These Are Probably the Real Royals

The Royals have played worse than .500 baseball the past couple of weeks and have seen the quality of some aspects of their play go down. Billy Butler and Alex Gordon have both cooled off at the plate, a few errors have been committed in the field, and base running gaffs have cost important runners in late innings of close games. Pitching has been inconsistent. Starters have gone shorter in games and relievers have been wild at times. 13 walks cost the Royals a victory in the Sunday game against St. Louis.

I suspect that this is the revealing of the real Kansas City Royals--a team that will dazzle you one night and make you hold your head the next. A team that will pull one out of the fire one day, and kick one away the next. A team that will not make the play offs and will have a record of say, 81-81.

I heard one radio commentator talking about how all the prospects could fall apart--how pitchers will need surgery and position players won't be able to hit at higher levels. It really depressed me. How is it that our default position has become the grey cloud--waiting for calamity to hit our team? I personally prefer optimism to pessimism and joy in the good, rather than despair in the bad.

Someone else opined that in baseball, it is better to keep an even keel, to not go too high or too low. I agree with that. Because of its long season, baseball is a bit more like life than most sports. "One day at a time, one moment at a time, taking hardship as a pathway to peace."

Play ball!