The notion of Kansas City as the overachieving Cinderella story is the storyline that, while I understood it, was the one I found most galling. I’m going to reiterate that I get where the story comes from—the organization and the fan base had not tasted postseason baseball in 29 years. But this particular group of players is anything but gritty overachievers.
The Baltimore Orioles are really up against it tonight when the American League Championship Series resumes tonight in Kansas City. The Orioles are down 0-2 in games, which is serious enough, but those two losses have come at home. The number of teams that have rallied in such a circumstance to win a pennant? Zero.
This should be “the year” for the Kansas City Royals, to at least make it into the playoffs. Last year almost was. And maybe 2014 still will be—the Royals are only 2 ½ games out of the second wild-card spot going into their Saturday night game in Boston. But Kansas City is also only 48-47, they’ve been passed in the AL Central by the Cleveland Indians and both teams are still looking up at the Detroit Tigers. So what’s the deal, why can’t Kansas City get it done?
The Kansas City Royals are relevant again. After years of seeing false hopes raised and dashed, the good people of Kansas City were able to watch their team compete for a playoff spot into the final week of the 2013 regular season.
It was the first winning season for the franchise in ten years and gives a reasonable basis for hope that the first playoff berth since the team’s championship year of 1985—and first of the post-1993 realignment era—will be forthcoming. What follows is the Notebook Nine, our nine talking points on the Royals as the new season begins…
With the 2012 Major League Baseball season about to be fully underway, we will take a look at the teams that are most likely to surprise us all come season’s end. Sure, you have the movement of Pujols to Anaheim and you have Fielder shifting gears in the Motor City, but we all know their […]