Kansas City Royals: Saying Goodbye

Slowly throughout that 2014 postseason run, the people around me became fans by association. In a state, Colorado, wherein the Denver Broncos reign supreme, all anyone could talk about was the Royals. (I refuse to believe my bringing it up at every turn had anything to do with it).

When the ball left Salvy’s bat to end game 7 of the World Series, I felt empty inside. I knew three things to be true in that moment. I hated Joe Buck, I hated Madison Bumgardner, and the Kansas City Royals deserved a better finish than that.

When the ball left Salvy’s bat to end game 7 of the World Series, I felt empty inside.

As selfish as those feelings were, I was uplifted in the videos I’d watched in the coming days. I watched fans chanting after the loss, after the wind had been knocked out of them, ‘Thank you Royals!’ and again, I cried.

The rest of that year, I didn’t care about the Chiefs. The blowups that once came watching the Chiefs throw away an opportunity just weren’t there. I felt spoiled and grateful that I’d gotten to experience that.

All I could think about was baseball. Was Billy Butler going to come back? How were we going to address the departure of James Shields? I watched with cautious optimism as the Royals went out and signed the pieces that would be the difference in 2015.