10.28.2014

World Series Game 6: Let's play 7!

I don't know that I've ever been so nervous to watch a game. Like ever.

Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series with the Chicago Cubs and the 2008 NCAA basketball national championship with the Kansas Jayhawks are the closest comparisons I can recall. Based on those experiences, I was prepared for a real roller coaster tonight.

And I was seeing bad omens everywhere I looked today. The social media hype was almost so unbearable I nearly shut off my TweetDeck.

Posted on Twitter this morning …



The Kansas City Star shared this …



When I got home this evening, I exchanged my work clothes – including my Royal blue tie – for sweats and a Royals T-shirt. I thought better of pulling my favorite Royals blue T-shirt out of the laundry because the Royals lost when I wore it Sunday night. I’m superstitious enough that I even questioned whether to put on a blue long-sleeved shirt under my gray short-sleeved Royals T-shirt. I put on my Royals cap, too.

Then, Kates arrived home with the girls. With Subway for dinner and a large Royals cookie cake. Would the Royals cake be overdoing it?



The answer quickly became: no.

Everything was right for Kansas City tonight. Even the Kansas City Symphony's performance of the Star-Spangled Banner left us awestruck.

I took notice of Yordano Ventura stepping over the lines as he jogged to the pitcher’s mound and pointed out to Phoebe that baseball players do that for good luck. It must have worked.

Yo was lights out. The Giants’ offense could generate nothing against him.

Then the Royals batted in the bottom of the second inning.

  • Alex Gordon singled on a soft fly ball.
  • Salvador Perez singled on a line drive.
  • Mike Moustakas doubled to score Gordon and move Perez to third base.
  • Alcides Escobar hit a soft ground ball to the right side and slid under Brandon Belt’s tag at first base.
  • Nori Aoki singled to score Perez and move Moustakas to third and Escobar to second.

That signaled the end of the night for Giants pitcher Jake Peavy. Yusmeiro Petit took over.
Didn’t matter.

  • Lorenzo Cain singled on a soft fly ball to score Moustakas and Escobar and move Aoki to third.
  • After a wild pitch moved Cain to second, Eric Hosmer doubled, scoring Aoki and Cain.
  • Billy Butler doubled and Hosmer scored.
I was all over the living room during that inning. Alternating between jumping off the floor and dropping to my knees and pounding the floor with excitement on every hit and score. I was shouting at the TV and stretching my voice like I was right there with the crowd at Kauffman Stadium, and Phoebe and Kates joined me with their own hoopin’ and hollerin’.

When the Royals scored their ever-so-important fourth run I could breathe a sigh of relief, knowing the odds are well in their favor when they score four. But when the second inning was over tonight, the Royals had taken a 7-0 lead.





On Facebook, my friends were going wild, too. My friend Tiffany posted, simply …
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And we understood. In the top of the third inning Ventura loaded the bases and got out of it with a double play. From my friend Sara on Facebook:
Yeah, he got a little in his head there. Body language has improved. He's got this. Just survive for five (preferably 6) innings and pass it to the pen. Easy cheesy. We got this. Ohmygod now I need a breath!

The Royals tacked on run No. 8 in the third inning. In the fifth inning, Escobar doubled and Omar Infante scored run No. 9 from first, blowing through third base coach Mike Jirschele's stop sign.



The Fox broadcast, which by now was happily changing its tune to talking favorably about the Royals, opened the bottom of the sixth inning with “Spirit in the Sky.” Just saying.

At 9:52 p.m., with the game in the seventh inning, the Kansas City Star posted this: World Series game sevens, like one that awaits Royals, are stuff of legend. ... Seemed a little presumptuous to me. Another bad omen. Whatever happened to It Ain’t Over ‘til It’s Over. … Although, in The Star’s defense, Moustakas had just hit a home run bomb to right field and the Royals had a 10-0 lead.




But not much later, it was over. We’ll have a Game 7 tomorrow night, Kansas City.



At this point, no matter what happens tomorrow night, I’m content. Of course, I want the Royals to pound the Giants again and win it all tomorrow night. But all I wanted today was a Game 7. After that, I can’t ask for anything more and the best team will win tomorrow night.

It’s been an absolutely glorious season that will forever have a special place in my heart. And cherished memories of Esky, Okie Doki Aoki, LoCain, Hos, Billy, Gordo, Salvi, Moose, Omar, Big Game James, Ace, and the three-headed monster – Kelvi, Wade and Hollie.

During the last few days, I've recalled a few times the first Royals game I watched this year, which -- according to my Facebook status archive -- was March 17 …
Faye having trouble sleeping again? No problem. This time it means we get to watch some baseball together. Go Royals!

I’ll never forget it. It was a late, west coast spring training game. It was the first time I saw Ventura pitch. I could tell he was going to be special then, and the Royals won the game. They say pitching and defense win championships, and most of us knew the Royals were well endowed in those aspects of the game. It was the offense that often was in question. Regardless, they came close to making the postseason last season and hopes were high as they headed into this season – aside from the part when they lost their first two regular season games, causing a fair share of fans to freak out and prompting my friend Kevin to post this on Facebook …
The reaction to an 0-2 start, in a season of 162 games is amazing. I know we are starved for a winner in KC but.....take it eassssssssssyyyyy!

Since that night in March with Faye, I've barely missed an inning of the Royals this season. What a ride this has been.

As usual Sam Mellinger sums it up beautifully: The Royals’ crazy ride has reached a game seven — and history beckons.
Wednesday night, what happens in a kids’ game played by grown men will be remembered by a city forever.
There will be nerves and screaming and chanting and accelerated heart beats and tears. There will be tears, either way, with the performance of a baseball team Kansas City has grown to love again determining whether they come happy or sad or both….
The Royals have been so bad for so long that watching them with any sort of regularity over the years has meant dreaming of a night like this, usually without any real expectation of it happening. The World Series? Game seven?
At Kauffman Stadium?
Is this real life?
With quirks and rituals, fans pull the Royals on to Game 7

Packed Power and Light District goes wild as Royals win … A joy to see throughout this postseason run.

Remember the woman who went into labor at The K during Game 1? She was back for Game 6 ... Great story.
Posted by Horns! at 11:23 PM
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