My Faith in The Power of the Heart in Sports - Via True Blue Fever

I have been a baseball fan since I was a boy. I will admit up front though, that while I have maintained a passive interest in baseball, I have let it fall off the radar as my hometown team, the Kansas City Royals, have put up almost 3 decades of stinkers. There was a whole 2 decades in there where the team didn't have money so they would draft rookies, turn them into great players and then sell them. It was like we were the MLB's farm team or something. But out of the Blue (pun intended) the Royals have concocted a winning team and gained the spotlight again. It only took 29 years since winning the World Series in 1985, but good things come to those who wait. Not everyone can be a Yankees fan, or should be. That being said, I have read some very funny articles and opinions about the Royals by naysayers who think these guys just aren't in the same league as their overpaid star-studded team's rosters. They usually revolve around a bunch of reasons why the Royals are gonna lose and everyone will find out they really stink. Well, the Royals swept the Los Angeles Angels and Baltamore Orioles in the ALDS and ALCS to go to the World Series. And as of tonight are in a battle against the multi-champion San Francisco Giants at 2 games to 3. So here is my response to all of those silly reasons the Royals will lose.

1. They have no super-stars.

Well woop-dee-freakin doo. Haven't you seen just about any Hollywood sports movie? You don't need highly paid prim-donas to win games. I remember as a teenager being sold on this whole thing about how a well run, organized, and in sync team with spirit could beat a team with the best stars. And I largely found it was so. Sometimes a superstar would make the game and sometimes they didn't. My first hand experience was playing soccer at a high school that didn't have a soccer team. We split into two teams, where I played as the African-import superstar on the bad team, while the cluster of 3 or 4 guys with at least some soccer experience played on the other. Guess how that ended? Okay don't; my team lost. By one goal, but still.

 Now it is true that your team has to at least have good players to win. Movies like Major League and The Replacements are dramaticized for entertainment. But in reality, a solid team of robust guys that really go after it with heart do in fact beat teams with overpaid superstars. It is true the Royals don't have Mike Trout, Victor Martinez, Klayton Kershaw, Buster Posey, or Miguel Cabrera. Their highest ranked player on ESPN.com is Greg Holland (Their ace closing pitcher) at 35th. But when you look at what it takes to make a team win, none of it has to do with payroll, statistics, or rankings. In fact, it has everything to do with teamwork, heart, and performance when it counts.

And that's baseball more than other sports. I laugh at how much sportswriters and game announcers fawn over every team the Royals have played. They don't talk about Lorenzo Cain or Omar Infante. They don't know who these guys are so they'll talk about the same people they've been talking about for the last few years. I laugh because no player is magical and big stars don't mean a winning team. I do agree, watching the Yankees buy up everyone good and dominate for years made me wonder, but my faith has been renewed with the Royals. Many people think that by making a team of the very best you can create a "Super Team". But that's been done before to ill effect. Take a look at the sport where there's enough money worldwide to actually buy all the best players on the globe; Premiere League Soccer. Chelsea, owned by a Russian oil tycoon, spent a record amount to buy up all the world's very best players and guess what happened? Chelsea sucked. Okay, they weren't bad, but it didn't work. Teams aren't made of superstars, they are made of a team.

2. Their bull-pin is too unreliable.

This one is just stupid. I do understand that for about 2 decades the Royals have had a terrible bullpin. That's true. But I have to say that they finally have a winning combination. You have some real guns on that team. James Shields has been solid this year and you have A performances out of starters like Ventura and Guthrie. Then you have someone like Finnigan, who is a 21 year old rookie and the first player to ever play in the College World Series and MLB World Series in the same year, thrown in to games to shut down big hitting all-stars. Then you can't forget "The Gauntlet"...Herrera, Davis, and Holland. Together they have shut down some big offensive teams, including the Angels and Orioles. In post-season play as of this article, those three are 9-0 when pitching together in the post-season. How's that for unreliable?

3. Baseball is played in series'. Streaky teams don't just win championships.

Well, they can and they just did. The Royals are breaking records all over the place. First team with the least amount of home runs to go this far, longest post-season winning streak, first Wild Card winner to sweep the Post-Season favorite, etc. They played on the fence all year but all of sudden are clicking. It's not like its just magic. The team has been building all year to this and looking better and better. They literally saved themselves just past the half way point and started going on a roll. This is a team on a mission and tearing it up. Despite the fact that baseball is played in a series, they are certainly on a streak and knocking out some of baseball's famous giants (world series pun intended) whether it makes sense or not. As absolute proof, how about the fact they swept two of baseball's finest teams back to back.

4. They are too used to losing close games.

I actually think this is one of their biggest strengths. Mainly because I watched that Wild Card Game against Oakland and after they seemed to go down a ton they didn't seem rattled. There was no, "dang we blew it!" or "now its over!" Or even worse, some shunning of the guy that just blew the game. They've all blown games. So mistakes don't ruin the team dynamic. When they went down suddenly in the Wild Card game the team just kept playing like they always do and found some room to keep fighting. They turned that game into a dog-fight that went into many extra innings. But they won and came out not just pumped or excited, but focused on doing what it takes to win like it was just part of their DNA. That has been their story so far and they have done an amazing job of it.

5. Ned Yost is a terrible manager.

It is undeniable that Royals Skipper Ned Yost has made some fascinating if not head-scratching calls. But regardless of what you think of Ned Yost, he isn't going to sink or swim them. If you think Ned is terrible, then you'd have to believe that, because the team is winning and that would defy logic if you didn't accept that. Let's be real. Managers can make boneheaded decisions. Yost has been called lots of things by the media like "village idiot" but in the end, even the village idiot can't mess up a team that is this hot and willing to do anything to win a game. At the end of a game, what will win the game is the performance of it's players.

6. Life isn't fantasy; popular teams with big pockets win the World Series

I know it's hard to believe that a fly-over state with a mascot named for a livestock exchange could win the World Series, but they did it back in 1985 if you recall and there happen to be more places in America than California and New York. Money does by spotlighted talent, but it still misses so much and because of that money doesn't always mean success or even that what you thought was predictable and realistic is going to happen. Sometimes life is like a dream. It's not always predictable or disappointing. I am choosing to enjoy this sample of dream meets reality along with the fans in 49 out of 50 states.

7. They have no solid offense.

What part of "they find ways to win games" don't you understand? The point is that they have had the bats when they needed them. You have guys like Billy Butler and Alex Gordon who have been on the team for a long time and are making some of the team's most clutch plays and combining for some RBIs. You have Salvador Perez and Omar Infante, who through the season had dismal batting averages suddenly start hitting home runs and driving in runs. Then you have Mike Moustakis who went down to the minors twice and came back up to now start hitting homers and earning wins. You have clutch contributions from Hosmer, Aoki, Escobar, Cain...when they need it they get it and they are all contributing. That's what makes the Royals so special. It's not one guys' show. It's everyone's show and they get enough to pull it out each time as someone steps up to deliver.

8. The other team is just too good. They have _____(fill in the blank).

Look, I don't care who your superstar is. Everyone talks up the big guy in the game and gives him godlike status. Then they talk down the lesser teams and all their players like they're losers. The evidence comes from all the broadcasting nuts you watch on TV, who after they get done salivating over all the awesome players on the A's, Angels, Orioles, and Giants; look up to see the Royals won again. It's not all their fault. Those are the guys they know because they have been talking about them the past few seasons. Try suddenly whipping up a special on Jarrod Dyson. They can't do it; they hardly know who the guy is. At the end of the day you have Jason Vargas and Jeremy Guthrie holding the biggest hitting team in baseball to 1 run, Mike Trout and Hunter Pence getting shut down, Alex Gordon hitting homers off O'Day, Infante homering off Strickland, and guys like Peavey being hit to shreds by half the Royals line-up. Not really sure what to tell you here except, _____ (fill in the blank) is not immortal and can certainly be schooled. And it may be true that Madison Bumgarner is an amazing pitcher and has shut down the Royals twice in the World Series as of this article. But Madison Bumgarner isn't a team, he's one player. And no single player is perfect or unbeatable either.

The point is that regardless of how the series finishes, the Royals have restored my faith in sports dream and have every chance their big-time rivals do. It shows that it's not always the big shot that wins. In a way its the American Dream. With dedication, willpower, and tenacity, you can become a winner. American's like an underdog because the underdog shows that life doesn't have to force you into a top-down order where you can't achieve greatness. No matter what you can rise above your circumstances. Ingrained in American culture is the idea that greatness can come from anyone and for that reason I believe the Royals embody that spirit and for at least this World Series, are America's team.

I can't end an article that cheesy so here's a picture of something random.

Go Royals. #takethecrown