Kansas City Royals prove that a focused team can be a very powerful weapon

Christian Colon's game-winning hit in the 12th inning of the fifth game of the World Series showed how the Kansas City Royals are a team in the finest sense of the word.
Image courtesy of Fox Sports

A friend of mine told me the other day that watching sports playoffs is "the best kind of reality TV."
I agree. That's why I spent so much time last week watching the World Series,which ended Sunday night (Monday morning in New York) when the Kansas City Royals came from behind to beat the New York Mets 7-2, in the 12th inning.
I first started to pay some attention to the Royals when they won a wild card game to get into the playoffs last year, and went on to take the San Francisco Giants to a seventh game in the World Series, before losing it by leaving a tying run on third base.
This year, they easily won their division and proved to be merciless opponents in three playoff series against the Houston Astros, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Mets. The Blue Jays caught the attention of many Canadian fans this year, but as good as they were, they were no match for the Royals.
The Royals play a different kind of major league baseball. They don't depend on home runs - in fact, Royals batters didn't hit a single home run outside the park in the five-game World Series. Their only home run was by leadoff batter Alcides Escobar, who hit an inside the park home run in the Royals' very first at-bat in the first game.
That foreshadowed the whole series. The Royals won by doing the unconventional - hitting a lot of singles, stealing bases, running aggressively (and often playing mind games with pitchers while doing so), and often (very ogften) getting base hits or walks after being down in the count.

What I love about the Royals' approach is that their game is a total team effort. That's why it's the best kind of reality show. Baseball and most sports are team games, and the team ultimately makes it happen. I saw that over and over when my son was playing soccer. It wasn't having the best player that won the game or a championship - it was having the best team.
The fact that the winning run was batted in by a player on the bench (Christian Colon), who hadn't even been at bat during the entire playoffs, makes that abundantly clear.
Congratulations to the Royals, who have shown once again that a team is far more powerful than any individual, especially when it is firmly focused.
And congratulations to battered and bruised catcher Salvador Perez, named the MVP of the series. He epitomizes the Royals' approach to baseball, and the importance of team. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bad day at Black Press

Image
News today that Black Press has voluntarily entered creditor protection and could be sold to a three-way partnership is the latest in a long string of bad news stories for community newspapers. David Black, longtime owner and founder of Black Press, is out of the newspaper business after more than 50 years. It has been a sad day for me. I have spent the past 46 years involved with the community press, mostly as a reporter and editor. I was a Black Press editor for 16 years with The Langley Times, retiring from full-time work in 2015. I am particularly saddened when I think of the many great people I worked with at various newspapers, most of them now owned by Black Press. Some still work there, some have retired, some have left this world behind. Community newspapers have been struggling to find an arrangement that works for them, as businesses, and for their readers, for the better part of 20 years. This became a particular challenge when smart phones, notably the iPhone, made their a
Read more

Capital parcel tax biggest culprit in massive Surrey tax increase

Image
Property taxes in Surrey jumped by far more than the 2.9 per cent claimed by Mayor Doug McCallum. The biggest culprit is the capital parcel tax, which jumped by 200 per cent for every single property in the city. This is steep - and regressive. Many Surrey residents are upset about the boost in their property taxes. Some say they have gone up 15 to 20 per cent - a far cry from Mayor Doug McCallum’s claim that they were only boosted a modest 2.9 per cent. Property taxes are complex although Surrey, to its credit, breaks down the portion collected for its operations quite specifically. Not all municipalities do so. The Surrey property tax bill also includes a significant amount for schools, as well as small amounts for B.C. Assessment Authority, Metro Vancouver and TransLink. There is no doubt that McCallum’s claim was misleading, right from the moment council adopted its 2021 budget. A 200 per cent increase in the parcel tax, from $100 to $300, ensured that everyone’s taxes would rise f
Read more

The Arbutus Corridor - an historic route with a bright future

Image
This timetable board once was located at the Marpole station of the B.C. Electric Railway, where V&LI interurban trains went north to Vancouver, south to Steveston or east to New Westminster. It has now been relocated to the Cloverdale station of the Fraser Valley Heritage Rail Society. On Saturday, we had a chance to walk along a portion of the former Vancouver and Lulu Island rail line, better known as the Arbutus Corridor. As it turned out, it was an auspicious time to do so. On Monday, an agreement between the City of Vancouver and Canadian Pacific Railway was announced. CPR will tear up the rail line and turn the corridor over to the city, for $55 million. This 11-kilometre stretch of rail line from Kitsilano to Marpole was once a key link in an important transportation corridor. The V&LI line was built by Canadian Pacific Railway, starting in 1900, and by 1902 trains ran between downtown Vancouver and Steveston. At that time, there were just two stops outside the d
Read more