(Stealing a line from Twitter…)
This is how the season ends. Late at night, in Seattle, on another evening when the offense is pathetic while losing to a bad team. Of course, I was long asleep when the game, and the Royals’ playoff hopes, ended with a 6-0 loss to the Mariners last night/this morning. But I knew that the Royals had to win to keep the most meager of playoff chances alive, and was not terribly surprised when I pulled up the scores as I was waking the girls up this morning.
A full post-mortem will come next week. But I have to say, this was a fun season. There are so many ways that this was yet another disappointing season. Long losing streaks. Ned’s poor in-game decisions. Losing too many games to crappy teams. Players who never got going, or couldn’t repeat their performances of previous years. Getz at second for a huge chunk of the season.
But I’m choosing to join the group of fans who acknowledge the many failures of this year’s team, while also enjoying the many successes. Baseball, kind of, mattered again in Kansas City, for the first time since I was in college. Whether this is the beginning of something, or just another blip, like 2003, remains to be seen. I sure hope it’s a start, and that next season, and seasons beyond it, will require me to watch/listen/check scores well beyond the equinox.