How 'bout those Royals?

Today as I drove home, I heard on the radio that the Kansas City Royals swept their opening three game series with the Detroit Tigers. I’ll admit I haven’t been following the baseball news all that closely, so I didn’t know until a couple of days ago of the high expectations for the Tigers this year. But it’s not been easy – at least in recent years – for the Royals to beat them, much less three times in a row.

When I got home, I went online to the Royals site to check the standings, and see which other teams still were at a perfect 1.000. Much to my amazement, it was just KC…my home team has the best record in baseball so far. I mentioned that to my family at the dinner table, to responses of “Huh?”, and “That’s weird”.

Okay, it’s only three games into a long season, and much can happen. Oh, and before I go any further, let me pause with this disclaimer. I am by no means any kind of an expert about the great game of baseball. Call me a casual fan. In fact, I’m not even athletically inclined. But of the major sports here in the USA, baseball has always been my favorite to watch. I root for the home team, as the song has it. If you want a more in depth commentary, I’ll direct you to my cousin Mike’s blog. I’m humbled by his superior baseball knowledge. Hey, maybe he will chime in here (hint hint).

So why am I writing about this now, when it’s not one of my usual topics? I think that baseball can have its quirks. A team will have a hot streak, and then go cold. You can point to one thing or another as to why a team performed well, or stank out loud. Then I think – here again, only speculation on my part – that sometimes you just don’t know why. The games have to be played, and they can surprise you.

All that to say, it’s realistic to expect this won’t last. The Royals will have a loss, or maybe a string of losses.

But what if they stay hot, and the winning streak lasts longer than expected? I don’t think anyone around here expects to see KC in the playoffs…but what if our boys in blue have a much better year and finish well over .500?

I’ll close with this. While I was looking on the Royals website, this quote by Richard Justice of SportingNews caught my eye:

“The 2008 Royals are different. Anyone that was around them in spring training could see that. They’ve got a smart general manager in Dayton Moore, and he and rookie manager Trey Hillman are on their way to becoming one of the best GM-manager combinations in baseball.”

The entire article can be found here http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Ala7yD6iOWDy0KhMb4JHNOYc0bYF?slug=nationalsroyalsignitebas&prov=tsn&type=lgns