Naperville's Lopez living out dream in rookie season with K.C. Royals

Long before he became a standout baseball player at Naperville Central High School, Nicky Lopez set his sights on playing major-league baseball. Lopez reached that goal on May 13 when he joined the Kansas City Royals. Associated Press

When the White Sox hosted the Royals at Guaranteed Rate Field on Memorial Day, there was an interesting crowd dynamic.

Most of the applause were reserved for the home team, but there was equal enthusiasm when Nicky Lopez appeared at the plate for Kansas City.

A Naperville Central High School product, Lopez had a massive cheering section in his first major-league game back home.

"About 450-500 people," Lopez said. "Thankfully, I didn't have to put them all on my pass list. That would have been a lot of money for me. They all came and it was awesome.

"They still really can't believe it. Whether I play good or bad, I'm living out my dream and they're happy for me. My support system is unbelievable."

Mike Stock was part of that system, and the Naperville Central baseball coach was thrilled to see his former player competing at the game's highest level.

"It's been a blast, an absolute blast, to watch him grow and progress," Stock said. "He's going to battle for as long as he can to stay in the big leagues and not just stay there, but also succeed and help somebody be a winner."

The Royals are in the early stages of a rebuild, and they are counting on young players like the 24-year-old Lopez to help them return to the World Series.

Kansas City made back-to-back trips to the Fall Classic in 2014-15, winning it all the second time around.

After opening the current season at Class AAA Omaha and hitting .353/.449/.500, Lopez joined the Royals on May 13.

The left-handed hitter was 0-for-3 in Saturday's 2-0 loss to Lucas Giolito and the White Sox at Kauffman Stadium, dropping his batting average to .211 over 22 games.

"They're giving me an opportunity," Lopez said. "I'm just developing here in the big leagues and if you're going to do good, you're going to good. If you do bad, you do bad. I'm just glad I'm here, working on my game here.

"I'm still working on things up here and I'm just looking forward to getting better every day."

If the past is an indicator, the 5-foot-11, 175-pound second baseman is going to get a lot better and evolve into a cornerstone piece for K.C.

"He has such a high baseball IQ," Stock said. "He wasn't a physical specimen. He's not going to walk into a building and people turn their heads. In retrospect, he just excelled at every level. No matter what game it was, what level, he was always present.

"He played high-level travel baseball but he never missed high school summer games. He attacked high school level games like they were the most important games ever. Then he moved on to college (Creighton) and that was the most important. He never skipped a step.

"He just always enjoyed the moment and being present and I think it really helped him to stay focused and not get too far ahead of himself."

While he has taken it step by step, Lopez started dreaming about playing in the major leagues at a very young age.

"Since I was 4 years old," he said. "Everyone wanted to be an astronaut or a doctor, whatever, but I wanted to be a baseball player and that's kind of what I stayed with.

"I grew up on a baseball field my whole life, followed my dad around when he played 16-inch softball in Chicago."

Lopez's dad, Bob, is in the Hall of Fame. "I went to every game he played," Nicky said.

Growing up in a family of Cubs fans, Nicky Lopez paid more attention to Derek Jeter. "I liked the way he played, the way he was a leader," he said.

Lopez was also in the stands for one of the most memorable games in White Sox history -- Game 2 of the 2005 World Series.

"I'll never forget (Scott) Podsednik hitting the walk-off home run," he said. "And we were sitting behind the bullpen in left field, right where (Paul) Konerko hit the grand slam. Whenever you see a team in the World Series from Chicago, you root for them."