{"id":6736,"date":"2015-10-27T19:41:34","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T00:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/?p=6736"},"modified":"2025-07-29T16:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T21:13:09","slug":"what-is-it-about-this-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/blog\/what-is-it-about-this-game\/","title":{"rendered":"What is it about this game"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kansas\u2026 that compels people to reflect and grants epiphanies like a fairy godmother?<\/p>\n

Thirty years ago, I was at the KC Royals parade after they won the World Series. You know, George Brett. Bret Saberhagen. Those guys.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t care about baseball much before or after that, not that I was ever anything but a fan-in-name-only because I didn\u2019t understand the game. A childhood watching Little League and trying to figure out radio announcers\u2019 jargon tends to blunt one\u2019s enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

And then there was college and life and the strikes and the juicing and the Congressional hearings and who wants to get into baseball when they threw a big temper tantrum for a game that\u2019s all fake anyway? You want more money for your steroid injections? Fuck you.<\/p>\n

Somewhere in the last decade I was vaguely aware it had cleaned itself up. Or, at least, I knew everybody was playing and that the Royals were a losing team. All. The. Time.<\/p>\n

Last night, I was talking to Dude, who taught me more about baseball during the ALCS last year than I have ever known or suspected could be. I wasn\u2019t interested<\/em> in learning anything about it until the Royals won the ALCS last year.<\/p>\n

This year \u2026 Well.<\/p>\n

As the season has gone by and I saw them winning, I could start to see why<\/em> they were winning. Little things. Doing what they did in 1985. The correlation of strategy is spooky. Being nice guys (the Royals recruit for nice guys, you know; not one bad boy amongst \u2019em). Good to their women, good to their kids, nice to their fans.<\/p>\n

But not pushovers. The Royals started the season being the Bad Boys of Baseball. Why? Because everybody else came into the season with a hateboner for them, and they will<\/em> clear a bench as fast as George Brett and pine tar.<\/p>\n

So everybody settled down and played ball. They don\u2019t depend on home runs. They take every possibly viable opportunity no matter the consequences. They shoot through<\/em> the target, not at<\/em> it. \u201cHacking\u201d at the ball. Stealing bases. Having lots of good pitchers. Hitting the wall, even if it tears your ACL. Baby steps. Or, as I found out last night, \u201cPlaying the game 90 feet at a time.\u201d They have fun<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As I watched, listened, and read, the Royals managed to give me something I\u2019ve been needing my whole life.<\/p>\n