October 13, 2014

Royal’s Rally

I have many additions this year to what is often my favorite season: Fall!

“New this fall” includes:

a two year old and the language, personality, and fast feet that come with him…Oakley turned two on Saturday!
a house in one of the quintessential fall tree-color-candy neighborhoods of the Northland. Yay for the Coves beauty!
a niece- sweet and special June Marie Bruce.
a (real!)perfectly shaped white pumpkin that came covered with subtle glitter sparkles from a fall fest- my mantle must-have!
a chance to cheer- joining with a whole, hungry city, I’m loving the late nights watch-parties and the early morning paper pour-overs as we devour the story, emotion, and highs of the Royals’ playoff march.

I watched the Wild Card game after Young Life club at Gayle and Steve’s with Zach and Christine. Drew had momentarily given up hope after the 7th, and taken the kids home (great Dad move, poor fan move), and was watching alone on an iPad screen.

The KC Star has given us the chance to bring the Royals home…in the shape of square paper men. If this is what gets Drew Osborne to do a craft, I’ll take it.

Amongst pacing, rally cap wearing, actual nail biting, hooping, hollering, heartracing, high-fiving, groaning, and jumping up and down, we held onto each and every moment of the play of the Royals, the decisions of the coaches, and the unrelentless dedication of the fans standing up at the stadium. For those who know who went, they say it was “indescribable” and “probably the best single experience of their life”.

These Royals are giving us a gift. We are surprised and grateful. In Kansas City, the fountains are blue and the people are anything but. People walk around wearing good cheer and tons of hip or vintage, very very blue, Royals gear. On big screens or live and in-person, we are interested in every (and every extra) inning. We lovingly bear the stress and strain of the small-ball squeak outs and late inning shut-em down hits.

As I write today, October 13th, 2014, the Royals have a 7 game winning streak:

They won their last regular season game 6-4 versus the White Sox in Chicago.
Two days later, they won the Wild Card game versus the A’s, 9-8 in 12 innings, with a Salvador Perez double in the bottom of 12. Then they won three against the Los Angeles Angels for the American League Division series
ALDS Game 1: Royals 3, Angels 2... 11 innings with a Mike Moustakas home run in the 11th inning! (We watched at home on our iPad)
ALDS Game 2: Royals 4, Angels 1... 11 innings with a 2 run home run by Hosmer in a 3 run 11th inning. (We saw the final 2 innings after going on a date to Blanc and Gone Girl…we were home in time to see the gone ball)
ALDS Game 3: Royals 8, Angels 3... 9 innings with an Alex Gordon triple that scored 3 in the first and amazing outfield catches by Cain and Aoki. (We watched at Kauffman!)
ALCS Game 1: Royals 8- Orioles 6 in 10 innings with an Alex Gordon home run in the 10th and Escobar and Moustakas home runs earlier. (We watched at Todd and Nancy’s house in JoCo- Eli and Andi staying up til 11:55pm when the game ended!)
ALCS Game 2: Royals 6-Orioles 4 with the 4-4 tie breaking in the 9th with RBIs by Escobar and Cain in the 9th. (We watched at Gayle and Steve’s and then James and Laura’s before we said goodbye to my Mom, the goodluck charm from Colorado)

Huddled together and keyed in close, Drew and I watched in awe and “Ah-yeah!” as the Royals took down the Angels and their “best record in all of baseball” and their “Matt Trout threat”…twice, at the Angels home. We went from Ipad small screen to seats at the K for Game 3 of the ALDS! After a tailgate with all our kids, my mom and sister from Colorado, and Laura and June, Drew, James, Quinton and I went to seats in 421- a bit towards first behind home plate.

From that game, I take away feelings of excitement, celebration, camaraderie, thrilling fun, and the recognition that I was a part of something live, in my city, that I’ve only ever watched happen to other towns on TV. I loved standing by Drew, high-fiving my family and hugging the stranger next to me. I loved sitting in the middle of rain and watching the Royals try their best and really enjoy the victory.

Game 3 was to be played here in KC tonight but is rained out and postponed. Our hearts be still. As much as sleep and schedules have been thrown off over the last two weeks, (Eli’s teacher took a personal day after the Wild Card game, my 5:30am Crossfit faithful have fallen off, and even police officers say the crime rate has been down…criminals stuck at home watching late inning games I guess!), as a city, we can take a rescheduled game. For people who have actually waited 29 years, they will wait 29 more hours.

For my kids, it’s been 7 years of cheering for the Royals. Eli hummed “Let’s Go Royals, clap, clap, clap!” before his mouth could mold the words. Eli was on the big screen 4 games in a row at Kauffman in 2007- as an almost 1 year old. Andi went to games as a brand new baby and wore pink Royals gear and picked Billy Butler as her favorite as a 2 year old. Uncle Zach would tease her and call her Silly Butler to which she responded with sass. Oakley, went to his first game as a 6 month old, and right now says, “Royals” when he sees a logo or crown on paper or clothing. If we say, “Let’s go Royals!” he says, “Clap, clap!”. His very pregnant Aunt Laura taught him how to swing a bat while babysitting him in September and he’ll ask, “Mom, pitch!” often now.