The Game of the Year

The theme for this year was weird games. We saw a game played in the rain, a game with two Infield Fly Rule calls, and no end of other strange moments. We even saw our lowly squad dish out a lopsided ass beating to the Yankees.

As great as all that was, nothing quite compared to the Sunday, August 5 game against the league-leading Texas Rangers. We blew an early lead (thank you, Luke Inning). Normally when we fall significantly behind, the team falls over and plays dead for the rest of the game. But that afternoon we broke with tradition and fought back. Extra innings meant free baseball, and the win off two bizarre throwing errors sealed the deal. Throw in the post-game press conference I mentioned a few days ago, and you’ve got the Game of the Year.

The Guy of the Year

For the first time in quite some time, the Guy of the Year award was actually somewhat close. Several players were good – or at least Royals good – on the field and/or at the plate. And several of them were lovable, semi-lovable or at least a little scruffy. A couple even got national recognition: Alex Gordon won the Gold Glove and Billy Butler edged out the rest of the league’s defensive liabilities and won the Silver Slugger for DH.

But the one guy who really stood out was Alcides Escobar. What a tremendous joy it was to see a ball hit to short and not instantly get the gut-clenching, here-we-go-again feeling. He wasn’t too shabby at the plate, either, especially not for a player hired mostly for his defense. He hit consistently enough to move up from the usual shortstop spot toward the bottom of the order and ended the season consistently in the number two slot. We were also at the ballpark to see him hit all but one or two of the home runs he hit this season. If he’s going to show us that much love, the least we can go is love him back.

Beyond his skill as a player, he also seemed to genuinely give a crap about being there. He hustled consistently even in non-game situations. He went after the umpires on more than one occasion, not in an “I’m in a slump and looking to take it out on someone” way but when they made bad calls and sincerely needed someone to call them on it. And he was a great post-game interview when he got the chance.

Overall he reminded me of the good part of watching Tony Pena Jr. play (the energy) without the bad part (the sucking).

At the start of the season Jeff Francoeur looked like he might have a shot at GotY, but by the time the summer heat set in he got on a cold streak he never quite seemed to get out of. Mike Moustakas also has GotY potential, so we’ll keep an eye on him in 2013.

The season’s best promotion

For the second year in a row, Retro Night is the hands-down winner in the Best Promotion category. May they make 2013 into Retro Season. The Moustakas antlers get honorable mention.

And just so this entry isn’t one sentence long, here are some additional suggestions for next year:

Backwards Day – Folks in the cheap seats get to move down to the Crown Seats and dugout suites. And the rich people get moved to the nosebleeds and have to fetch their own beer and dogs.

“Denkinger 85” T-shirt give-away – For at least one of the Cardinals games. Maybe all three. And speaking of umpires ...

Grecian Formula Presents Tim McClelland Night – Every fan who should have retired from his job years ago gets a free gold (plated) watch.

Sports Authority Night – Everyone’s favorite ticket-hording operation buys every seat in the stadium so nobody gets to watch the game.

No Goddamn Garth Night – This one’s just a regular ballgame except for the middle of the sixth inning.

Hall of Meh Induction – It’s been awhile since we’ve had a player who seemed destined for the Hall of Fame (even our humble, local version). So we need an “honor” more in keeping with current quality standards. The inaugural class will include Chuck Knoblauch, Dean Palmer and Jose Offerman. Plaques will be presented on the field by future honoree Eric Hosmer.

The season’s best bittersweet moment

As I wrote way back in July, the All Star Game was fun. I wouldn’t want to do it every year, but it was fun to do it once before I die.

However, the experience was a bit of a bittersweet moment, because I have to admit that I recognized less than half of the players on the field. For the National Leaguers I had an excuse, as we don’t see them all that often. But even with the American League more often than not I found myself with a profound sense of “yeah, I vaguely remember seeing that guy.”

In comparison, let’s climb into the Way Back Machine and journey to San Diego in 1978. The AL’s All Star team that year included George Brett (who of course was an All Star every year from 76 to 88), Freddie Patek, Darrel Porter, Frank White, even Whitey Herzog as a coach. Reps from other teams included Rod Carew, Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice and many other players I recognize better than the Class of 2012. Jim Palmer was the starting pitcher. Reggie Jackson was elected, but the Magnificence of Him didn’t show up to play. The NL team featured Joe Morgan, Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers and even Bob “The Booner” Boone.

Thus the “mid-summer classic” reminded me of my growing sense that Major League Baseball and I are not as close as we used to be.

The season’s best post-game press conference

I don’t want to make the “best” list all about Yuniesky Betancourt, especially as he was most certainly not the best part of the season. But I was completely blown away by the August 5 post-game press conference in which Ned Yost openly badmouthed him for being a jerk. That’s not the sort of thing you typically hear from a manager – at least in public – and certainly not what you’d expect from someone as naturally laconic as Yost.

That particular post-game also featured a delightfully chipper interview with Alcides Escobar, who played well in yet another crazy game.

The season’s best Royals employee

The seats that will not be sat in by us

Obviously it’s a cheat to make Dal Hindley the Royals Employee of the Year, as the Lancers are long gone (and weren’t technically employees even when they still existed). But that’s exactly why I’m giving him the honor.

The open house on Nov. 3 is pure case in point. For future reference, we showed up at the event, found some seats in the loge that looked good, but were then informed that the seats were only for full-season package purchasers. The decision made not a lick of sense. Here was $3000 walking out the door. If they had a full-season taker for those seats, odds are he or she would already have come forward. Clearly they’re capable of doing a quarter-season deal, because they had other seats in the level available for 21 games.

In the days of the Lancers, we would never have had that problem. If there was a good reason why they had to insist on a full-season deal, at least we would have been given an explanation. If Dal was looking out for us, he would have known that we were interested in a partial season in those seats, and if the franchise didn’t find a full season taker then he would have set us up.

As things stand, however, the team sucks too bad and charges too much to treat its fans this way.
Honorable mention in this category goes to our usher, Johnnie. She isn’t quite like having Estelle back, but at least she’s pleasant to us and mean to the seat hoppers. She should be Royals Employee of the Year solely for being the only person in the whole ballpark (including half the guys on the field) who seems to have any interest in doing her job.

The season’s best schadenfreude

“Hi, I’m Dayton Moore. I’d like to tell you about a great new medicine I’ve discovered: WormzAway.

“Before the season started this year, I re-hired Yuniesky Betancourt. Because we’d gotten rid of him once before, I already knew he was a butt munch and a tank artist. Still, I made sure we’d get stuck with him anyway.

“Then I learned from WormzAway.com that deliberately hiring a butt-munching tank artist could be a sign that I had Brain Worms. So I went to my doctor, and he wrote me a prescription for WormzAway.

“Now my brain is worm-free and my team is Betancourt-free. Thanks, WormzAway!”

The season’s best Yankees moment

As I mentioned when it happened, the sound of an entire stadium loudly booing Robinson Cano was sweet music. We can’t do anything about big money hegemony – either in baseball or anywhere else – even though it spoils everything it touches. But at least for that one brief, shining moment we got to stand on the national stage and say “hey, that abuse of power you feast on every year? We notice it. We don’t like it. You may manage self satisfaction, but not everyone is impressed.”

Only such a unique moment could supplant our May 7 victory as the best Yankees moment of the year. Dishing out an official ass beating to the Evil Empire was pure bliss, especially when we won because we played outstanding baseball and they didn’t.