Players in the Postseason: #WinorGoHome #ItsBlackandWhite (Oct. 28)
Updated: Oct. 28
The Trivia
This player's mom wouldn't allow him to play football, so he chose baseball, although he didn't begin playing until he was a sophomore in high school. He describes his taste in music as old school, enjoying The Jackson 5 and Louis Armstrong. Although he doesn't have the best singing voice, he still loves to sing while in the clubhouse. Who is he?
The home-field advantage
Manager Ned Yost believes Johnny Cueto will draw from the Kansas City fans' energy in his World Series Game 2 start against the Mets at 8:07 p.m. ET on FOX.
Cueto, who went 4-7 with a 4.76 ERA in 13 starts for the Royals after his acquisition from the Reds, is 1-1 with a 7.88 ERA over three postseason starts.
While he allowed eight runs and six hits in two innings in his last start, the Royals' 11-8 loss to the Blue Jays in ALCS Game 3 in Toronto, Cueto was dominant in his start before that, allowing just two hits and no walks while striking out eight over eight innings in the Royals' 7-2 win over the Astros in Game 5 of the ALDS.
"It doesn't matter to me whether I pitch at home or on the road, but I do feel more comfortable at home,'' Cueto said.
By starting the 29-year-old right-hander in Game 2, it also lines him up to pitch in Game 6 in Kansas City.
Hair today, gone tomorrow
Game 2 starter Jacob deGrom's long locks have a limited future. The 27-year-old right-hander plans to get a haircut after the World Series has concluded.
"I haven't cut it at all this year," deGrom said. "I've always got to wear a hat, so it stays under control. It gets old, taking care of it."
Fans and teammates have embraced the 2014 NL Rookie of the Year and 2015 All-Star's wavy brown mane so much that deGrom has resisted cutting it. But he let the media know that he'll get at least a trim once the season is over.
"It's driving me nuts, I've got to get rid of it," deGrom said.
Meanwhile, Royals Game 2 starter Johnny Cueto, who wears his hair in long dreadlocks, wasn't about to concede the hair game.
"I'm going to say mine is better -- I'm not going to say somebody else's hair is better," Cueto said.
The sweetest redemption
Two-time Gold Glove Award winner Eric Hosmer experienced that lonely feeling in the top of the eighth inning of World Series Game 1, when his error on an in-between hop allowed the Mets to score the go-ahead run. But it didn't last long. His teammates in the dugout shrugged it off, then an inning later Alex Gordon redeemed him with a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth.
"I come in the dugout, and they make it seem like it didn't even happen," Hosmer said of his teammates. "Those are the guys you want to play with."
Then, an inning later, Alex Gordon somehow crushed a 97-mph sinker 438 feet over the center-field wall on a damp, chilly night to send the game into extra innings and all but erase the unlikely error by the usually sure-handed Hosmer.
"I had no words," Hosmer said. "All I could tell him was, 'I want to hug you right now.' That's why he's my hero."
The TV audience
The longest Game 1 in World Series history drew an impressive television audience. It had a 10.5/18 in metered-market results from 8 p.m.-1 a.m., the best since drawing a 13.8/22 in 2009 when the Phillies played the Yankees, and a 31 percent increase from last year's 8.0/13 when the Royals lost, 7-1, to the Giants.
The 10.4/17 average between 8 and 11 p.m. was Fox's best Tuesday primetime rating since February 2012. In Kansas City, Game 1 drew a huge 57.3/78 metered-market audience while New York drew an impressive 26.2/43 rating.
The big-game experience
Michael Conforto, a 22-year-old who was the 10th overall draft pick in 2014, was the youngest player in either club's starting lineup for Game 1 and also became one of just three players to participate in the Little League World Series, the College World Series and the World Series.
"Once I got the Little League one, then the College World Series, I had some conversations with my dad. We were kind of just wondering, 'How many people have done that?'" Conforto told Yahoo Sports. "Because that was my next goal, to be in the World Series."
Ed Vosberg and Jason Varitek also played in all three World Series.
The Trivia Answer
Lorenzo Cain, Kansas City Royals
Follow us @MLB_Players and to catch our postseason social media series, titled #WinOrGoHome #ItsBlackandWhite, featuring some up-close photos courtesy of Getty Sports.