The Royals

Here in the last few weeks, I've been taking a new phrase out for a spin in the reaches in my mind. It is a set of words that explains my state of mind and what kind of man I think I've become.

West Texan by birth, Kansan by choice

I feel I truly learned how to be an adult during the 7 1/2 years I lived in Clay Center, Kansas. I met many lifelong friends, including my bride. I learned how adults work, make decisions, treat each other, and have fun. The places I worked in Texas did not offer me these opportunities. That, or I didn't know how to take advantage of the chances I got. I worked a lot of lonely shifts at TV and radio stations when there very few others around to learn from. As a result, I didn't learn how civilized adults behave.

So I consider myself a Kansan first.

I've also become partial (or have strong opinions of) the state's teams. Specifically, the Kansas State Wildcats, the Kansas City Chiefs, and these guys:

2014 American League wild-card winner, Division Series champion, and winners of the 2014 American League pennant

In addition, the radio station I used to work for was a Royals on Radio affiliate, a network the called the largest radio network in the American League. We'd go to to Affiliates' Day at Kauffman Stadium, hear Royals officials speak, listen to George Brett, and visit/meet with their radio people. This included Denny Matthews, Ryan Lefebvre, Fred White (miss ya, Fred-- RIP), Paul Splittorff (also RIP) and even the broadcasters from the other team, which one year included Joe Castiglione and I think Jerry Remy of the Boston Red Sox. We then got good seats for the evening's game and got back to Clay Center after a three-hour drive back up I-70.

I didn't listen to decades of games on the front porch or while plowing fields, but I did listen to my fair share and I did watch my portion of the Royals during the 2000s, which were some wretched years. What I'm saying is that KC winning the pennant doesn't mean as much to me as it does to a lot of my friends (who have waited longer than me), but I was just as excited to see our guys beat Oakland, the Angels, and Baltimore.

So I bonded with the team and I consider myself a Royals fan, and I understand what this team means to a bunch of us Midwesterners. This story by Joe Posnanski hits the spot for me:

What the Royals mean to us

I've also learned what baseball teams mean to folks. A good friend who hired me in Clay Center gave me a Starting Lineup figurine of Ozzie Smith in a Cardinals uniform as an expression of thanks when I covered him as he went to go bury his mother, who was a huge St. Louis fan. It is a prized possession.

Another friend is a huge Orioles fan who lost his wife about a year ago. A friend went behind his back asking the O's to do something to maybe bring a smile to his face. The team responded with a very kind condolence letter. A third friend is a man I served in the Navy with. He's an Orioles fan and I've seen the pictures on Facebook as he passes along his love of the O's to his son.

In 2004, when the Boston Red Sox went to (and later won) the World Series, The Sons of Sam Horn message board had pages and pages of powerful stories of fans who wrote what this would have meant to their blind grandmother who would stay up to listen to the late-night Sox games from the West Coast. Or of going to the Sox games with their dad, seeing Ted Williams or Johnny Pesky or Carl Yastrzemski play at Fenway.

I feel that sort of connection with the Royals, and I identify with the folks who have been fans longer than me. They are the ones who were around in the glory years of the 70s and 80s and the 1985 World Championship side. They also felt it worse when KC would regularly lose 100+ games with a collection of guys nobody wanted.

This team and this season are why we watch and the reason we stick around and why we are loyal to a fault. This is what we Royals fans have been waiting for. Regardless of how the series with San Francisco turns out, it will have been a remarkable and wild ride.