I’m glad I was not alone. I heard from many of my friends who are Royals fans last Thursday. The common theme was we all felt like garbage following game seven of the World Series. I was able to shake off the funk by late in the day, as I began to see the big picture again. It sucks that one game can wipe out many of the good feelings built up in the 14 (or 176) games that came before it.
Worst Halloween ever? As far as the weather was concerned, I think the answer was a resounding yes here in central Indiana. It was just a nasty night. It was cold, wet, windy, and miserable. Temps were in the mid–30s, the winds were gusting at close to 30 MPH, which made the steady rain come down sideways. There really was no way to stay dry. So none of us were disappointed when the rain turned to snow.
youtu.be/3LDTOELWK… “Broken Hearted Savior” - Big Head Todd & The Monsters Not Halloween music, but the band is called The Monsters so it will have to do. Big Head Todd at Red Rocks? No pot was smoked that night. Their drummer is wacky. I’ve been putting together a list of albums you most likely owned if you were in college in the early-mid 90s. Sistery Sweetly, the album this comes from, has to be on that list.
I was nine years old when the Royals made their first World Series. We had moved to Kansas City less than three months earlier. Just three weeks earlier my parents interrupted me listening to a Royals-Mariners game to tell me that they were getting a divorce. I was dealing with a lot of shit, as Kevin Costner might say. When Willie Wilson struck out to end the World Series in game six, I burst into tears.
I don’t think I’m getting much done today. It’s not yet 9:00 am as I write this and my hands are already jittery, my stomach an unsettled mess, and overall anxiety level is too high for this early. Game Seven is supposed to be one of the best phrases in sports. But it’s doing a number on me today. I would love a repeat of last night’s 10–0 Royals rout, where a 7-run second inning ended the game soon after it began.
The ebbs and flows of the baseball postseason can be tough. Between the long series, travel days, the breaks between innings, and the gaps between pitches and at-bats, there is so much time for the emotion of the situation to ferment, turning into something more potent than reality. For example, after Friday night’s Royals win, I think most Royals fans were ecstatic. The post-game show from the Power & Light district in KC sure made it appear that way.
You know the drill. Watching lots of baseball, reading lots about baseball, not many links to share, etc. etc. etc. Thus, it’s kind of a requirement that I kick things off with an article about the crowd at Kauffman Stadium. You’ve read my thoughts on this. It’s nice that a national voice, who was actually in the stadium last week, agrees. The Royals fans, and that sound, is what makes this series unique.
youtu.be/wbL2lMn34… “Oh Sheila” - Ready For The World I’m sticking with this 1985 thing for another week. A week after hitting #1, this was #4 this week in October 1985. There’s a lot to discuss. Prince’s influence is all over this. So much so that even now people think he wrote the song.[1] While the band wrote it themselves, it sure sounds like something Prince would have cranked out and passed on to one protege or another.
Twenty-four hours can make a huge difference in the mood of a sports fan. Wednesday morning I think most of us Royals were down. Not because the Royals dropped game one to the Giants. I bet a lot of us figured it would be a tough task to beat Madison Bumgarner. But James Shields getting rocked early wasn’t in the plan. The Royals returning to their early July flailing at everything mode of offense wasn’t in the plan.
Well, here we go. The series that was never supposed to happen is about to begin. The Royals will play for the World Series championship over the next four-to-seven games. Wildest dreams, Cinderella story, “…tears in his eyes, I guess…”, etc., etc. I’ve read a couple posts already this morning that spoke of how surreal this is. Even after a week of rehashing how they got here, it’s still hard to believe that any of this has happened, and is continuing to happen.
As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been a little off my game the last couple weeks. This crazy Royals run has messed with my internal rhythms. Not that I’m complaining. But this past week I’d say three-quarters of the stuff I read was about them and their run. So not much to choose from. Of all the “The Royals Made the World Series” columns and articles I read, it should be no surprise that Joe Posnanski offered one of the best, and most touching.
youtu.be/djV11Xbc9… “Take On Me” - a-ha One of the most memorable videos ever, no? Also the song that was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts exactly 29 years ago. You know, the last time the Royals were in the World Series.
Once again, I’m at a loss. How did any of this happen? How did they go from losing four straight after the All-Star break, falling to 48–50, to this? How did they go from reasonable people screaming that they should be trading James Shields at the trading deadline to this? How does a manager who is routinely, almost daily, mocked for his in-game decisions push the right button over and over again once the playoffs began?
One last (brief) boat ride for the year. Which was preceded by one last boating adventure for the year. Saturday we planned on getting the boat out of the water for the year. We actually went down Friday night so we could get an early start and have everything wrapped up before I covered a sectional soccer game in the afternoon. Bright and early we got up, got the trailer hooked up, the girls in life jackets, and headed down for the quick jaunt over to the marina.
Some late evening links while watching the NLCS. Much lower stress than watching the ALCS, that’s for sure! While we’re on the subject, Joe Posnanski used the classic Royals and Orioles teams of the 1970s as a jumping off point for this fine piece. Going all the way back to 1977 Let’s switch from one of the greatest sports writers of the current age to a profile of one of the greatest beat writers in the history of modern sports.
youtu.be/Naf5uJYGo… “Hey Ladies” - Beastie Boys Free. James. Brown. Twenty-five years ago the Beasties blew everyone’s minds with the follow-up to Licensed To Ill, the legendary Paul’s Boutique. I’ve always been proud to say I loved it and embraced it from day one. That’s not to say I completely understood it, but neither did I dismiss it like so many people who wanted more of the frat boy nonsense that made up Ill.
Unloading some things I’ve scribbled down in the notebook over the last few weeks. I’ve always wondered why there are so many hand-made signs selling mattresses at most major intersections. This isn’t just an Indiana thing, is it? I know mattresses cost a bundle, but a mattress is at the top of the list of things I would never buy based on an ad posted to a utility pole.
Hawkeye: My Life As A Weapon - Matt Fraction, David Aja, Javier Pulido As you know, if you follow along with these posts faithfully, I like to give graphic novels a try a couple times each year. In this case, I went with the trade paperback of a comic series I’ve heard praised in many places. Hawkeye was supposed to be the comic book for people who don’t read comic books.
Lost in the rush of the weekend and baseball is the obligatory birthday post for L., who turned six on Friday. She had a nice birthday. I’m not sure if it was a coincidence or if the teacher rigged the drawing[1] but she was also the star student in class last week, which meant it was all about her all week and she got to bring treats in on Friday.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. This couldn’t happen. The team that wasted opportunities, that was full of guys who failed to fulfill their potential, that maddeningly clung to out-dated ways of playing the game, that team was not supposed to do this. Maybe win a game, perhaps two, sure. But not sweep out the Best Team In Baseball. Not by winning two-straight in Anaheim, both on the strength of outstanding pitching, fine defense, and extra inning home runs from the two guys who most symbolized the recent failures of the Royals, Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer[1].