{"id":5961,"date":"2016-07-21T09:29:44","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T13:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=5961"},"modified":"2024-09-03T14:37:54","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T18:37:54","slug":"rs-the-end-of-the-good-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2016\/07\/21\/rs-the-end-of-the-good-times\/","title":{"rendered":"R’s: The End of the Good Times?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been awhile since I wrote about the Royals. The biggest reason for that is because the last time I wrote exclusively about them<\/a>, they went in the shitter for the next week. My life without superstition would be empty and meaningless.<\/p>\n

But here we are on July 21, the trade deadline is 10 days away, and the Royals sit 47–47, nine games out of first place, six games out of the Wild Card spot. After a slow start, Cleveland has looked like last year\u2019s Royals for the past six weeks. It is Cleveland, so there\u2019s always hope. But the Indians have every appearance of a team that\u2019s going to run away and hide in the division.<\/p>\n

The Wild Card race doesn\u2019t hold much good news, either. The Royals only play teams ahead of them in the Wild Card race 12 times before the end of the year. The Royals may well get hot before the season is over, but there are limited opportunities to make those wins really count by hurting fellow Wild Card candidates.<\/p>\n

Not that I have much hope that the Royals are going to get hot. Nothing has clicked this year. Too many significant injuries. Too much inconsistency at the plate and on the mound. And there\u2019s just been a very different feel about the team. I hate to make assessments of player\u2019s motivations without knowing them. This team just seems less focused than last year, though. There have been so many minor miscues that year that never happened last year. So many moments that needed a patient at-bat but received an overly aggressive set of hacks. Base running errors aplenty.<\/p>\n

Every time they have a big, late inning comeback, I think, \u201cThis is it! This is the spark that will get them going!\u201d And then they go out and look terrible the next night.<\/p>\n

The easy answer is last year\u2019s team was singularly focused on getting back to and winning the World Series. Even watching on TV you could almost feel the intensity late in games.<\/p>\n

Maybe it was intensity. Maybe it was magic. Maybe it was an extraordinary run of good luck. Whatever it was, it feels like it\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n

So on the day the Royals go to the White House for the final official celebration of their World Series title, it also feels like a day to give up on getting back to the postseason for the third-straight year. Which is fine. I\u2019ll absolutely trade last October for whatever comes next. I can deal with this year\u2019s team not making the playoffs. But I was really hoping that if they fell short, it would be because the team faltered in September. Or because some other team got crazy hot late and the Royals just got beat by a better team. I didn\u2019t want the hope to disappear in mid-July.<\/p>\n

It also sucks because I haven\u2019t been to a game in Kansas City in four years. A few weeks back I booked a trip for August and will get to go to the K for two games while there. I\u2019ll still take a picture of myself next to the World Series trophy and enjoy seeing the team in person. But, man would it have been nice for the to be in the midst of the pennant chase and there be an extra charge in the air. My trip is four weeks away, so I guess it\u2019s still possible, if unlikely.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is the Midwesterner in me speaking, but there\u2019s also a part of me that feels like fans of other teams will use this as an argument against last year\u2019s team. \u201cI told you they weren\u2019t that good! They were just lucky last year! These are the real Royals!\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is stupid because, who cares? This isn\u2019t college sports where victories can be retroactively wiped out. Flags, and the memories that go with them, fly forever. Failure this year, or God forbid another 30-year drought, doesn\u2019t change what happened in October 2015.<\/p>\n

Still, for some reason, I\u2019m rooting extra hard against the Blue Jays and Mets for the rest of the year. For some reason those taunts will sting a little more from their fans. Not that I know any Blue Jays fans, and the one Mets fan I know is a super nice lady at St. P\u2019s.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll keep watching and listening, though. Just in case there\u2019s a little magic left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been awhile since I wrote about the Royals. The biggest reason for that is because the last time I wrote exclusively about them, they went in the shitter for the next week. My life without superstition would be empty and meaningless. But here we are on July 21, the trade deadline is 10 days away, and the Royals sit 47–47, nine games out of first place, six games out of the Wild Card spot. After a slow start, Cleveland has looked like last year\u2019s Royals for the past six weeks. It is Cleveland, so there\u2019s always hope. But the Indians have every appearance of a team that\u2019s going to run away and hide in the division. The Wild Card race doesn\u2019t hold much good news, either. The Royals only play teams ahead of them in the Wild Card race 12 times before the end of the year. The Royals may well get hot before the season is over, but there are limited opportunities to make those wins really count by hurting fellow Wild Card candidates. Not that I have much hope that the Royals are going to get hot. Nothing has clicked this year. Too many significant injuries. Too much inconsistency at the plate and on the mound. And there\u2019s just been a very different feel about the team. I hate to make assessments of player\u2019s motivations without knowing them. This team just seems less focused than last year, though. There have been so many minor miscues that year that never happened last year. So many moments that needed a patient at-bat but received an overly aggressive set of hacks. Base running errors aplenty. Every time they have a big, late inning comeback, I think, \u201cThis is it! This is the spark that will get them going!\u201d And then they go out and look terrible the next night. The easy answer is last year\u2019s team was singularly focused on getting back to and winning the World Series. Even watching on TV you could almost feel the intensity late in games. Maybe it was intensity. Maybe it was magic. Maybe it was an extraordinary run of good luck. Whatever it was, it feels like it\u2019s gone. So on the day the Royals go to the White House for the final official celebration of their World Series title, it also feels like a day to give up on getting back to the postseason for the third-straight year. Which is fine. I\u2019ll absolutely trade last October for whatever comes next. I can deal with this year\u2019s team not making the playoffs. But I was really hoping that if they fell short, it would be because the team faltered in September. Or because some other team got crazy hot late and the Royals just got beat by a better team. I didn\u2019t want the hope to disappear in mid-July. It also sucks because I haven\u2019t been to a game in Kansas City in four years. A few weeks back I booked a trip for August and will get to go to the K for two games while there. I\u2019ll still take a picture of myself next to the World Series trophy and enjoy seeing the team in person. But, man would it have been nice for the to be in the midst of the pennant chase and there be an extra charge in the air. My trip is four weeks away, so I guess it\u2019s still possible, if unlikely. Perhaps this is the Midwesterner in me speaking, but there\u2019s also a part of me that feels like fans of other teams will use this as an argument against last year\u2019s team. \u201cI told you they weren\u2019t that good! They were just lucky last year! These are the real Royals!\u201d Which is stupid because, who cares? This isn\u2019t college sports where victories can be retroactively wiped out. Flags, and the memories that go with them, fly forever. Failure this year, or God forbid another 30-year drought, doesn\u2019t change what happened in October 2015. Still, for some reason, I\u2019m rooting extra hard against the Blue Jays and Mets for the rest of the year. For some reason those taunts will sting a little more from their fans. Not that I know any Blue Jays fans, and the one Mets fan I know is a super nice lady at St. P\u2019s. I\u2019ll keep watching and listening, though. Just in case there\u2019s a little magic left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,21],"class_list":["post-5961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-baseball","tag-kansas-city-royals"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13794,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5961\/revisions\/13794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}