Game 7

It occurred to me in the top of the 8^th.  The Giants were to win the World Series.

I’m not even going to pretend I’m a hardcore baseball nut, so while I do have a history with baseball, assume my position of a casual fan.

We were all rooting for the Kansas City Royals, whether we admit it or not.  It’s not too hard to say they were the underdog. Even if both teams did come from the wild card. However, recent history suggests why the Giants were so heavily favored.  We all know the stats.  World Champions in 2010 and 2012 and equipped with consistent playoff appearances since, the Giants have the talent, experience, and foundation to succeed. 

On the other hand, the Royals entered their first playoffs appearance in three decades.  An entire generation of fans who don’t know winning. No one on the team will blow you away.  You can’t even say their formula is found in a grit and grind mentality.  No.  Their recipe for success is in their uncanny ability to perform up to the talent of their opponent.  Where other, more talented teams play down to the ability of weaker opponents and develop bad habits, the Royals stayed consistent in cold stretches and grounded in their loose-aggressive style that manager Ned Yost enabled.  Little did they know, that style would be their downfall.  

The Royals played to win.  That is why we loved them.  What they didn't have in batting averages, strikeouts, and homeruns they made up in speed, defense, and micro-managing.  Always put in the best possible position to succeed, the Royals ran with what advantages they had and- just happy to be in the playoffs- took on the classic ‘why not us’ attitude.

We loved the Royals just as much as we loved any other underdog.  We see ourselves in them.  Seeing an underdog succeed makes us believe we can too.  They are never as talented as the opposition, and often have to work harder in order to win.  That’s what makes them so admirable and so easy to root for.

Likewise, that’s what makes it so easy to be the underdog.  No one really believes they can win.  Therefore, they don’t have to play with impossible expectations over their heads.  Just look at the star studded Dodgers who couldn't find a way to win the game.  Their expectations were insanely high and that definitely loomed over until the pressure became too great.  The opposite was so apparent in the Royals incredibly wild play.  Their ceiling was making the playoffs so after that they played as free and focused as any team could.

Eventually, however, a shift occurs.  Eventually you start to win too many games and the pressure and expectations slowly creep back and affect play.  Only for the Royals, this never happened. 

This was a direct result to the loose-aggressive style of Ned Yost.  He was aggressive in his coaching.  His rapid yet calculated substitutions and calls to the bullpen undoubtedly made his team better.  However, Yost was also responsible for the loose and lively culture in the locker room.  As the pressure crept back, Yost and the team hid behind that culture as a means for coping with the stress.  You can see it in the post-games, you can see it in their interviews, and you can see it on their faces, the Royals are a team hiding behind a veil of relaxation to shield themselves from the crushing pressure of the World Series.

I don’t know when that happened. I hadn’t realized it until the top of the 8^th of game 7. But believe me, it happened.

You can’t beat baseball.  I know that much.  I’m not saying that’s what Yost and the Royals set out to do, but I am saying they got in baseballs way.  More than anything baseball is a sport of nerves, stress, and pressure.  You stand around on the field just waiting for something to happen.  Batters freeze up at the plate, either over-thinking consequences or not thinking at all.  Pitchers try to stay in the realm of the game and not let the magnitude of the moment get to them, knowing that one pitch will make or break a career.  It is a cruel sport.  In an instant it’s over.  Yet until that instant is a millennia of waiting, enduring the slow churning of the stomach as the pressure materializes into a tiny ball that refuses to leave. 

There are no winners in baseball, only losers.  Those who endure the longest will come out on top.  Eventually one side will give out.  It can be in the form of a catastrophic collapse, or a tiny leak.  Either way, one side will give out.  That is why the Royals never had a chance.  They never gave themselves the opportunity to endure.  Stress and pressure is as much a part of the game as strikes and balls.  Against the equally matched Giants they lost from the start, yet it took me until almost the end to realize this.  Sure, Bumgardener, Sandoval, and Posey outclass the Royals roster, but they made up for it in speed, defense, wits, and home field advantage.  What put the Giants over the edge was their experience in handling the moment, and while they worked through pressure of the moment, the Royals seemed to avoid it and as a result baseball too.