President Obama honoured the World Series champion Kansas City Royals at the White House Thursday (21 July)afternoon.

SOUNDBITE (English) President Barack Obama:

"These guys are all great players. Can I say, though, the nicknames aren't that creative. It's like, Barack "Barack" Obama. You know? I mean, listen to this -- Hoz, Moose, Gordo. We're going to have to work on these."

SOUNDBITE (English) President Barack Obama:

"Now, I'm not sure if anybody is aware of this, but my Press Secretary happens to be a Royals fan. Where's Josh? There he is right in the front row. If you asked Josh to choose the best day of his life, I'm pretty sure he'd say his wedding day and the birth of his son. But this is close."

SOUNDBITE (English) President Barack Obama:

"And let's face it, it's been a long road for Royals fans. There were some dark years, some tough decades. But that started to change when Dayton came to town in 2006. He coupled some of baseball's sharpest analytics minds with Ned's managerial style, which has produced a lot of wins, not to mention his own Twitter hashtag -- #Yosted."

SOUNDBITE (English) Ned Yost, Royals Team Manager:

"It's an honor to present you with our 2015 world championship jersey."