton of outstanding catches and leaping grabs onto the grass and into the stands.
One he’ll always remember is when he finally got to play center field -- after hounding Yost and Royals coaches for a chance -- and made a wall-crashing tumbling catch against the Rays at Tropicana Field.
“Came back into the dugout and Ned was like, ‘OK, you proved your point,'” Gordon said.
Gordon put together some good offensive years, ending his career with a .257/.338/.410 slash line and accumulating 34.5 WAR, according to Baseball Reference.
After 14 seasons, Gordon finished his career where it started, retiring with the Royals in 2020.
He finished in the top 10 in Royals history in several offensive categories, including games played (sixth, 1,753), home runs (fifth, 190), RBIs (seventh, 749), hits (sixth, 1,643), walks (third, 684), doubles (fifth, 357), total bases (sixth, 2,622) -- and first in hit-by-pitches with 121.
Gordon is one of six position players to play 14 or more seasons for the Royals, along with Brett, Amos Otis, Hal McRae, Willie Wilson and Frank White -- all, now, members of the Royals Hall of Fame.
“Once I got involved in the organization, found out what people were running it and how they were running it, I knew this is where I wanted to stay,” Gordon said. “ ... There were a couple of opportunities here and there, maybe to go play elsewhere, but it was always Kansas City in my heart.”
To be eligible for the ballot, former Royals must have been active with the club for at least three seasons and accumulated a minimum of 1,500 plate appearances, 300 innings pitched or managed the equivalent of three full seasons. Eligible alumni shall have ceased to be an active on-field member of the club (or for any other Major League organization) in the role for which they are being considered for at least three calendar years preceding the election. Eligible alumni must be named on at least 75% of all ballots cast to be elected.