KANSAS CITY – The very first game a player appears in is a momentous occasion, and it’s one the player will always remember. But sometimes that first game turns into one that everyone remembers. It’s always nice when a player leaves a good first impression.
The best part about remembering great games is that it doesn’t have to be solely the stats that make it great. Maybe a player only went 1-for-4, but maybe that one hit was crucial to the game. Maybe it’s the context of the game and player that makes it great. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the greatest debut games in Royals history.
For this assignment, we limited it to only a Royals player’s first MLB game, not their Royals debut. And we’ve listed them in reverse chronological order:
LHP Noah Cameron
April 30, 2025 at TB
6 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 5 BB, 3 K
The debut was just special – everything about it. Cameron took the mound at George M. Steinbrenner Field – the temporary home of the Rays in 2025 – as one of the Royals’ top prospects but also as a local player pitching for his hometown team, having grown up just an hour north of Kauffman Stadium in St. Joseph, Mo. And then he put together a near-historic pitching performance, carrying a no-hitter into the seventh inning. His debut was the jumping off point of a great season, posting a 2.99 ERA and finishing fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting.
INF/OF Nate Eaton
July 14, 2022 at TOR
1-for-4, HR, RBI
It was the kids’ show in Toronto when the Royals visited in 2022. Due to 10 players staying stateside because of their vaccination status that year, the Royals had to call up 13 players to join the active roster and taxi squad for this series. Eaton was one of them, a 21st-round Draft pick by the Royals back in 2018, and he hit his first career homer in the ninth inning of a gritty 3-1 win. Unconventional circumstances? Yep. But a debut that was just as special.
SS Bobby Witt Jr.
April 7, 2022 vs. CLE
1-for-4, RBI
Very few prospect debuts were as anticipated as Witt’s, who was MLB Pipeline’s top prospect at the time and seen as the key to the Royals turning around their franchise. Witt made the club out of Spring Training in 2022 and debuted at third base on Opening Day. His moment came in the eighth, when he ripped the game-winning double for a 3-1 win over the Guardians. There haven’t been many moments when Witt hasn’t risen to the occasion since that day.
“They couldn’t have scripted that better, right?” manager Mike Matheny said postgame.
OF/DH Mark Quinn
Sept. 14, 1999 vs. LAA (G2)
3-for-4, 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI
Though his Major League career would last only four seasons, Quinn had a debut to remember, becoming the third player (at the time) since at least 1908 to homer twice in his first big league game. Quinn also added a double and finished with four RBIs in the second game of a doubleheader against the Angels. The Royals still lost, 6-5. It was quite the arrival for Quinn, though.
LHP Glendon Rusch
April 6, 1997 vs. MIN
8 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
The Royals opened the 1997 season on the road with a trip through Baltimore and Minnesota. Itching to get to Kansas City for their home opener, they had to finish with the Twins first, and they put Rusch on the mound for his debut and the last game of the road trip. He hardly could have been better. The two unearned runs scored in the first inning, but Rusch settled down and whirled through the next seven innings. During one stretch, he retired 19 consecutive batters.
Rusch appeared in 30 games (27 starts) during his rookie season and went on to pitch in parts of 12 seasons with the Royals, Mets, Brewers, Cubs, Padres and Rockies.
OF Johnny Damon
Aug. 12, 1995 vs. SEA
3-for-5, 3B, RBI
Aug. 12, 1995, brought a lot of change to Kauffman Stadium. The youth movement arrived with four top prospects being called up in Damon, Michael Tucker, Brent Cookson and Henry Mercedes. Ace Kevin Appier returned from an injury with six scoreless innings. But it was Damon’s night. He popped up and flied out in his first two at-bats, but his first hit was a triple down the right-field line. His first career RBI came in the sixth, a ground ball through the right side of the infield. And he contributed one more hit before the Royals’ 7-2 win concluded. An All-Star career had begun.
RHP Derek Botelho
July 18, 1982 at BOS
7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
After being released by the Cubs as a Minor Leaguer and having arthroscopic shoulder surgery, it was hard enough for Botelho to get to the Major Leagues once he signed with the Royals. It was harder to stay there, as he only logged 19 career games across two seasons. But it was a memorable debut. After he walked the first batter he faced on four pitches, Botelho cruised through seven scoreless innings against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. He didn’t allow his first hit until the fourth inning. The middle of Boston’s order – Dwight Evans, Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski – went 1-for-9 against Botelho.
“Evans, Rice, Yaz,” Botelho told the Star. “Wow, it hasn’t really hit me what I did yet.”
RHP Craig Chamberlain
Aug. 12, 1979 vs. DET
9 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Chamberlain pitched just two seasons in the Majors, both with the Royals, but he posted a 3.75 ERA across 10 starts his rookie season in 1979. He couldn’t have gotten off to a better start, tossing a complete game when the team called him up to pitch against the Tigers, whom the Royals beat, 7-1. Chamberlain had just been drafted a year earlier in the first round out of the University of Arizona. He was pitching in Double-A when the Royals called him up, and he finished the season with Kansas City.
OF Clint Hurdle
Sept. 18, 1977 vs. SEA
1-for-3, HR, 2 RBI, BB
Described as a young phenom, Hurdle was drafted No. 9 overall by the Royals in the 1975 Draft, and his ascent through the Minor Leagues was rapid. He was named the prospect of the year in 1976 and invited to big league camp in '77. The Royals finally called Hurdle up in September that year, and he made an immediate impact in a home game against the Mariners. At that point, Hurdle was the youngest Royal to make his Major League debut (20 years and 50 days old), and he became the first Royal to hit a home run in his debut with his two-run blast in the fifth.
Sports Illustrated put Hurdle on the cover of its annual baseball preview the next season. His playing career fell short of the hype, but Hurdle has made his mark as a manager and coach.
RHP Steve Busby
Sept. 8, 1972 vs. MIN (G2)
9 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
The young right-hander Busby was carving up Triple-A throughout 1972 – just a year after he was drafted out of USC – when the Royals called him up for a doubleheader start. He never went back to the Minors. The 22-year-old worked around a rocky first inning to toss a complete game in the Royals’ 3-2 win over the Twins, striking out seven and walking just two.
That was the beginning of a Royals Hall of Fame career. Busby pitched his entire eight-year career with Kansas City, with a 3.72 ERA.