Kansas City Royals: Saying Goodbye
By Scott Dillon
(Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
As the 2017 season draws to a close for the Kansas City Royals, so to does the end of an era.
It’s surreal really. I know that it’s over. That perhaps the single greatest stretch of any Kansas City sports team is coming to a close. And yet, even as I type this, it still doesn’t feel real.
It’s that time of year again. As the days grow shorter and weather becomes more and more conducive to chili, pumpkin spice lattes, plaid shirts, and the like, that nervous feeling still lingers in my gut.
It’s a feeling I never knew before 2014. Generally speaking, as a lifelong Kansas City Royals and Kansas City Chiefs fan, I knew that Spring was for baseball, summer was for looking ahead to next year, and fall belonged to the Chiefs. Yes, prior to 2014 I didn’t know the kind of physical toll that postseason baseball could have on a person.
The Kansas City Royals far exceeded everything I could’ve ever hoped for in that 2014 postseason.
Then everything changed. In September of 2014, I watched the Royals clinch their first postseason berth in my lifetime. I distinctly remember not knowing what to do, but feeling like I had to do something. I got in my car and drove and just cried. I had no idea what I was in for, what we all were in for, over the next several months.
The Kansas City Royals far exceeded everything I could’ve ever hoped for in that 2014 postseason. Growing up, it had just become status quo that the Royals were going to be bad. I never in my wildest dreams expected them to win in the playoffs, let alone get to the World Series.
I watched, as so many did, every game with baited breath. My adrenaline surged and I hung on every single pitch. I’d always watched postseason baseball, but I’d never experienced the way I did in those moments.
Suddenly, fall had become something else entirely. What once was a calming, refreshing time of year, had suddenly become tense, anticipatory, and nerve wracking. I had butterflies in my stomach every day in October and couldn’t even sit down during the games let alone eat anything. I was making myself sick in anticipation and loved every single minute of it.