Showing posts with label World Series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Series. Show all posts

11.02.2017

Feeling blue

So the Houston Astros won the World Series last night.

Boo.

After an undeniably thrilling series ...





... the Dodgers had nothing left for Game 7. Yu Darvish, who certainly didn't have my confidence after Game 3, was terrible and helped seal the Dodgers' fate. It didn't help, either, that L.A. couldn't get the big hits when they needed them. Cody Bellinger couldn't seem to hit a grapefruit.

Had someone hit a gap or dropped a home run in the seats when the bases were full of Dodger runners during those first three innings, this would be a far different post. It was a series of lost opportunities for the Dodgers.

I thought it was most anti-climactic, worst Game 7. Ever.

Yeah, it was fun to see the Astros win. It was a long time coming for them. They have a great team with fun-to-watch, young talent. It's great for the city of Houston, after all its people have been put through since Hurricane Harvey. ... And there's the whole Sports Illustrated prediction thing. I vividly remember receiving that edition and thinking at the time, "What the ...!?" It was fresh on my mind throughout this series and now it's legend.

But I really wanted to see the Dodgers win, and -- after watching so much of their dream season -- I truly believed they would. Maybe next year. ... Even though Sports Illustrated already is picking an Astros repeat. (Is it me or doesn't that happen after every World Series - that some analyst caught in the glory of "the best series we've seen in recent memory" proclaims "This is a talented team that is built to win for a long time and I believe the will be back here next year!" I'm pretty sure we heard it last year with the Cubs, the Royals and numerous teams before them ... )

Here's a fun Astros' fans guide to glory. I can definitely relate to this after the Royals' big win in 2015.

Still, let's all remember we are in a Golden Era of Cubs baseball, too.
Posted by Horns! at 11:02 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , , ,

10.31.2017

Happy Halloween!

Oh, man, we have a Game 7.

The sweetest and most anticipated game of a baseball season. It would be wrong to have it any other way after this season, this postseason and this series.

And after this night.

We did the whole trick-or-treating thing tonight -- for the second consecutive night. The 'Ville has a unique trick-or-treating culture in that the community and the university step up big time to provide kids and their families with safe and fun environments to do the traditional dress-up and candy collecting stuff -- which renders the traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating almost pointless.

We spent Saturday at a farm outside of town that opens each fall as a Halloween-season wonderland with a large pumpkin patch, corn maze and a load of kid-friendly activities that include rubber duck races, a huge slide, pumpkin bowling and mini train rides. This year there was an air gun that the girls especially enjoyed, shooting tennis balls at targets posted at various distances across the field. ... We spent so much time there Saturday afternoon and had so much fun that we skipped our annual trip to the trick-or-treating and haunted campground tour at the city's recreation area.

Last night was the annual downtown trick-or-treat. Kates packed the girls' costumes in their backpacks when we left the house yesterday morning for school. They changed into the costumes after the school day, we rushed from our respective places and met in the church parking lot at 5 p.m. to join the downtown crowd. For the downtown trick-or-treat, the city's square is sprawling with activity as all of the businesses open their front doors and invite children to step inside for candy and treats. A police and fire departments park their vehicles along the streets and hand out goodies. Mascot greet children and pose for pictures at the corners. Last night temperatures in the 40s made it easily the coldest one we've done, but the girls were troopers and would have visited several more businesses had Kates and I not forced them to cut some corners and stay on one side of the road at times.

And that brings me to tonight -- trick-or-treating in the university residence halls. It's another fun Halloween event that we took forward to each fall when the students on campus open their doors and hand out candy to the visiting children. Some of them even dress up, and it's fun to see them "awww" at the kids' costumes as they walk the halls and visit each room for candy. But after an hour or so of trick-or-treating -- and their classroom parties during the school day, not to mention the trick-or-treating Monday night -- the girls were done. The feet were getting heavier. The tears were starting to flow. And I was frustrated that they wouldn't pose for me to take a photo of them in their classrooms.

They were mermaids this year. Kates' mom crocheted mermaid tails for each of the them that were open at the feet but designed the fins so they covered their shoes. They had matching bikinis tops and crocheted flowers to place in their hair as well. Kates got matching pink shirts for both girls to wear. And they were adorable. But no picture.

Suffice to say, I could hardly wait to get them to bed so I could hide away to watch Game 6 and hope for a Dodgers win.

And they came through. Say all you want about Justin Verlander -- I agree, he's one of the greatest pitchers of his era and I enjoy watching him -- but the Dodgers got to him in Game 2, and I was confident going in the Dodgers could get to him tonight.
For five innings, Verlander was awful hard on the Dodgers. Yasiel Puig's single in the second gave them their only baserunner in that span, and George Springer's solo shot in the third seemed as if it might stand as the only run the Astros would need. 
But then came Austin Barnes' at-bat to start the sixth. When he worked the count to 2-0, it was just the fifth time all night that a Dodgers hitter had been in an advantageous count. And Barnes took advantage by anticipating that run and ride, staying on top of the 94-mph four-seamer that came his way and smacking it to left for a leadoff single.

Then Chase Utley -- one of my favorite players of this generation, I'm really disappointed he hasn't seen more playing time this series -- was hit by a pitch, and Chris Taylor -- who has seemed to come up with so many key hits in this series -- Taylor hit the game-tying double. Corey Seager hit a huge sacrifice fly to score Utley. The Dodgers -- with some fine glove work by Cody Bellinger -- went on to win 3-1 and all was swell.

Good reads ...



Posted by Horns! at 11:09 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , ,

11.03.2015

World Series Parade Day!

How else could I describe today – other than to use the word that’s been used again and again to describe the Royals resurgence and World Series championship?

Unbelievable.

Kansas City has been lit  up in blue since Sunday night. Today it was colored in blue for parade day, and it was a spectacle from no matter where you watched. We will not soon forget this day.

For the record, I had barely a tiny bit of interest in going – if only a small consolation prize in missing the Game 6 matchup that I would have been attending tonight. But I didn’t have it in me to try navigating all of the traffic, parking and crowds. Beyond that, I have too much going on at work this week and couldn’t afford to be out of the office.

It’s not like the last couple days have been productive ones anyway. Our workplaces are in a haze of championship giddiness, pent up from 30 years of misery. … Today, we hosted a state agriculture director on the university campus for a discussion about our programs and initiatives. After our 12:30 p.m. news conference, it took me another four hours to write the news release when it should have taken me half that time. Before and after the news conference I kept getting sidetracked by all of the social media posts popping up on my phone and laptop.

So instead of joining the crowd, I set our DVR to record the parade and rally. We had our own family watch party tonight, eating our supper around the coffee table in our living room, taking in the sights and sounds recorded earlier in the day. That was the memory I wanted to have from today.

As we got started, Phoebe admitted – as if she was admitting she had taken candy from Faye’s Halloween bucket – that her teacher let her class watch some of the parade after their lunch hour today; Phoebe, she told us, was the one naming the players – and their uniform numbers – for the teacher and her classmates. … I admitted to Phoebe I had watched some of the parade and rally at work, too.

It turned out to be a gorgeous day in Kansas City today – sunny skies with temperatures were in the low 70s. The parade was scheduled to begin at noon at Sprint Center and then make its way down Grand Boulevard on its way to Union Station, where a championship rally was set to take the stage at 2 p.m.
Streets, businesses and schools were shut down. Those that did venture out – the majority of them going to the parade – found gridlock on all roads pointing to downtown. It was basically a snow day – without the snow.

Here are just a few of my favorite tweets and photos from the day …




















Here’s a stunning aerial video looking toward Union Station from above the Liberty Memorial.


ROYALS RALLY - UNION STATION AERIALS from Vision Digital Cinema on Vimeo.


Updated Nov. 6, 2015




There are some more great gifs, tweets, photos and videos here on MLB’s Cut4 site

But this one has been called the best Royals parade video you’ll see. I’ll back that up. This is the only one to give me chills as I watched it.



Good reads …

Here's more from Sam Mellinger ...

The best part of watching the rise of the Royals has been the correlating rise of their fans. Rooting for the Royals used to mean accepting that nothing good would come of it, and of being able to laugh at yourself when Mark Redman is your All-Star, or when Tony Peña showers with his clothes on in some vague attempt to stop a losing streak. Now, it means knowing that being down two runs in the eighth inning is exactly where you want to be. ...

 They bought more tickets and spent more time at home watching more games than ever before. Next year, those numbers figure to go up again. Royals fans essentially highjacked All-Star voting, at one point putting Omar Infante in position to start at second base, even though most of them did not want Infante starting at second base for their own team.

 More than 60 percent of TV-owning households in Kansas City watched Game 5 of the World Series, and you have to assume most of the other 40 percent were at someone else’s house, or a bar.

 So the celebration on Tuesday was entirely fitting. When those images and stories make their way around the internet and the world, the only reaction is, basically, hole-ee crap.
Meanwhile …

Posted by Horns! at 11:37 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,

11.02.2015

The Royals took the crown!

Tonight started out like almost every other night for the last seven months.

The Kansas City Royals were on the TV, and our family was gathered around to watch them play.

Like so many nights this past summer, I hustled Phoebe to get ready for bed during commercial breaks while Faye danced around the living room and sang loud enough that I had to strain to hear the commentators. It was my night to put Phoebe to bed and I got the privilege of lying in bed with her, like so many nights this season, listening to the game while she tried to fight off sleep.

But there was a glitch tonight, because I got called away from watching the game to deal with an issue on campus around 9 p.m. while the game was in the sixth inning, with the Mets leading 2-0. … I was already on edge, anxiously waiting to know whether I would be heading to Game 6 in Kansas City Tuesday night. Then to be called into a late night meeting during Game 5 of the World Series, on a night when the Royals were on the verge of clinching. Oh, I was a bit frustrated.

I kept the Fox video feed going on my phone during the meeting, with the volume turned down. I kept glancing at the TweetDeck on my laptop, too. That meet was the last place I wanted to be. … But I kept my mouth shut and engaged as best I could to help address the issue.

In the meantime, Matt Harvey, the Mets ace who had shut the Royals down all night long, was coming back out for the ninth inning to try for the complete game shutout.

Then, things started happening. Again.



















Seeing my hopes of seeing a World Series game in person this year slip away, and losing focus in my meeting quickly, the Royals held the Mets in the bottom of the ninth. I was back in my car in time to listen to the top of the 10th on my drive home. The score remained tied.

The feelings I was having tonight about my Game 6 ticket and the Royals trying to come back are exactly why I don’t play fantasy sports – because I would end up rooting against my favorite players and teams for selfish reasons. There is no fun in that.

In the 11th inning, with two outs, Eric Hosmer singled and then stole second. Moustakas then lifted a pitch to left field that looked like it might die – and it did just that in Conforto’s glove.

Oh, by the way, there was a Packers game on tonight. The Packers lost to the Broncos in a battle of undefeated teams. For six innings of tonight’s Royals game, I had forgotten the Packers were on. I didn’t watch a down of that game and couldn’t have cared less.

The top of the 12th arrived. Salvador Perez led off by dropping a single down the first base line. Jarrod Dyson came into pinch run. I knew then that the Royals were winning the World Series tonight.

Dyson took off on the 2-1 throw and stole second by a mile. Then, he moved to third on a Hosmer groundout to first.


Next up, Christian Colon scored Dyson with a clean line drive single to left.


Then …





At this point I asked Kates whether I could wake up Phoebe. She said no.


The Royals kept piling on. It would be a 7-2 lead when the inning ended. The crown would be their’s.


The bottom of the 12th inning belonged to Wade Davis. He struck out Wilmer Flores to win the World Series for the Kansas City Royals.

Fireworks could be heard across The 'Ville.

Kates and I watched the celebration, laughing and smiling with every shot that depicted the players we’ve grown to love hugging each other and bouncing around the field like boys. It was so fitting that Salvy dumped his final Gatorade bucket of the season on Ned Yost.

I'm already looking forward to next season, and getting pictures with two World Series trophies during our trips to Kauffman Stadium next summer. 

I couldn’t keep up with the tweets, they were coming in so fast. But here are some of my favorites …



















There are no words I can write now that haven’t been written already. There will be plenty more to write about in coming days.

Good night.
Posted by Horns! at 2:02 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,

11.01.2015

World Series: Royals strike again in Game 4

It is a gorgeous, sunny Sunday morning to start the month of November. And the Royals could win the World Series tonight – thanks to another thrilling victory last night.

All of this, of course, is not a surprise to those of us who have been watching this team all year long. It was just another night of Royals baseball. Never giving up. Capitalizing on the opponent’s mistakes. And keeping the line moving.

Take it away Sam Mellinger …
When they fall behind, they do their best work. It would be repetitive if it wasn’t so enthralling. It would be unrealistic if we weren’t all watching in real time.

Their greatest moments have all come after mistakes by the other side. The Astros’ Carlos Correa missing that grounder that bounced off the mound in Houston. The Toronto Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista throwing to the wrong base in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series. Now this.

That’s part of the story, of course. Baseball is a game of failure, it is often said, and the winners and losers are separated by how they manage. The Royals make these things count.
Finally. Finally – after the Royals struck in that eighth inning last night – the narrative – not the momentum, which I’ll defend the Royals have had since Game One – seems to be changing.
Remember, while the Mets were going through all the pain of the last 29 years, the troubled careers of Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, the 2000 Series, the Adam Wainwright pitch, the collapses of 2007 and 2008, the Royals were losing too. The Royals were losing worse, and for longer. The Mets have been a wild epic soap opera tragedy with constant twists and turns that we can't stop watching, but the Royals have been far more depressing: They've just been quiet, modest, sullen failures, the sort of barren, depressing novel that never makes the bestseller list and ends up going out of print. They've been going through the same pain Mets fans have, maybe even worse pain. This is their story too. And this is looking like their breakthrough.
Funny how people were drawing connections to Bill Buckner after Eric Hosmer’s Game One error, and now the attention has turned to Daniel Murphy after his costly error last night.

For the first seven innings of last night’s game it was a mostly unexciting, tedious affair. Steven Matz went about his business on the mound for the Mets and Michael Conforto homered twice to provide New York with a lead.

It also didn’t help the Royals when Ben Zobrist was called out in the first for interfering with the catcher while Alcides Escobar stealing second – resulting in Escobar being called out, too. And Alex Rios forgot there were only two outs in the bottom of the third and missed a chance to throw out Wilmer Flores as he was tagging up.

But the Royals had hung around all night. In the fifth, Salvador Perez doubled and Alex Gordon batted him in with a single to put Kansas City on the board and make it 2-1. After Conforto’s second home run, Ben Zobrist doubled and Lorenzo Cain scored to make it 3-2.

I had seen a tweet early in the game that noted the team to score first in this series had not won either of the first three games. I figured all along the Royals were going to win Game Four. It was just a matter of when they were going to make their move.

Then the eighth inning happened.

After Alcides Escobar led off the inning with a ground out, Zobrist walked. Cain walked.
Hosmer hit a soft ground ball toward Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy, and the ball bounced under his glove. Zobrist scored and suddenly we had a tie game.

Mike Moustakas followed with a RBI single. And Salvador Perez matched it in the next at-bat. Royals led, 5-3.

They did it off Jeurys Familia, the Mets’ closer whom the Fox analysts had been praising for most of the night and calling for New York manager Terry Collins to put in the game. Again, their memories seemed to be so short that they didn’t recall Alex Gordon beat Familia in Game One. Every time they mentioned that Familia needed to enter the game, I thought, Yeah, go ahead, stick him in there.

Some of my favorite tweets from the inning …






The bottom of the eighth and ninth innings belonged to Wade Davis. Sure, the Mets offense made some noise in their half of the ninth, but I never doubted the Royals would hold.

Good reads … 
Posted by Horns! at 8:43 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , , ,

10.31.2015

The World Series: Game 3 goes to the Mets

The Royals didn’t get a win last night, and the World Series now stands at two games to one.

On the bright side, it means we’re one game closer to a Game 6 showdown in Kansas City.

The Royals looked like their usual selves early. After Noah Syndergaard knocked Royals leadoff hitter Alcides Escobar to the ground with a fastball up and in – a ploy to keep Alcides from swinging at the first pitch – the Royals took a 1-0 lead in the first on a Ben Zobrist double, a Lorenzo Cain single to move Zobrist to third and an Eric Hosmer RBI on a muffed double play ball by the Mets. The Royals were capitalizing on mistakes again.

Then the Royals took a 3-2 lead in the second inning on singles by Salvador Perez, Alex Gordon and Alex Rios. After Gordon was called out sliding into third on Rios’ single, Ventura sacrificed Rios to third and he scored on a wild pitch. … At that point I turned to Kates’ and said, “This series is so over.”

Outside of Gordon being called out at third on a replay review, everything seemed to be going the Royals' way.

From Sports on Earth ...
For the first two innings of Friday night's Game 3 of the World Series, it looked like the Kansas City Royals were simply never going to be beaten. This had been a glorious Mets season, but the Royals were a buzzsaw that would vivisect and eviscerate anything unfortunate enough to cross their path. The Royals had outlasted the Mets in Game 1 -- while hitting Matt Harvey harder than he has been hit in a while -- and batted Jacob deGrom around in Game 2. But Friday was their greatest trick of all: They were murdering Thor.

Coming into this game, Mets fans were demoralized and shaken by the two losses in Kansas City, but they could tell themselves one thing: They still had Noah Syndergaard. Perhaps their best postseason pitcher, and definitely the one who threw the hardest, Syndergaard was the reason Mets fans weren't in total despair. Sure, the Royals hit a lot of fastballs, but they surely couldn't hit his, right?

And then seven of the first 10 Royals batters reached base. Every time Syndergaard got two strikes on a Royal, the batter would fight him off until he either walked or found a hole to hit the ball through. It was one thing to see this happen to Harvey and deGrom. But Syndergaard? Thor? It made you feel like it was hopeless. The whole reason Mets fans had any optimism in the first place was because they had all these power arms, and here, these relentless Royals, they were knocking them around three straight games. The Royals led 3-2, but it felt like a lot more, and that a lot more runs were coming. Sorry, Mets: You did what you could, but sometimes, you're the bug, and the windshield is wearing blue.

We were so wrong. It was all Mets the rest of the way. Raul Mondesi’s Major League debut was a dud. New York won the game 9-3.

I don’t even recall seeing the final outs. Phoebe and I dozed off on the couch sometime in the eighth while Kates was reading a book and Faye was playing “school.”



In other words …

I am as annoyed as ever with the national broadcast team. Maybe it’s my Royals bias and middle-age jadedness, but let’s all agree – as also noted above – Noah Syndergaard did not “announce his presence with authority.” I didn’t think that when the pitch was thrown at Escobar and don’t think it had any significant impact on the game now. Here's another take from The New York Times.

Here's a great read about why the Royals owe Hall of Famer Robin Yount for hitting coach Dale Sveum. It's another one that that will have my fellow Brewers fans rolling their eyes again at what Milwaukee gave up to Kansas City ... Robin Yount is arguably my all-time favorite baseball player, and I loved watching Dale Sveum play in Milwaukee when I was a boy, too. I've been behind Ned since day one in Kansas City, and I thought the day he hired Dale -- within hours of his firing by the Chicago Cubs -- that it was a genius move. ... I also vividly remember watching the night Sveum's Brewers career ended when he broke his leg in an outfield collision with Darryl Hamilton. Sveum's replacement at shortstop was a rookie named Gary Sheffield.

I caught this commercial during last night’s game. I really liked it.



Here's a remembrance of the World Series comebacks by the Royals and Mets.

Posted by Horns! at 10:49 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , ,

10.29.2015

World Series off night trick-or-treating

We spent our off night of the World Series trick-or-treating tonight. Although, we almost didn’t get out the door.

Tonight was the night we’ve looked forward to for the last few Octobers. On the Thursday night before Halloween, The ‘Ville’s downtown businesses host a downtown trick-or-treat and the campus residence halls open their doors to let children knock on students’ hall doors for candy.

I arrived home from work ahead of 5 p.m., ready to meet the girls and head downtown. But they didn’t walk through the door until after 5:30 p.m. And saying they were a little crabby is an understatement.

Phoebe was in the most foul mood of all and wanted no part of putting on the fairy costume her Grandma S made for her. Many tears and kicking ensued, stoking memories of the infamous Homecoming Day meltdown years ago.

I tried to negotiate, pitching the idea of going to the Student Union for dinner. But Phoebe still refused to wear her costume.

Phoebe and I went for another round while Kates and Faye boarded the car in the garage. Finally I got her to go if I allowed her take one of her teddy bears. And I swiped her costume from the kitchen table on our way to the door, telling Phoebe I was bringing it in case she changed her mind.

So we skipped the downtown trick-or-treating and finally arrived at the Student Union to eat around 6:20. There, the girls continued to bicker and whine – which further frustrated Kates and I who barely ate anything. And we had gone to the all-you-care-to-eat dining area, so we hardly got our money’s worth.

And then, as we walked to the car, Phoebe had a change of heart. The clouds parted, a rainbow broke through, and suddenly she wanted to put on her costume to go trick-or-treating.

We got the picture of the girls together in their Fairy dresses. They filled their Halloween baskets with candy. Erase the hour or so between the time they arrived home from school and the time we exited the Student Union and we had a really great time.

*     *     *

In the meantime, us Royals fans are still feeling pretty good about our 2-0 lead and anxiously awaiting tomorrow night’s Game 3. We’re a fanbase caught between the impossible and entirely possible.
When the World Series comes to town, everyone talks about baseball. Everyone wears baseball on their shirts, baseball in their eyes. They sit next to you, waiting for you to bring up baseball, unless they snap and bring baseball up first. On the flight into the city, there are announcements about baseball. Driving into the city, there are baseball billboards, baseball banners, electronic traffic signs that end with messages about baseball. The walls of the city are festooned with baseball. The people are mad about baseball. Everything is baseball.

It's a living, delightfully suffocating experience. The deeper you dig, the more you realize there's nothing like it. It shows up unexpectedly where you live. It's about you. It's about the people around you. It's about where you live, happening right there. It's unambiguously good. It's all anyone can talk about, unless they're talking about the plans they're making around it.

There's nothing like it. When an entire section of the country can't stop talking about the same thing, it's always a tragedy or awful story. The happy, fun things are shared on social media until the next happy, fun things come along, but they're mostly disposable. There isn't a wellspring of this this this for everyone to enjoy at the same time, all around you, completely unavoidable.

When the World Series comes to town, everyone is sure thinking about the World Series.

The Kansas City Star’s Sam Mellinger notes that in six of the Royals' nine playoff wins, Kansas City has trailed in the fifth inning or later. “It's more than heart.”
This is not a fluke as much as it is the amplification of a season-long trend. The Royals had 41 comeback wins in the regular season. No American League team had more.
Comebacks are stacking on top of comebacks, enough that Royals manager Ned Yost comes up blank when asked his most memorable comeback before last year’s Wild Card Game.

And The Star’s Rustin Dodd writes about how the Royals’ frenzied hitting attack sank Mets ace Jacob deGrom last night.
As Kauffman Stadium pulsates and the cool breeze blows through this old stadium, the Royals’ offense can feel a little like a technically sound prize fighter, quietly dismantling an opponent. There is the consistent jab, the precise touch, the perfectly crafted right hook. Inside the Royals’ clubhouse, they call this display “frenzy hitting,” a never-ending line of hard contact and rattling bats and balls in play. …

If this World Series was supposed to be a referendum on the Mets’ power arms versus the Royals’ hum-drum attack, the early verdict suggests a precision knockout for Kansas City. In two games, the Royals have stared down deGrom and right-hander Matt Harvey, the Mets’ two front-line horses. In two games, the Royals have struck out just four times against Harvey and deGrom while nicking the starters for seven earned runs in 11 innings.
Meanwhile the national analysts are going crazy, overthinking the Royals. I find it funny and annoying. … Baseball is a game with millions of variables. The Royals are winning the game right now. Get over it.
The Kansas City Royals are the sort of team you find yourself trying to come up with excuses for why they just beat you, because you can't make sense of it otherwise. Everybody always thinks they're better than the Royals. Last year, the A's were more versatile, the Angels had more star power and front-line starting pitching, the Orioles had more home run thunder. Same thing this year: The Astros were younger and more new school (and came closer than anyone to beating Kansas City), the Blue Jays were too strong and too cool and too ready and the Mets, man, those Mets pitchers were just gonna blow them away.

The Royals' postseason record against those teams, after their 7-1 World Series Game 2 win on Wednesday night? 17-4. 17-4!
Game on.
Posted by Horns! at 10:43 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , ,

10.28.2015

World Series: Royals take two

Kauffman Stadium may never feel better than this, not in 2015, not in a lifetime. For the inhabitants of this ballpark, stocked with a generation of Royals fans choked by 29 years without October and taunted by a silver medal in 2014, the pinnacle may have come in a 7-1 victory Wednesday over the Mets in Game 2 of the World Series, when the lineup bloodied an opposing ace and incited a slew of standing ovations.

Savor this if you stood among the rain-soaked mass of 40,410 inside the stadium. Savor it if you joined the millions watching on television or huddling near a radio. Savor it if you spent years waiting for a Royals renaissance, because baseball might not be played again in Kansas City this season.

Baseball may disappear for the sweetest of reasons, because the Royals flew to New York on Wednesday night with a chance to spill champagne inside Citi Field for their first championship since 1985.

A couple weeks ago, after the Royals mounted that unbelievable comeback against the Astros in the Division Series, my mom asked whether I thought Johnny Cueto could pitch well enough in that series’ Game 5 to clinch it for Kansas City. I shrugged off any doubt and noted Johnny seemed to pitch his best at home.

He pitched the game of his life in that Game 5. Then, he was awful last week in Game 3 in Toronto. And he was a Met killer tonight in Game 2 of the World Series in Kansas City. So good, he pitched a two-hit, one-run complete game.



There’s not much more to say. Cueto was good. The Royals defense was good. The offense just kept movin’ the line.

As we watched tonight and Phoebe cuddle up to me on the couch, it occurred to me that we’ve done the same thing nearly every night since opening day. As usual, Phoebe and I watched as much as we could together before we had to yield to her bedtime – which led to us just moving the game-watching to my phone in her bed until she was snoring soundly and I could return to watching the game on our TV in the living room. Watching the Royals play – and play hard until the very last out – is now a staple in our daily routines. So routine that the significance of the World Series is almost an afterthought.

Meanwhile, the national media continues to be clueless about this Kansas City Royals team. From the moment last night’s game ended they pretty much had a win chalked for the Mets – all because Jacob deGrom was on the mound for New York. 

The Royals don’t care who’s on the mound.
The Royals now have a 2-0 lead in the series, and with the way they’re playing – handing the Mets a deflating loss last night and the offense landing some big punches tonight – I would not be surprised if they win this thing in five or even sweep it.




A better scenario, though, would be that they win one of three in New York, come back to Kansas City and win it all in Game 6. Because I’ve got a ticket to that game. … I may have to avoid wearing my lucky Royals T-shirt for a couple of those game to make it happen.

As we sat down to watch last night’s game, Kates gave me her nod of approval to try for a Game 6 ticket. I checked StubHub obsessively today. This evening, the tickets prices for the remaining games started going – not down as I had anticipated – up (I blame the excitement of last night’s game, and now everyone wants in on the action). I continued monitoring the prices during tonight’s game. When the Royals won tonight’s game, I pounced. … If the Royals get to Game 6, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll get a full refund – and the Royals will be World Champions.

Good reads ...
Kansas City is the best baseball town in America right now

The bikers at the bar are talking about the Royals. The hipsters on the street are talking about the Royals. The cashiers at the supermarket in the middle of the night are chatting about Lorenzo Cain’s range in center field.
It’s everyone, and it’s everywhere. It feels like you can’t pass four people on any street in Kansas City without spying at least one Royals cap, if not more. 

This 88-year-old Royals fan, ‘Miss Frances,’ never misses a game at The K ... Quite a woman.

After decade of losing, Royals fans learning how to have fun ... This is a good read about KayCee, Moose Man and the cat guy at Kauffman Stadium.

Back to work for bleary baseball fans after epic (and late) World Series Game 1 ... A good one illustrating how we're all feeling after last night's classic.


Posted by Horns! at 11:02 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , ,

World Series: Royals win Game 1

Holy moly, that Game One that just happened tonight -- or this morning.

The Royals won it in 14 innings in epic fashion. And we're only just beginning.
It was arguably one of the most pulsating, tense and unforgettable Game 1s in World Series history.

 From the moment of the first pitch, when Royals starter Edinson Volquez began hurling two-seam fastballs unaware of the tragic news that awaited him after the game, that his father had passed away earlier in the day, to the Bill Bucknerish boot by Royals Gold Glove first baseman Eric Hosmer that gave the Mets a one-run lead in the eighth, to the dramatic game-tying homer by Alex Gordon in the ninth, and finally to Hosmer's redemption, a game-winning sacrifice fly in the 14th, it was all there. A night packed with drama.

 And in the end, in what matched for the third time the longest game in World Series history, the Royals survived, 5-4, in a Tuesday game that lasted five hours and nine minutes, stretching into Wednesday morning.

Alcides Escobar kicked things off for the Royals by hitting an inside-the-park home run on the first pitch he saw. 










In the top of the fifth, I was tucking Faye into bed and watching the game on my phone when the Fox broadcast feed went out. Twitter rejoiced when Joe Buck and Harold Reynolds were canned for the MLB Network feed with Matt Vasgersian and John Smoltz doing the analysis.







The Fox feed came back for the bottom of the fifth.



Ben Zobrist scored on Eric Hosmer’s sacrifice fly to make it 2-3 in the bottom of the sixth. Lorenzo Cain stole second and scored on Mike Moustakas’ line drive up the middle.



When Hosmer made the error at first, I immediately thought of Bill Buckner. I wasn't the only one.



After that, I spent a large portion of the ensuing innings dozing to sleep and trying really hard to hold on for the ending no matter what team won.

Then Alex Gordon did something in the bottom of the ninth. I sat straight up on the couch. And my Twitter lit up.








The Royals had plenty more chances to win it in extras. Chris Young -- who nobody wanted last spring and has been huge in the clutch for the Royals -- held the Mets offense in check, striking out the side in the top of the 12th.





The game headed into the 14th inning as the clock struck midnight.



In the bottom of the 14th, Alcides Escobar singled on an error. Ben Zobrist singled. Lorenzo Cain was intentionally walked. Escobar scored the winning run on a sac fly by Eric Hosmer. The game lasted five hours, nine minutes.






The Royals showed their knack for comebacks again. How many more thrills can these guys produce?



And we have Game 2 in a matter of hours.

Speaking of stats. Tonight's game was so loaded with out-there stats ... it was a little silly. 

Kansas City is off the charts right now. School principals are telling their teachers and student to wear Royals blue on game days. Businesses are canceling meetings and scheduling employee watch parties instead. The electronic signs in front of schools, churches and businesses. Every conversation starts with Did you watch that game last night!? 

This is fun. 
Posted by Horns! at 12:40 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)