Most people thought the Royals had little chance at making the playoffs when the season started, and probably no one thought they would make a deep playoff run. The Royals were under .500 in July (later than any team that had ever made the playoffs), and everyone thought they were done. But then they went on a run and got better and better, actually holding down first place in the division for a few days, and people really started to believe and get excited about the team potentially making the playoffs. That's no small feat for the Royals, as they had the longest playoff drought (29 years) out of all the teams in the four major professional North American sports. They finished last in the league in home runs and in walks, and no team that had ever done that had made the playoffs. But they somehow won a Wild Card spot and beat the A's in the Wild Card game in what pretty much everyone agrees was one of the most exciting and dramatic playoff games in recent baseball history. They then faced off against the mighty Los Angeles Angels in the ALDS and swept Pujols, Trout, and company in three games. They then advanced to play the powerful Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS and swept them away in four games. The Royals were playing a new type of baseball (though ironically it's more of an old school, "small ball" approach) with speed, pitching, and defense as the key components of their success, and it took them all the way to the World Series against the Giants.
The magical run swept up many non-baseball fans in KC, as I heard story after story of someone who didn't normally care about baseball and/or the Royals who was now excited to watch the games. Nationally, the entire country got behind the Royals. In an ESPN poll, 50 out of 50 states were rooting for the Royals in the World Series, with even the majority of Californians on our side. We were all confident we could compete with the Giants, but it turned out one thing, and pretty much only one thing, stood in the way: Madison Bumgarner. He gave up only one run in a Game 1 win for the Giants and pitched a shutout in Game 5 to give the Giants a 3-2 lead in the series, meaning the Royals had to win the last two games at home. They won yesterday in the game I attended, resulting in tonight's Game 7. The worry was that Bumgarner might pitch a few innings, even though he just pitched on Sunday, but no one knew if he'd be effective on such short rest.
Well, it ended up being worse than anybody thought. He entered the game in the 4th inning with a 3-2 lead, and not only did he pitch a few innings, he finished the game! And not only was he good, he was outstanding and completely dominant, allowing only 2 hits. Alex Gordon reached on a single in the bottom of the ninth and advanced to third on the hit after an error, but Salvador Perez struck out to end it.
So it's over. We were so close to winning the World Series. Possibly 90 feet away, as that would have tied it, or one pitch away if Salvy would have gone deep. A miracle run that was as surprising as it was exciting. It was so much fun for this city to go along for the ride, and I really think we deserved it, given the passion we felt as a city and the length of time we'd waited. And without Bumgarner, I really think it would have happened, and it would have been amazing. But it was still an extremely impressive accomplishment to make it this far. We are all fortunate to have been able to experience it, because for a full month the entire city had something to rally around. There were no divisions by college affiliation, political leaning, age, race, or even which side of the state line you lived on. I'm not trying to over-dramatize this, even though it sounds like it, but it was really fun to know that especially by the time the World Series rolled around, almost every person you'd meet anywhere in the city was excited by the Royals and what they were doing.
So now we wait until next year. But I think the Royals have established themselves and have found their footing as a team and an organization, and I think and hope that we've moved beyond the annual cycle of a small bit of cautious hope in April that is extinguished by June to a point where we can have genuine optimism in the spring and by the fall still have realistic hopes of playing in October, at least for the next few years while this core group of players is together. Dayton, Ned, and the boys brought us on a Hollywood-esque ride that perfectly followed the so-clichéd-it-wouldn't-be-believable script until the very end. Hopefully next year the Royals can compete for the playoffs again, and maybe somehow they can even make another deep run, and maybe, if everything falls into place, make the World Series again. And if they do, I'm pretty sure they will have learned from this year (and not be facing Bumgarner three times again!) and will "take the crown" and finish what our Boys in Blue started in 2014,
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