2015 ROYALS—What We’ve Learned So Far

We’re now into September in my seemingly Never-Ending Story about the 2015 Kansas City Royals and it seems like a good time to talk about what we’ve learned so far and what I’ve learned so far is a lot of people don’t like getting emails about yet another baseball post.

I’ve been steadily losing readers since I started this project. (We’ll put that unfortunate development to one side for the moment and return to it later.)

At the very beginning of this online-book project I said I wanted to write something like 7 Seconds or Less, Jack McCallum’s book about the Phoenix Suns. Now I realize why I like that book so much; the Suns made McCallum a “coach” (sort of), gave him almost total access and that meant the book was written from the “inside.”

Which meant McCallum could talk about personalities and relationships and how decisions were made.

Sports books written from the “outside”—by people who come along later—tend to focus on scores, standings and statistics: things you can look up on the internet, because if the author wasn’t actually there, he or she can’t tell you who said what or why they did A. instead of B. or who was stepping up and making a team better or being selfish and making a team worse.

Story-wise we’ve reached the last month of the regular season and so far I’ve barely mentioned scores or standings or what other teams were doing because I’m focusing on games that told us something about the 2015 Royals, their personalities and how important moments brought the team together.

Professional sports require athletes to be selfish: they have to put up the numbers that will get them paid and keep them on the team. But occasionally—and the 2015 Royals are an example—events will bond a group of players and they’ll start to believe that the team is more important than they are.

Also…

In 10 short years, the internet has made athletes (and people in general) much more generic: regional accents are disappearing, nation-wide trends are followed, celebrities are much more aware that everyone has a camera and any late-night hijinks have a decent chance of showing up on social media.

Better to give the media some cliché quotes and go home to play video games. Compare that to Eric Hosmer telling Royals fans to meet the team at a downtown bar and then picking up the tab. (Hosmer told me he got credit for paying for the crowd’s drinks, but his teammates chipped in.)

Back then, fans would often describe the team as “our boys.”

I follow the 2025 Kansas City Royals, but other than their statistics, couldn’t tell you all that much about them. But when I (and probably you) think of the 2015 Kansas City Royals, I think of distinct personalities.

For instance:

In 2015 Yordano Ventura seemed like a very talented kid who couldn’t control his emotions, but looking back, his outbursts brought the Royals together. In retrospect it looks a lot like having a Little Brother who keeps getting into arguments and starting bar fights and your Little Brother might be acting like a jerk, but he’s your Little Brother and you’re going to defend him.

Four years after a lecture from Jason Kendall on appropriate rookie behavior, Eric Hosmer has become the team leader. He’s the guy articulate enough to deal with the media without putting both feet in his mouth and—when necessary—Hosmer’s respected enough to tell Yordano to cool it.

Mike Moustakas was humbled by hitting .212 in 2014, but reacted in the right way and made himself a more complete player. Right after hitting a home run, if it helps the team, Moose is willing to bunt.

Alex Gordon still doesn’t talk much, but has become the ultimate lead-by-example guy.

The team’s Energizer Bunny – Jarrod Dyson – never stops talking and brings energy to the clubhouse, dugout and field.

Along with Dyson and Gordon (Alex Rios was the exception) Lorenzo Cain shows he’s not afraid go get a ball, even if he has to crash into a scoreboard to get it. The Royals outfielders are not intimidated by the size of Kauffmann Stadium and play that huge expanse better than the visiting outfielders.

People who weren’t on the team and had never played baseball criticized Kelvin Herrera for throwing a pitch behind Brett Lawrie, but his teammates appreciated him sending a message. As one player (OK, it was Moose) said if the other teams want to keep throwing at batters, our guy throws 100.

While Herrera and Greg Holland are no day at the beach, in the summer of 2015 the most intimidating pitcher in baseball might be Wade Davis.

Chris Young—team intellectual and a spring training add-on—is stepping up Big Time and becoming one of the Royals most dependable pitchers.

Dale Sveum’s unorthodox approach to hitting (come out swinging and smoke the first hittable pitch you see) is driving opposing pitchers crazy; they want strikeouts, but if you can’t get two strikes on hitters, it’s hard to get a punchout.

And when a hitter reaches first base, Rusty Kuntz is going to have them steal second base ASAP.

Over at third base, Mike Jirschele isn’t afraid to roll the dice when he likes the odds in front of him.

While Ned Yost is not considered a great in-game manager, he’s created an atmosphere that allows coaches and players to make decisions on their own, which will turn out to be a Huge Deal in the World Series.

And finally…

Dayton Moore zigged when everyone else in baseball zagged. He’s the guy who recognized that if you can’t afford Big Ticket starting pitchers, how about building a killer bullpen? And while other teams are going after the Moneyball guys (players who pile up walks and home runs, but play horseshit defense) how about we go after athletes? Guys who can cover ground and steal bases and make contact and force those horseshit defenders to make plays?

The 2015 Royals are developing a style of play that takes advantage of the weaknesses of other teams and we’re going to see how that style of play wins them a World Series…

If I ever finish this project.

And Now A Word About That

Judging the Royals was baseball from a player’s (and coach’s) point of view and some people loved it because there wasn’t anything else like it, but in the end there just weren’t enough of you.

In 2016—the year after the World Series championship—I had more readers than ever, but in 2017 a whole bunch of those “Forever Royal” fans jumped off the bandwagon and when the Kansas City Star saw the readership numbers go down, they pulled the plug.

(Patience might be a virtue, but she’s not a newspaper editor.)

When the 10-year anniversary of their World Series Championship rolled around and the team started bringing back some of your favorite Royals I thought why not post the book I wanted to write online? It was already about 75% finished and originally I thought I’d post the first month’s worth of baseball stories and see how that went and if it didn’t go over big, pull the plug on the project.

Now I realize (and isn’t that always the case) my plan was a bad one because it’s like starting a campfire story and then saying I changed my mind and I’m not going to tell you what happens to that guy with the hook.

Now not finishing the story seems like a dick move.

So I’m losing readers by continuing the project and will piss off the rest of you if I don’t, because while it’s definitely not all of you, there are still a lot of you looking at these baseball posts.

So yeah, I am going to finish the project.

But it’s costing me readers and if you enjoy the series and aren’t a paying subscriber I’d appreciate you considering becoming one for the princely sum of $5 a month. (You can always quit after the series is over; if I was only interested in the baseball stuff, that’s what I’d do. )

Either way I’m going to finish this thing and you’ll get to hear a lot more about what was going on behind the scenes and the strategy that the Royals used to beat the Mets.

OK, that’s it, guilt trip’s over, but that’s what’s happening here in Blog Land and next we’re going to figure out what the heck was up with Johnny Cueto, how you play in a blowout and why people stopped talking about Billy Butler.

The story continues.