Kansas City Flashback

On Monday, August 11, the Kansas City Royals took sole possession of first place in the American League Central Division, riding an eight-game win streak.

That winning streak came to an end on Tuesday, when Jon Lester and the Oakland A's beat the Royals 11-3. But Kansas City remained on top of the division thanks to a Detroit Tiger loss. Going into tonight's games, the Royals have a 1/2 game lead over the Tigers. 

Even when we visited Kansas City on July 25, the Royals faithful was full of excitement, believing their team has what it takes to make a run in the postseason. And now, with the newly appointed title of "division leader", Kansas City fans are as boisterous as ever.

If the season were to end today, the Royals would be in the playoffs as a division winner, avoiding the dreadful one-game playoff series. While there is plenty of season remaining (around 40 games left for most teams), there's a reason K.C. is so excited at the thought of having a playoff team — it would be the first Royals team to compete in the postseason since they won the World Series in 1985.

Yep. 1985. That's 29 years of playoff-less baseball in the City of Fountains.

There's a lot of buzz about this Royals team, which went on a 10-game win streak earlier this year. Kansas City boasts a top-10 bullpen (3.28 ERA) and its starting pitching has been a force as of late (3.59 ERA).

Time will tell if the Royals can avoid an end-of-the-year letdown and secure their spot in the postseason for the first time since 1985. Just for fun, here's a look back at that year, when K.C. was baseball royalty.

• U.S. President — Ronald Reagan. Vice President — George Bush.
   
• Most popular TV shows — 1. The Cosby Show; 2, Family Ties; 3. Murder, She Wrote; 4. 60 Minutes; 5. Cheers.
   
• Notable Billboard No. 1 Songs — Madonna, Like a Virgin; Foreigner, I Want to Know What Love Is; REO Speedwagon, Can't Fight This Feeling; Tears For Fears, Shout; John Parr, St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion); Jan Hammer, Miami Vice Theme; Starship, We Built This City
   
• Record of the Year — What's Love Got to Do With It, Tina Turner
   
• Box Office Hits — 1. Back to The Future; 2. Rambo: First Blood Part II; 3. Rocky IV; 4. The Color Purple; 5. Out of Africa.
   
• In 1985, David Letterman's first Top Ten list appeared. It was, "Top 10 Words that almost rhyme with 'Peas.' " In order of 10-1: Heats, Rice, Moss, Ties, Needs, Lens, Ice, Nurse, Leaks, Meats.
   
• Sports winners — Super Bowl XIX, San Francisco 49ers; NBA, Los Angeles Lakers; Stanley Cup, Edmonton Oilers; NCAA football, Oklahoma; NCAA basketball, Villanova
   
• Cost of a Super Bowl Ad — $525,000 (It was about 4 million bucks for a 30 second ad in this year's Super Bowl XLVIII).

As we said, there's still a long way to go, but if the Royals can keep their winning ways, K.C. will be ready to party like it's 1985. Who knows, we may have to make another trip down there for some postseason fun.

Trade Deadline: Alive and Running

It has been a busy last few days for Major League execs and MLB beat writers. The trad deadline has passed us, and boy what a last 12 hours it has been.

Playoff teams have been looking for that final piece to the puzzle, while those teams that are out of contention are already looking ahead to the future by making (most of the time) necessary financial moves.

The final day of trading kicked off with a big bang. The Boston Red Sox traded starting pitcher Jon Lester and outfielder Jonny Gomes to Oakland for slugger Yoenis Cespedes. Beantown gets the back-to-back Home Run Derby champ, who will square off with the Green Monster every home at bat, while Oakland pieces together one of the most lethal rotations in the league (Lester, Sonny Gray, Scott Kazmir, Jeff Samardzija, Jason Hammel).

Not to be outdone, the Detroit Tigers traded for, what many claim was the biggest name rumored, Cy Young winner David Price in a three-team deal with the Tampa Bay Rays and the Seattle Mariners. Tampa Bay got Drew Smyly, Nick Franklin and prospect Willy Adames, while Seattle will receive center fielder Austin Jackson — who was actually pulled in the seventh inning of the game when the trade was made.

Kauffman Stadium: Ballpark of Royalty

Kansas City Royals 6, Cleveland Indians 4 Ben's pregame pick: Royals Pick record 1-2 Nick's pregame pick: Royals Pick record: 2-1

Date: July 25, 2014 Designated hitters: Eric, Josh, Riley, and Tyler Overall trip rating: 8.4 Trip theme: "Suite Life"

Pregame

The trip to Kansas City for the Royals game was a little different than the others have been. The adventure to Kauffman Stadium originated as a bachelor party that we both were a part of. The travel wasn't terrible as we decided to make the drive there ourselves.

After an overnight stop (with some great food and a small-town bar scene) to cut down on the trip, we bumped our hip hop music (the groom's genre of preference) all the way to K.C.

Our first stop was at the hotel, Harrah's North Kansas City. We still had not had anything to eat, and check in wasn't for another couple of hours, so we went to the casino buffet for some lunch. We had our choice of just about any style we wanted — Chinese, pizza, barbeque, pasta, salad, tacos, and of course, dessert. We also started the bachelor party with a round of beers to go with our seemingly infinite food selection.

Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs

Atlanta Braves 11, Chicago Cubs 6 Ben's pregame pick: Cubs Pick record 0-2 Nick's pregame pick: Braves Pick record: 1-1

Date: July 12, 2014 Home team record: 1-1 Overall trip rating: 8.3 Tour firsts: Player multi-HR game; reviewed play; overturned play; pitcher HR

Pregame

The second stop on our tour of all 30 MLB stadiums was Wrigley Field to see the Chicago Cubs host the Atlanta Braves. Our journey started on Thursday's red-eye trip of the Megabus — an adventure we vowed to never embark on again. Sleep was at a minimum, as was comfort. It didn't help that the bus was sold out, crunching everyone together, which only made the excursion last longer.

To add salt to our unpleasant wounds, Nick realized he had left his debit card and extra cash back at home. Needless to say, it was a good start to the trip.

The one good thing about taking the night ride was that it put us in Chicago in the morning with plenty of time to experience the city. The bad thing, was we were running on fumes. *Cue Five Hour Energy stop*

 We started our time in Chicago with breakfast with Laura and Tyson at the West Egg Cafe. To say the least, we had mixed reviews on the restaurant. One thing we both thought it was missing was an order of mimosas.

After breakfast, it was decided that a short cat-nap was needed in order to enjoy the rest of the day. Instead, the nap turned into a three-hour sleep. Thanks Megabus.

Coors Field: Home of the Rockies

Colorado Rockies 8, Los Angeles Dodgers 7 Ben's pregame pick: Dodgers Pick record 0-1 Nick's pregame pick: Dodgers Pick record: 0-1

Date: July 5, 2014 Designated hitter: Ashley Overall trip rating: 7.1 Injuries occurred: 1

 

Pregame 

 

Our first destination on this extravagant tour took us to Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. We took the Amtrak train to Denver. After some Fourth of July festivities, we made our way to the train station. The train itself was about an hour late, which we expected.

We arrived in Denver a little after 9:30 a.m. to find Union Station under construction. With just one taxi cab, which was reserved, in sight, we walked around until we found one. The weather was great, so it wasn't a terrible task, but we finally found a taxi and set ourselves up for a solid power nap before we head downtown.

As the first step in our journey, we knew there were going to be lessons we learned that would enhance our future adventures. Lesson No. 1: Make sure you know what time the game starts.

It was tough for us to get a lot of sleep on the train, so we made a plan to sleep until noon or 1 p.m., get some lunch, check out the downtown area and hit up some bars until 6 p.m. — which would have given us plenty of time to check out the stadium before our 7 o'clock game.

But the game didn't start at 7 p.m.; it started at 2:10 p.m. Thankfully, our special guest on this trip, Ashley, corrected our mistake and reminded us that we have to pay a little more attention to the details.

After a rushed shower, we tried calling for a cab. No luck. Evidently every taxi in Denver was busy. We finally had one company say they were going to rush one to our location. Seemingly a half hour later, we were on our way to Coors Field.