To say that I am excited about tonight, is the understatement of the last twenty-nine years. I was excited about last Friday's Royals game. When Kansas City actually clinched, and then it finally confirmed what we had all prayed for for the last twenty-nine years. I was excited to see a Kansas City Royals dog-pile on the infield, a champagne celebration, Raul Ibanez being interviewed soaking wet, with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. Ibanez, a guy who played in Kansas City during the ugly, desolate years where, the only place you could watch the Royals game in Columbia, MO was on KNLJ 25, on Sunday afternoons. The same station Operated by Rev. Larry Rice, who also televised his nightly sermons using a Quasar VHS Camcorder, and dressed in the same pleasure suit, he had worn for the last...twenty...nine...years. I am more than excited, I am thrilled, I am stoked, I am...not that great of a writer, so I am pretty much out of adjectives to describe how I feel.
Another adjective would be, hopeful. I am hopeful about tonight match up. The A's and Royals really do match up well. But I think where it counts they are either identical or the needle tips toward Kansas City. I want to talk about hitting, and how if the Royals do focus on plate discipline, John Lester will tear them apart ( I know they don't strike out a lot, but they don't walk a lot either, and they need to see more pitches per at bat). I want to talk about defense, and how even though the Royals have faltered a bit in the last few weeks of the season, I still see them as being the best defensive team in the league. Pitching is an easy one, Lester and Shields are big game, big league pitchers. They both have post-season experience and they both have the kind of arsenal that will keep this a low scoring game. They will both most likely pitch deep into the game, which I believe will favor the Royals, because Herrera, Davis, and Holland. My prediction is that Sheilds and Lester will each pitch six innings, and The Royals will win 4-2. Scoring 2 on Lester, and 2 on the A's bullpen.
However, my mind and heart are elsewhere today. A little over a year and a half ago, I lost my dear friend, Bentley, to cancer. Bentley was paraplegic and had been since college. He was one of the smartest men I had ever known. He was a mentor who taught me many things. We shared a passion for Jesus Christ. Theology, music, and sports. Bentley was huge A's fan. Bentley was so into baseball stats and projections, he actually predicted the incredible 2002 twenty game winning streak in Oakland, even before Jonah Hill did. Just kidding, but he was a huge sabermetrics nut.
He was the first person to turn me on to Baseball Prospectus and what is no known as the standard for baseball blogs, "Rany on the Royals", and the wonderfully sickening world of baseball analytics. Every year, Bentley and I would make our way to Kansas City to see his beloved A's come into Kauffman, and have a "who sucks less" contest with the Royals. Bentley always bragged that because of his disability we always got great seats, and people always looked at us with sympathy and let us have the right away, both in concession lines and at the elevator. Going to the ball park with Bent, are some of my fondest adult memories at the ball park.
Bentley would have loved this game tonight. I hope heaven gets TBS. He would tell me, using all of the data, as his evidence why, objectively either team would win, and then talk about guts and grit and #want, if he was wrong. I have a feeling Bentley would have found a way to get us into this game tonight, and when the Royals win, and I believe they will, he would be just as happy for me, knowing he has already seen a championship, knowing he has seen the playoffs, and knowing my years of frustration and torment with my beloved Royals are over.
Truth be told, I would trade it all. I would trade the champagne celebration, the cigars in the clubhouse, the national recognition and respect, the nationally televised games, the Gordons, the Butlers, the Hosmers, The Shields', the playoffs; for just one more drive to and from Kansas City, one more game sitting in the handicap accessible seats, one more day with my friend Bentley. I would give it all, even if it meant, another twenty-nine-years.
