my 2011 mlb picks: a lost soul rediscovers his faith

I remember March 2004 perhaps way too well.

Partly because of my unfortunate “night of incarceration” that happened during WrestleMania XX. Partly because of the Good Friday excursion to everyone’s favorite “steak house” that resulted in our buddy Pickell’s (at the time) wife and her (apparently very friendly) female companion putting on a show that shamed the “waitresses” on stage.

And partly due to what I still think is Bill Self’s best coaching job ever, somehow getting the 2003-2004 Jayhawks into the Elite 8, a game KU led for exactly 0:00 seconds, somehow taking the Jarrett Jack and Chris Bosh led Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to overtime before falling in defeat. (And as a side note: there ain’t much worse in life than walking out of the whatever the hell it’s called Dome in St. Louis in a freaking monsoon, knowing your car is fifteen blocks away, after your team whizzes away a Final Four berth. That drive home was awful).

But mostly, I remember March 2004 for what at the time, was viewed as a total positive.

Me and the ex-roommate, Gregg, bought full season tickets for what promised to be THE most exciting, intriguing, best season of Royals baseball since 1994.

The 2003 Royals somehow, some way, improbably contended into mid-September. Between myself and my various collection of friends, I found my way into a seat at the K nearly every game that year from mid-June on. Rather than pay box office or scalper prices, it only made sense to jump on the bandwagon, to say “hell yes I believe in this team”, and give them $800 up front for the privilege of watching the Boyz N Blue play ball.

I remember going to the Fed Ex plant there on 99th and Lackman, to pick up our ticket books. I remember the anticipation, the awe, the “hey, you realize we might be buying playoff tickets six months from now!” optimism on the car ride home from said Fed Ex plant.

And to be fair, the 2004 Royals didn’t disappoint at first. Opening Day was in many ways the high point of the season. A beautiful sunny Monday afternoon in early April. It was a great weather day (loosely defined in Stevo-terminology as “sunny and warm enough to ditch the shirt early”). I remember walking in at about 3pm to take my seat, on the front row of the upper deck, section 336, row 1, seat 2, remember high-fiving the roommate, and thinking:

“This is gonna be amazing”.

For one day … it was. The Royals trailed by four runs entering the bottom of the ninth. It was 7-3 White Sox. And then, amazing happened:

Down 7-3, the Royals somehow loaded the bases … with light-weight, little-hitting shortstop Mendy Lopez coming up. I turned to “The Voice of Reason” and dropped this instant classic:

“If he goes yard, I’ve got dinner at Morton’s”.

Second pitch, bam! Over the fence. Mendy effing Lopez has just tied this game! I turn back to “The Voice of Reason” and was like “uuh yeah, that was a joke”. We compromised and settled for running up my credit card at Famous Dave’s a couple hours later.

And then, on the heels of that, a two run blast from Carlos “Tito” Beltran to win the game 9-7! I mean, how do I phrase this? This is the freaking Royals! We NEVER pull this off!

The Royals opened 4-2 in that first week. I know this because (a) I went to all six games, (b) the first Royals game DJ and I ever went to was that Thursday day game (and that’s a recap story in and of itself), and (c) the “Voice of Reason” was constantly updating me from his location in Augusta, watching both his and my favorite golfer finally, somehow, some way, break through and win a freaking major, Mickelson winning the Masters.

Over the next month or so, still went to every game, even as the Royals started to tank. I remember a game in late April on a Sunday against the Twins, when DJ and “Deadbeat Ex Roomie” scored the company four pack, so Gregg and I ditched our tickets and opted for club level. The Royals lost 4-3. I remember a few somewhat disasterous mid-May games. And then …

There was the Friday before Memorial Day. When “The Messiah”, as I nicknamed him, made his major league debut. Zack Greinke, against the Twins again, on a lovely Friday night in late May. The Royals won 2-1. Greinke gave up 1 run in 8 innings. I distinctly remember turning to Jasson, who used Gregg’s ticket, and saying “this kid is gonna be something really special”. Every once in a while, I’m right.

The next memorable moment? A couple weeks later, against the Cardinals. It was a Saturday night … and the Royals somehow kept coming back. It was the first time my scorebook had to employ a second sheet (it went up to 12 innings per sheet). Royals lost it in the 13th, and lost Sunday’s game as well.

Then the next week, a gorgeous Sunday afternoon with perfect Steve weather (aka sunny and ridiculously hot). My favorite pitcher, Tom Glavine, squaring off against The Messiah. To say I was happier than a guy getting lucky for the first time is a grouse understatement. I don’t know to this day that I’ve ever looked forward to a baseball game more than that one. And it didn’t disappoint – both Glavine and Greinke looked good, as the Mets won 5-2 via a couple runs off yet another epically awful Royals bullpen.

The last memory of that season? A Saturday day game against the Twins right after the All Star break. Gregg had given up on going at that point. I remember Phil used his ticket, and … well, let’s just say between Phil, Jon, myself, and whoever else was there, so much alcohol was consumed that we had to sleep it off before anyone could even think of attempting to drive home.

And that … was the last time I went to a Royals game that season.

A few years after that, I stopped going to Opening Day.

By 2009, my Sunday religious event stopped occurring. (More on this in two paragraphs).

Last year, I went to four games – Brett’s birthday tailgate, Memorial Day because the ex bribed me into it; a Sunday day game with DJ, Kellie and Katie, and the 350,001st ouncer. I left a fifth one (for Anthony's birthday) before first pitch because it looked like it might rain. That’s it. From diehard to dead.

Let me explain.

NOBODY loved the Royals and baseball itself, more than me growing up, and well into my 20s. I remember me, my brother, my dad, and our buddies Ryan and Trent heading out there every Sunday. Even through 2002, 2003, I’d still manage to find someone to go to every Sunday game with between Gregg, Jasson, James, my brother, Chris or Sam. It was tradition. A Sunday morning tailgate followed by a day of baseball was to me, what going to Mass on a Sunday is for religious folks. You don’t question it, you don’t ask why you’re doing it, you just know its what you’re supposed to do on a Sunday morning.

I mention this, because for many people my age and older who used to be huge baseball fans and now have gravitated to other sports or interests, they’ll tell you it was the 1994 strike that ended the love of the game for them. Not only did the strike not ruin my interest (because the players had no choice – the owners were cheating the rules to implement a salary cap, something even the federal judiciary called and fined them over), but if anything the 1995 season resparked my interest in the game, because the Royals were in it until mid-September (they actually led the wild card standings as late as September 17th), and the place I was then residing had a team in the thick of the AL West race, the Texas Rangers (who’d win it 3 of the 4 years I lived in the Metroplex). In no other sport is a race for a championship as much fun as it is in baseball, because literally every day the stakes change. Every day a new theme emerges, a new front-runner emerges. A pennant race rules, as we as a city rediscovered in 2003.

No, it wasn’t the strike, or growing older, or the changes of life that killed my love of the game. It was the utter ineptitude of the Royals organization, and specifically that 2004 season, when they took me in for the sucker I am, and played me like a government mule.

(It also didn't help that my fallback Sunday "worshipper, my buddy James, passed away in August 2004. Sunday at that place hasn't been the same since).

Go back four paragraphs. The Sunday tailgate and ballgame WAS to me. It’s a past tense sentence. Times change. People change. But one thing that hasn’t changed, that up until now has seemingly refused to change, is that Royals fans had no reason to hope for anything good. If we were lucky, we might get off to a good start that could hold up through June (like in 2009) before the roof collapsed, and we reverted back to the 95 loss team the Royals have been for seemingly forever.

(The 2003 Royals are the only Royals team since the strike to post a winning record. The next closest team? The 1995 team, which finished 70-74 and was in absolute free-fall the last three weeks of the season, just like the 2003 team was. No other Royals team has finished closer than 12 games under .500 other than those two, since the strike).

Losing takes its toll on anyone. Every Chiefs fan is nodding and shaking their head right now. Part of what made 2010 so great, is not that the team came from nowhere, stunned the world, and won the AFC West and hosted only our second playoff home game in the last 13 years. (And played only our third playoff game in that stretch).

No, what made that season so awesome for me, was that I sat through every second of the previous three years to get to this point. The 2010 Chiefs won as many games as the 2007, 2008, and 2009 Chiefs combined – ten. As I said many times during the season – I don’t want to come off as elitist, or one of those people who says you have to have season tickets to be a diehard fan, because I am anything but an elitist, and I know many a diehard fan that has, at one point or another, refused to financially support the team they live and die with, because of the grouse incompetence of the front office. Many people in my tailgate group reached that point after 2008. A “prove it to us” mentality. Which is exactly what my mentality with the Royals was, post 2004 through today. You prove to me there’s a reason to hope, there’s a reason to believe this team can actually raise another flag in the outfield plaza, and maybe I’ll consider coming back.

(Let’s see which savvy reader … ok, let’s see if any reader out there isn’t baked or buzzed right now. Reread that previous paragraph, and the sentence to focus on will stand out. It’s ok, take your time. I need another beer anyways).

Did you catch it? One word, that’s what you’re looking for, just one word that redefines where I’m going with this lengthy baseball predictions post that has yet to have a single prediction after nearly 3 ½ pages in Word and counting.

OK, I’ll clue in the clueless. One reason I love writing so much is that words have meaning. In this case, a simple three letter word, was. It WAS my attitude post 2004 through today.

Because now? We as Royals fans have reason to hope. We have reason to be optimistic. Maybe not for 2011. I’m still not going to Opening Day, I still have no intentions of stepping foot in that stadium until it is a perfect Steve day. But once that day hits, preferably on a Sunday, I'll be there with my "book of religious instruction" in hand, ready to sit on the front pew and pay rapt attention to what the "minister" is selling.

Because just like a lapsed person of faith who rediscovers his God and begins attending Mass every Sunday after years of avoiding a place of worship … I’m ready to come back. Partly because, let’s face it, there ain’t a lot of things in life more hysterical than watching me stare in utter shock, horror, and disbelief as somehow, someway, Dusty has kicked my ass at washers again. I don’t know how he does it. We went to a game in 2007, a late August day game, and I led 14-2. I lost 16-14 when he hit 3 straight 3 pointers, then hit a 4th to tie it coming back the other way. I’m not kidding – I nearly broke my foot kicking stuff.

But mostly because, Sunday at a Royals game is my blanket, it’s my Sunday tradition. After a few years off the wagon, it’s time to get back on. Because the talent on its way, arriving starting in early to mid June in all likelihood, is amongst the best not only in franchise history, but in the history of the sport. If even 25% of these kids make it, and you have to figure the actual percentage that will carve out more than a cup-of-coffee stay at the major league level is better than 1 out of 4, if even 25% of these prospects pan out, holy God what a powerhouse we’re building.

For the first time since the opening weeks of that 2004 season, Royals fans have reason to hope. There’s a brighter future on the horizon. Sure, we might have to suffer through a rough couple opening months before the talent starts to arrive, but once it starts arriving, things are about to get really fun out there, I think.

Having said that, here are my 2011 season predictions, and as someone about to rediscover my “faith”, I am anxiously anticipating that first Sunday morning tailgate that I trust you all will be arriving to “worship” at when the times comes.

NL East:
1. Phillies
2. Braves
3. Marlins
4. Nationals
5. Mets

NL Central:
1. Brewers
2. Reds
3. Cubs
4. Cardinals
5. Astros
6. Pirates

NL West:
1. Rockies
2. Giants
3. Padres
4. Dodgers
5. Diamondbacks

Playoff Teams: Phillies, Brewers, Rockies, Giants (wild card)

AL East:
1. Red Sox
2. Yankees
3. Blue Jays
4. Rays
5. Orioles

AL Central:
1. Twins
2. White Sox
3. Tigers
4. Royals
5. Indians

AL West:
1. A’s
2. Rangers
3. Angels
4. Mariners

Playoff Teams: Red Sox, Twins, A’s, Yankees (wild card)

Divisional Round Playoffs:
Phillies over Giants, Brewers over Rockies
Red Sox over A’s, Twins over Yankees

Championship Round Playoffs:
Phillies over Brewers, Twins over Red Sox

World Series: Phillies over Twins.

World Champions: Philadelphia Phillies.