Kansas City Royals: No Longer Lovable Losers

The Kansas City Royals had an interesting series this past weekend when the Oakland Athletics came to town. Originally, many fans were looking forward to the A’s coming to the K, as Billy Butler would be returning to Kansas City for the first time in another uniform.

The weekend series was not a great Homecoming for Butler, however, as it quickly became a nasty three-game series against two American League teams.

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The ugliness started on Friday night when Athletics third baseman Brett Lawrie slid hard into second base and took out Alcides Escobar in the process.

Lawrie claimed he didn’t intend to harm Escobar, but Royals fans and players weren’t buying it. I don’t blame them!

This team has been getting hit by pitches frequently in the short season and frankly, I think their message this weekend was, “Enough.”

Yordano Ventura sent that message loud and clear on Saturday when he struck Lawrie with a 98 MPH pitch and got himself ejected from the game. After that, Royals fans continued to boo Lawrie any time he did anything, but everyone figured the sides were even and that would be the end of it.

The Athletics re-started the feud on Sunday when Scott Kazmir decked Lorenzo Cain in the first inning with two outs. It was completely unnecessary and Kazmir should have been ejected right then and there.Kazmir got to stay out there while the Royals saw both Dave Eiland and Ned Yost get ejected instead.

The Kansas City Royals are sending a message to other teams and it’s that they’re not just going to sit back and be this cute little team that lets the big guys push them around.

With Oakland starting things up again, Kelvin Herrera decided that, down 2-1 in the eighth inning, that he’d take a little bit of retaliation once again.

Lawrie was up to bat (greeted with boos once again) and Herrera whiffed a 100 MPH fastball right behind him. Herrera was ejected as a result, which led to Don Wakamatsu and Escobar being booted as well.

While all of the ejections definitely irritated me, that’s not what infuriated me the most. No, it wasn’t that five Royals players/personnel were ejected from the game and no Athletics were, it’s that this feud has seemed to make the Royals now a “classless” team, and I think that’s complete and total crap.

The Royals didn’t start this feud: Lawrie did. Ventura got revenge and then Kazmir made it resurface. If anyone should be called a classless and dirty team, it should be the Oakland Athletics.

Now I will say that it was a bit childish on Herrera’s part (not to mention dangerous) to hurl that fastball at Lawrie, but the Royals are taking a stand and sticking up for each other.

The Royals have seen their guys getting beaned by pitches all season long, and Lawrie sliding into Escobar was the final straw for these guys.

The Kansas City Royals are sending a message to other teams and it’s that they’re not just going to sit back and be this cute little team that lets the big guys push them around.

This Royals team has fight in them and it’s shown so far this season. Whenever there’s been a problem, these guys have each other’s backs and it’s awesome to see.

The main thing to take out of this weekend is that it’s obvious other teams are intimidated by the Kansas City Royals this season. The reigning American League Champions have been doubted by many this season, but so far they’ve shown that they’re not one to be pushed aside.

The Athletics were obviously still peeved about the Wildcard game and felt the need to come after the Royals this weekend and try to get into their heads. Luckily, the Royals held their own and even came back down two runs on Sunday’s ejection filled game.

The atmosphere at Kauffman Stadium for this series against Oakland was incredible. I attended both the Saturday and Sunday games, and I seriously felt like I was at a playoff game during Sunday’s high-tempered match-up.

Kansas City managed to take the series from Oakland two games to one, but the two teams will meet again in late June, only in Oakland next time. One thing’s for sure: That series will not be pretty.

Next: KC Royals: New Rivalry Emerging With The Oakland Athletics

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