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. 


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