Lets Go Royals and Go Cubs Go

If you’re a baseball fan, now is about the time you’re saying, “wait…it’s over…what am I supposed to do with my time now?” I got to experience that times two this postseason as a lifelong Cubs fan/Kansas City resident/fan.

Both teams are hard not to like. Their players often seem to strap on smiles right after their stirrup pants as if those grins are a part of their standard issue mlb uniforms. Both teams enjoy the game. And want to win badly. And they both did this year. A lot. Which is atypical.

So many painful memories led up to this year. The Cubs winning the first 2 of a then 5 game NLCS at home only to blow the last 3 on the road in San Diego in 1984. They got in in 89, 07 and 08, but got out just as fast, getting swept each time. The most heartbreaking season was 03. 5 outs away…with Mark Prior on the mound. I can’t even talk about the details. It hurts. But, it was fine…Kerry Wood was pitching game 7. He hit a home run, which would have been cute, if he hadn't given up 7 runs, forcing fans to watch the Marlins celebrate at Wrigley. Ouch.

The Royals memories are fewer, because me being a fan has coincided with my kids becoming fans. They’re 12 and 10. We used to find tickets on Stubhub for 2 bucks each and sit wherever we wanted. We’d take bp at the little K and tried to make it to the kids run the bases day whenever we could. Last year was the first year I remember that Blake started asking baseball questions. Seemingly overnight he went from the kid more interested in the kiddie play land and when we were going to get a treat to avid ball fan.

Kid picked a good year, because out of nowhere the Royals were the best team in baseball from the all-star break on in 2014. We followed the Royals' run together and were amazed at their Wild Card comeback. We were lucky enough to go to one of the ALDS games against the Angels. And continued to cheer as the boys in blue swept the two best teams in baseball in the ALDS and ALCS. how was it possible that our Kanas City, small market, perpetual losing team was in the world series?

It was unreal. It had to be meant to be, right? The great second half record. The wild card comeback. The DS and CS sweeps. I bought in. Literally…spending a few thousand on standing room only tickets to game 7 of the World Series. I let the kids pick…they could go to the game or have Christmas. The girl chose Christmas. The boy wasn’t going to miss the game.

Of course, that story doesn’t have a happy ending…walking to the car was awful…we actually lost. The boy was crushed. I was down and wondered if there was perhaps a money back guarantee if I wasn’t completely satisfied. It hurt, but it just wasn’t our time.

But, holy crap did we have a lot of optimism going in to 2015. This year has been an absolute blast. I knew the Cubs were headed in the right direction, so I bought the MLB package. I watched pretty much every game the entire season. We’d flip back and forth between Cubs and Royals games when the kids were here.

As the year went on, Blake got more and more into it and learned all the Cubs players’ names. We’d watch the games together and talk about situations, strategies and what ifs. One of my favorite moments was hearing him talk on the phone to his buddy, reciting the exact Cubs' stats i had just told him about.

As the season progressed, the Cubs started singing “Go Cubs Go” (the cheesy victory song that plays over the Wrigley Field speakers after every home win) more often than not. And, like the Royals in 2014, the Cubs ended up with the best record in baseball after the all star break. The Cubs? Yeah…those Cubs. As a Cubs fan, you’re conditioned not to be optimistic, but it was hard to not be excited about that team.

I recorded jake arrieta’s no hitter so that blake could watch it. We watched Schwarber homer in his home state, after getting a call up just to DH the Cleveland Series. And kris Bryant have a rookie of the year season. Rizzo was great. Addy Russell shored up our middle infield defense. Montero, fowler, soler, couglan, castro…damn…what a great line up.

But, like the royals last year…did we have enough pitching? Jake arrieta seemed to guarantee that we’d win 2 games in every series with an ERA of 0.75 in the second half. The best second half in the history of MLB. The history. Of MLB. That is insane. Lester was supposed to be our ace, but no one has ever been better than jake was going in to the playoffs.

And he lived up to that in the wild card game, shutting out the Pirates. That game was so much fun. Blake and I were texting each other the whole time. Every big play. Every out for arrieta. I was a kid again. And I was so freaking excited to read how excited blake was text after text after text.

You see, I had hoped this would happen and had bought st louis cardinals nlds tickets when they went on sale in hopes that they might play the cubs. I told blake if the cubs went, we were driving to st louis. We did. And I can’t imagine a better trip.

In the car he was so excited. Rizzo jersey. Cubs flat hat. Baseball glove. Game 1 reminded us of game 7 of last year’s world series. Painful. The cubs couldn’t get anything going against John Lackey. We got to hear Cardinals fans cheer. A lot. But, there were a lot of fans who reached out and were really nice to both blake and me. And we thought, “you never know…the sun might come out tomorrow.”

And holy crap did it ever. We got there when the gates opened for game 2. We raced down to the rail of the first base line for cardinals bp and when we found out the cubs weren’t taking batting practice that day, we rushed over to the side where a few cubs players were warming up.

Blake wanted a souvenir ball and watched disappointedly during cardinals bp as kids close to us got balls. We were 2 of hundreds of Cubs fans watching just a handful of cubs throw. A nice lady had her boys scoot over, so that blake could get right on the railing, which proved to be key to one of the great moments i'll ever have with blake.

When Jason motte was done warming up, he turned to the crowd and looked for a kid to throw the ball to. I feverishly pointed at blake and sure enough…he lobbed one right to the boy. Good thing he had his mitt. I was in the exact same scenario a few years ago at Wrigley and Big Pappi’s lob to my waiting arms bounced awkwardly off my palm and back onto the field. Thankfully blake is more athletic than his dad.

Motte ended up coming over and signing some autographs. I brought a sharpie. Of course I did. And suddenly blake’s souvenir became a piece of MLB playoff memorabilia, signed by…well…a player that was injured and didn’t make the postseason roster. But, the smile on blake’s face proved it didn’t matter.

He was in heaven. So was i. I think a lot of that trip was this thing my therapist would call “reparenting”. I never got taken to a ball game by my dad. And I guess that hurt. So to be able to experience that with my boy was like getting to live vicariously through him. and it’s funny, because as I’ve been writing this I’ve felt like a little kid…not my best writing, but I just can’t wait to jot down the next sentence, because it was all so freaking fun.

Game 2 was beautiful. The Cubs won. the boy and i were jumping up and down and high fiving with every big play. and it seemed like everywhere you turned there were Cubs fans. we were loud, taking over busch stadium. it was great to be a part of.

That trip meant a lot. And the Cubs kept it rolling, beating the mighty Cardinals. Hmm…look at that…the royals beat the best two teams in baseball in last year’s playoffs (I’m assuming George brett had that right in a post-game interview…I’m not going to fact check). And the cubs beat the best two teams (the 100 win cardinals and the 98 win pirates) in this year’s playoffs. And, like the Royals last year, the Cubs had the best record in MLB after the all-star break.

So you’re telling me there’s a chance? It wasn’t meant to be for the royals last year, but I think they did okay in 2015. It wasn’t meant to be for the cubs this season, but I really like our chances next year.

I got too excited and forgot to mention that I took the kids to the Royals ALCS game 1 against the blue jays. The atmosphere was incredible. More memories.

And more bad memories from the cubs. They just completely, inexplicably fell apart during the NLCS against the mets, a team we had beaten all 7 times we played them during the regular season. The mets were 2 games over .500 on july 31^st. How in the hell did we not win a game in the NLCS? It makes no sense. Unless you take into account that Jake arrieta gave up more than three quarters of one run. and that our defense was horrible. And yeah, we may have swung a lot, but we also missed a lot.

Just couldn’t catch a break. And of course…Daniel murphy. Umm…who? Kid was out of his mind in the playoffs, after hitting 14 homers in 130 games all season, he somehow hit half that many in 9 NL playoff games. Impossible. Not if you believe in the cubs curse. Not meant to be. Not our year.

2015 will be forever known as the year of the royal. And royals fans have the cubs to thank, in part, for that. We knocked out the best team in baseball…the cards…the second best team…the pirates…and the third best team…ourselves, by self-destructing against the mets. The result was the royals getting to play the NL playoff team with the worst record. You’re welcome. all 3 NL central playoff teams had a better record than the royals, who had the best AL record.

As it was unfolding, I was rooting for a cubs royals world series, but that would have been painful for someone. I can’t imagine what it would have felt like to have the whole town going nuts after beating my beloved cubs in their first world series in 70 years. and it would have been awkward if the cubs beat the royals to be around so many heartbroken royals fans.

So, I’d say it worked out just about perfect. The parade and rally for the royals at union station was great to be a part of, even though we left early. The kids can say they attended a world series victory celebration with 800,000 people…and as Jimmy Fallon said, “I didn’t even know there were that many people in Kansas City”. And if KC can turn out those numbers after a 30 year playoff drought, imagine how nuts Chicago will be when we finally win it all after 107+ years.

And it’s cool, because the kids have perspective on that now…seeing it unfold in Kansas City. They will appreciate it all the more when I’m crying my eyes out when the Cubs get to celebrate the way the royals did this year. The kids will always remember the year that we went to playoff games for the lowly royals and the even lower cubs. How is it possible we both made it to the league championship series in the same year? And the royals won the freaking world series. Like, the whole thing.

Both teams have so much to look forward to for next year. It wasn’t meant to be for the cubs this year…just like it hasn’t been for all of my 43 years. but, the royals showed us how to come into spring training to finish what they started the previous year. And the cubs have such a great, young group. Usually I write when my head is fucked and I get unfucked, but with this one…I do believe I just wrote myself crazy, because, based on the royals example, it actually makes sense that the cubs could end next year where the royals ended this year. Let’s Go Royals. And Go Cubs Go!