The World Series starts today, or yesterday depending on where you are in the world, and I am excited for this year's matchup. Both wild card teams will meet in this year's Fall Classic and their respective paths to the postseason highlight all the things that make the sport so great.
Kansas City enters the series undefeated in this year's postseason. Amazing for a team that had the longest postseason drought in any of the Big 4 sports. Royals fans had to wait 29 years for a trip to the postseason after Kansas City's victory over their instate rival, the Cardinals, in the 1985 World Series. The Royals finished last in home runs during the regular season and usually rely on stolen bases to score runs, making them both incredibly exciting and boring at the same time. The team barely escaped an all-or-nothing wild card playoff game with the A's that went into extra innings. They then swept the Angeles, who had the best regular season record in baseball, and went on to sweep the heavily favored Oriels. The Royals have earned the title of "America's Team" this year. A scrappy bunch of players you couldn't pick out of a police lineup who don't look old enough to buy beer for the post-game party have captured everyone's hearts with their run for the Commissioner's Trophy (Bud Selig's last by the way).
The Royals opponents, The Giants, are no strangers to this situation. They are hoping for their third World Series in five years. This is the point in the post where I formally declare my support for the Royals. The Giants, along with a handful of other clubs like the Yankees and Red Sox, seem to have it all. Sustained on field success, a gigantic fan base, and what many consider to be the best stadium in baseball, if not all of sports, make it difficult to support the Giants in this situation. Especially when you consider the underdog Royals are such a young team in a mid-western city starved for sports success.
Certainly looking forward to watching this one. Sorry there aren't any pictures for this blog. I failed to secure written consent to retransmit images from the MLB and not both written and oral consent....sorry.
Kansas City enters the series undefeated in this year's postseason. Amazing for a team that had the longest postseason drought in any of the Big 4 sports. Royals fans had to wait 29 years for a trip to the postseason after Kansas City's victory over their instate rival, the Cardinals, in the 1985 World Series. The Royals finished last in home runs during the regular season and usually rely on stolen bases to score runs, making them both incredibly exciting and boring at the same time. The team barely escaped an all-or-nothing wild card playoff game with the A's that went into extra innings. They then swept the Angeles, who had the best regular season record in baseball, and went on to sweep the heavily favored Oriels. The Royals have earned the title of "America's Team" this year. A scrappy bunch of players you couldn't pick out of a police lineup who don't look old enough to buy beer for the post-game party have captured everyone's hearts with their run for the Commissioner's Trophy (Bud Selig's last by the way).
The Royals opponents, The Giants, are no strangers to this situation. They are hoping for their third World Series in five years. This is the point in the post where I formally declare my support for the Royals. The Giants, along with a handful of other clubs like the Yankees and Red Sox, seem to have it all. Sustained on field success, a gigantic fan base, and what many consider to be the best stadium in baseball, if not all of sports, make it difficult to support the Giants in this situation. Especially when you consider the underdog Royals are such a young team in a mid-western city starved for sports success.
Certainly looking forward to watching this one. Sorry there aren't any pictures for this blog. I failed to secure written consent to retransmit images from the MLB and not both written and oral consent....sorry.
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