This Royals postseason has been magical. I've always been a Cubs fan, but after having lived in KC for 22 years, I've become a pretty serious Royals fan as well. I don't get to see many games, even on TV, because of my schedule, but I always want them to do well, and I closely follow everything about the team. They amazingly made the playoffs this year, causing the whole city to get swept up in their sudden success. I had considered trying to go to a playoff game, but I've been traveling for work for some of the games, and the cost of tickets has deterred me as well, as the city's decades-long unquenched thirst for postseason baseball has resulted in sky-high prices. During the ALCS, I looked on StubHub to see what World Series tickets were going for, and even the cheapest ones were in the $800 range, which I wasn't able to do. The Royals didn't close out the series in San Francisco, making Games 6 and 7 in KC move from "if necessary" to necessary. Yesterday I checked prices for Game 6 and saw they were still close to $400, which was still a whole lot of money. But then I got a call from my friend Jason who offered me a ticket for face value ($200), and I could hardly say yes fast enough. So today I did something I never really thought I'd do: I went to the World Series.
Jason and I left our respective jobs early to get to the K in plenty of time to hang out and enjoy it. I saw Royals broadcaster Rex Hudler and made sure to get a picture with him. Jason and I took a few pictures of us, but I really liked this one where Taylor Swift somehow marketed her way to the forefront of our picture. We saw all the news stations with their tents (and Brian Busby, Phil Witt, etc.). Some station left a microphone on the ground, and Jason couldn't resist commandeering it and leading a fake broadcast.
ESPN had their set in the parking lot too, though of course it was much bigger than the local stations. It was cool to see Curt Schilling, Karl Ravech, Barry Larkin, and John Kruk so close, and it was also really interesting to see how the production of the show worked. All the fans could be around the set, but most people congregated behind it so they could get on TV including one costumed fan who made a poster that had a decently clever tie-in with Batman/bats and Commissioner Gordon / Alex Gordon, except he's such a big fan of both Batman and the Royals that he couldn't spell "Gordon" right? Oh well. Soon, though, it was time to go into the game...
Our seat were behind home plate. Waaaay behind home plate, but still behind home plate. I actually think my seat was literally the center-most seat and was actually straight back from the plate, which gave a pretty cool perspective. The stadium was electric, and the fans were LOUD. I've never been to a baseball game like that. It was like being in the student section of a K-State football game. Everyone was pumped up and ready to go. The Royals got the scoring started in the second. On the left was when Nori Aoki was up with the bases loaded, before he singled in the second run of the inning. On the right is when Hosmer pounded the ball in the dirt in front of home plate and it bounded like a superball into the outfield and into the gap for a double after being hit into the ground inches in front of home plate, which is hard to do. You can see the ball to the left of the second base umpire as it heads for the gap.
On the left the players are running around the bases, and on the right the stadium has erupted in utter delirium. The Royals would go on to score seven runs that inning, all but destroying any hopes the Giants had of winning the game.
With the game mostly in hand, we decided to walk around the stadium to see what else was going on, eventually settling in some seats in the lower level that had been abandoned by Giants fans who were probably too disgusted to watch another inning.
The score was 10-0 at this point, so it was just a matter of time. On the left is the final second of the game as Gregor Blanco swings through a pitch for strike three, followed by the beautiful Kauffman Stadium fountains shooting high in celebration.
The Royals won, forcing a Game 7, which is going to be crazy. It's almost literally unbelievable to think that the Royals have a chance at a World Series title. They are one game away from making it happen. This city will go bonkers if it does. I'm pretty sure I'll be watching tomorrow's game from home, and that's okay. I may someday go to another World Series game, but I easily may not. But as a fan of baseball and a fan of the Royals, I'll never forget the day I had the opportunity to go to a World Series game in Kansas City and see the Royals put 10 runs on the board and shut out the Giants to force a deciding Game 7.
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