The Only Two Numbers That Matter:
Royals Magic Number for a Playoff Berth: 7.
Royals Magic Number for a Division Title: 10.
Standings As I Post:
Detroit +2 over Royals for Division.
A's +1 over Royals for Wildcard.
Royals +1 over Mariners for Wildcard
Royals +1 1/2 over Indians for Wildcard.
Scores As I Post:
White Sox 2, Tigers 0, End 8th.
Blue Jays 14, Mariners 2, Bottom 7th.
Royals 2, Indians 0, End 7th.
Angels / A's yet to start.
--------------------
I
trust that everyone has sufficiently calmed down now. Exhale, Chiefs fans. Exhale.
Sunday's
34-15 victory over the mammals in South Beach should restore some faith in this
team for you. Because folks?
Things
don't look as bad as they did, a mere seventy two hours ago.
First
and foremost, the most important thing -- the Chiefs won. I had to laugh at the stat (mentioned earlier
last week) that only 9 out of 100 teams to open 0-2 (or worse) since the
revised schedule in 2002 made the playoffs.
First of all, the Chiefs are one of those nine (2006), and they were one
missed field goal from making that stat 10 out of 100 (2011). Secondly, does anyone actually think the 0-2
Colts are NOT going to win the AFC South?
That the 0-2 Saints are NOT going to be a factor in December, for either
the NFC South or a wildcard? I've never
understood 0-2 as the failsafe line.
I've long argued it's 0-3. Only
one team in NFL history has started worse than 0-3, and made the playoffs (1992
Chargers, who opened 0-4 and won the AFC West at 11-5).
Yes,
the Chiefs were 0-2. Now they're
1-2. So stop panicking. And I'd be saying that even at 0-3, because
there was a helluva lot of positive out there yesterday, and last week as well.
Secondly,
did anyone watch at least the highlights of some other games around the
league? The raiders damned near won in
Foxboro. They had the ball, down seven,
first and goal to go at the six yard line with a minute to play. (And actually did score, only for the play to
be negated due to offensive holding, and this being the raiders, the ensuing pass was
intercepted by a defensive lineman. God
love ya oakland. Please -- keep being
you!) That interception by Vince
Wilfolk? Was the only turnover the
Patriots forced yesterday. (Then again,
it's one more than the Chiefs have forced all season, so they've at least got
that going for them.)
The
49ers got tuned in that second half yesterday.
They got taken to the bedroom, and Drew Stanton gave them the business,
without even being decent enough to offer a towel or a cigarette to the 49ers
secondary when he was through with them.
They got outscored 17-0 after halftime.
The 49ers are sitting at 1-2, but would any fan of theirs feel
comfortable? They've got the undefeated
Eagles coming this week, a Chiefs team led by a quarterback who has had this
game circled for months the week after that, and then they've gotta hit the
road for two prime time games, at the Rams (Monday) and at the broncos
(Sunday). Good luck with that, guys.
Third,
it's week three. Entering week three
last year, every Chiefs fan (including this one) was convinced the Eagles were
going to roll us in "Fat" Andy's return to the Fake Vet. Exiting week three two years ago, the worst
(and most offensive) Chiefs team of my lifetime upset Drew Brees and the Saints
in the Dome, to temporarily revive some hope in the worst (and most offensive)
Chiefs season that year. You can't panic
after three games, let alone after two.
You have to get through a quarter of the season, before terror and fear
sets in. (Yet another reason why I think
0-3 should be the real failsafe line for a NFL season -- anyone who wants to
write off a season before its even twenty five percent played out, needs to
rethink their support of the team they root for.)
But
fourth, and this one's the most important?
And
I am asking this with all seriousness.
Does
anyone even give a sh*t at this point about the Chiefs, or the impending fun
that Monday night* is going to be?
--------------------
(*:
more on this below. Let's just say, not
even the (brett voice) "vivid imagination" I employ, could have
written a potential script, like this.)
--------------------
One
last NFL note -- the hapless 0-3 raiders travel to London this week, to face
the woeful mammals of Miami. (I have no
idea who is the home team, nor do I care.)
I raised this point to "The Voice of Reason" this morning --
has there ever been a week four NFL game, where BOTH head coaches were fired at
the postgame presser?
Both
teams have byes next week. Both coaches
are facing open revolt from their fanbases and their locker rooms. (SI.com has an article up today detailing
just how (whizzed) off the Dolphins defenders are with the coaching
staff.) Neither Joe "Regis"
Philbin nor "drunk" dennis allen is surviving more than ninety
minutes after week seventeen is completed.
How great would it be to have Jeff Ireland and reggie mckenzie spending
the fourth quarter debating which GM gets to throw their "we poop canned
the guy!" presser first?
And
even more to the point, how would they decide?
A friendly game of beer pong?
Shotgun a Coors Light? Use their
007-style slappers to make one dude submit? Play rock, paper, scissors? Flip a coin?
Ask a soccer hooligan to decide?
--------------------
I
watched the games yesterday at the Eagles club with some friends. There were maybe 15, 16 of us there. The first half against Miami? There were maybe four people paying attention
to the television the Chiefs were on, and that was only during commercials for
the other television airing a Kansas City based sports team.
Now
that we've survived the weekend, what'd you all think? Every pitch could potentially decide the
season. Every base running blunder gets
magnified twenty times*. Every failure
to properly catch a throw to the cut-off man gets fifty five "what was he
thinking" questions**. And every
time a hitter does something you never see coming -- for the good -- like Nori
Aoki's triple to put the Royals ahead for good yesterday, gets raucous,
ridiculously loud ovations that you pray will never stop. Admit it -- and I know this is tough for you;
believe me, it ain't easy for me either to accept -- but admit it: I was
right. And I've been right for twenty
years.
There
is NOTHING in sports as magical and amazing, as a pennant race your team is a
participant in.
--------------------
(*:
my take on Sal Perez's idiocy is the exact same as Rany's. Yes, the umps were wrong to review the play
(and yes, whatever dumbf*ck in operations that put the replay up on Saturday
should be fired on the spot). But yes,
getting the call right is what matters, which is why I'm not upset like I
should be. Besides, that play isn't why
Ned Yost should be standing in line at the unemployment office this
morning. His two bunts -- in the first
and third innings -- that resulted in three runners moved up, but zero runs
scored? That's the fireable offense.)
(**:
this one isn't on Ned either. My God
Moose. When even Rex Hudler is
questioning what the hell you were thinking?
Good grief. I might need to amend
Stevo Rule 34 to account for those moments in life, when even Rex Hudler is
questioning what the hell you were thinking.)
--------------------
Thirty
years. We have waited thirty long, rank
stank years for this week. We've waited
so long to get to the Promised Land, our ol' buddy Moses is getting worried
that the Royals will be wandering in irrelevanceville, longer than it took him
to lead the Jews across the desert. (We
are within ten years of tying the world's worst navigator at forty years.)
The
insanity, the crazy ass sprint to the finish, begins at 4pm CT today, with the
finish of last month's extra inning tilt (that the Indians lead 4-2), and then
seven final games. Assuming (and I know
assumption is the mother of all f*ck ups, but still, assuming) the Royals lose
that one, they'll sit one behind Oakland and one ahead of Seattle in the
wildcard race, and they'll sit two behind Detroit for the division.
In
other words kids, for the first time in thirty bleeping years, the Kansas City
Royals open the season's final week, not only in full and total control of
their playoff destiny ... but for the first time in thirty bleeping years, if
the playoffs started today?
We'd
be in.
--------------------
Monday's
key matchups for the Boyz N Blue:
*
White Sox at Tigers (6:10pm CT). This
one intrigues me. The pitching matchup
is not at all what you'd expect to see -- especially from a contending team --
with seven days to play. The Sox send
Chris Bassett (0-1, 5.29) to face Kyle Lobstein (1-0, 3.58). Bassett got knocked around at Kauffman last
week; Lobstein hasn't started a game in two weeks. Both are rookies.
*
Angels at A's (9:05pm CT). Jeff
Samardzija (4-5, 3.13) takes the mound for Kansas City's former team tonight,
to face off against the AL's best team, which will trot out CJ Wilson (13-9,
4.42) tonight. Some good news here --
Mr. Wilson is 5-0 with a 2.79 ERA in his last eight starts against the A's ...
and is 4-0 with a 2.56 ERA in the sh*ttiest sporting facility still in use
today in this great nation, the coliseum.
(Note: all stats pulled from ESPN.com pregame notes).
*
Mariners at Blue Jays (6:07pm CT). The
M's start James Paxson (6-3, 2.06 ERA), who's having about as fantastic a
rookie season as you can have. The Jays
toss out JA Happ (9-11, 4.35). I do not
like this matchup. (good ol' jr voice) I
don't like it a damned bit!
And
of course:
*
Royals at Indians (6:05pm CT). The Boyz
N Blue will throw Danny Duffy (8-11, 2.42) at the Indians, who
(ssssssshhhhhhh!!!!!!!) are still very, very much alive, especially for the
wild card. The Fighting Braves of the
Cuyahoga will send Carlos Carrasco (8-5, 2.65) in what is without question --
(allard baird voice) without question! -- the biggest game of the season for
them. Should be a fun one to watch.
And
by fun, I mean "get ready for a three hour emotional roller coaster ride
that'll have you chain smoking unfiltered GPC's by the time this baby's
over".
--------------------
OK,
here's where a week from today, could get really interesting. Here's how next Monday could be a day so
special in Kansas City that quite frankly, with all due apologies to Stevo's
Site Numero Dos' Official Color Commentator (Emeritus) Dan Dierdorf, we've
never seen it before.
Hell,
seven days from now could be so epic, that I have to do it. Only the greatest of potentially great
moments get this phrase, and this one folks, is a potentially great
moment. Ladies and gentlemen, peoples
and peepettes, freaks and geeks and tramps from the streets, the legendary, Mr.
Hugh M. Hefner. Hef?
(the
great mr. hugh m. hefner voice) This could be something ... REALLY special!
God
I love that man.
Here's
what I am talking about. And please note
up front, I am NOT rooting for this to happen.
I pray this doesn't happen, unless it is the only way the Royals could
potentially still be playing a week from tomorrow. But damn.
In the words of Blake Shelton, "it'd sure be cool if it did".
If
the Royals and A's are tied for the final wildcard spot (and that's a distinct
possibility), and if and only if there is not a three-way tie for the two
wildcard spots (meaning the first wildcard, which in this scenario would almost
have to be Seattle), if Seattle is in, and the Royals and A's are tied a game
or more behind the Mariners, then a one-game wildcard play-in game would have
to be held. Free baseball. Game 163.
And
that game would be played, on Monday, September 29th ... at Kauffman Stadium in
Kansas City.
And lest you think this is a bat sh*t crazy scenario,
wildcard play-in games have happened before.
Even with two wildcard slots open.
It just happened last year in fact, when the Rays beat the Rangers,
before facing the Indians in the true wildcard game.
I know the Chiefs played at noon at Arrowhead, the day of Game Seven against the Cardinals thirty years ago. (Would be lying if I remembered any of it.)
That? Was the biggest Double Header Day in both franchise's history.
But Monday would come damned close, if it happens.
--------------------
One final note: I aim to post at least something, every night, the rest of the way, of this season of a lifetime. I will probably -- like most things in life -- fail. But I am to try.
I just hope all of you, get how awesome, how amazing, how utterly incredible, these next seven days are going to be.
This is literally what we have waited our whole lives, to have.
Don't fail to enjoy the moment(s) to come.
Cry like there's no tomorrow.
And cheer like tomorrow, means everything ...
1 comment:
5/8
Post a Comment