Kansas City Royals: A horror movie for each season of the past decade
By Cullen Jekel
2012
Kansas City Royals: 72-90
Movie: 1982’s The Thing
It’s all about an uncertain future with the 2012 Royals and The Thing, a fantastic science-fiction horror flick starring Kurt Russell, Keith David, and I’d-like-to-talk-to-you-for-a-few-minutes-about-diabetes Wilford Brimley, among others.
For that Royals team, it was Year 2.5 under Ned Yost. After improving by four wins from 2010 to 2011, expectations were for the Royals to take yet another jump and to compete for a playoff spot. Another exciting development for baseball in Kansas City: the Royals hosted the All-Star Game that season.
But the season didn’t go as planned, and once again, for the fourth straight season and eighth time in nine years, the Royals lost at least 90 games. Suddenly, the future that had been based on guys like Alex Gordon, Salvador Perez, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, and Eric Hosmer seemed a bit dim. Murky. Unknown.
Which is exactly like the ending of The Thing.
From the beginning of the movie, where a dog being hunted by some Norwegians (naturally) arrives at the American’s research base in Antarctica, to the final showdown underneath the ice, things went poorly for Russell’s MacReady and David’s Childs and the rest of the research team.
Only MacReady and Childs survive the events of the movie, but as the tale winds down, both men, not trusting each other, fearful that the other is really The Thing, are stranded in the dark, unrelenting cold of Antarctica with no help on the way, staring at a dim, murky, and unknown future.