Thursday, November 13, 2014

Royals Blue October


This is a few weeks overdue, but I need to write a tribute to this years KC Royals team.

While I enjoy sports, I'm not a huge sports person. We usually go to a game or two per season; in a year we'll hit up baseball, and maybe college basketball. I'd like to go to an NFL game (Lambeau Field is on my life list), and for a few years we've tossed around attending a major league soccer game, but have never acted. While I enjoy the camaraderie of sporting events, the prices are generally too high (I'm looking at you Chicago Cubs), and we haven't lived in a city with many winning sports teams, with Jayhawk basketball being an exception.

Having said all that, I love going to Royals games. The cost is low- generally $15 a ticket for the seats we get, they have good Boulevard Beer, and there are decent food options like veggie hot dogs. The K is a great place to watch a game, and it's close to our house. We went to one game this year, back in August, and really enjoyed ourselves.

Then came October. And that wild card game. And all the rest.

It was so amazing to see Kansas City come alive with joy as the Royals marched towards the World Series. T-shirt vendors popped up on street corners. Cars had blue flags flying from the windows. Our neighborhood had fireworks going off at the end of every game, and people just seemed to be happier. Little dude's Japanese school took a group photo and sent it to Aoki, the Japanese player on the team. Everyone wore blue for weeks. The games we watched at the local bars were filled with smiles and high fives. We watched most of the playoff games- I even watched some while on a work trip to Texas. Although we didn't win the Series, it was still really fun to see KC light up, to see friends post pictures from playoff games, and to see all the fountains and buildings drenched in blue. While I know that many of the players will be off to new places next year, I still look forward to going to the first game of the season, and to seeing how we do next year. It was a great October.

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