The Actual "America's Team"

[Appa23]

With all due respect to the Broncos and Cowboys . . . .

It appears that the KC Royals alone can lay claim to the title "America's Team". All 50 states are rooting for them in the World Series.

http://espn.go.com/espn/fp/flashPollRes ... Id=4551733

[earendel]

With all due respect to the Broncos and Cowboys . . . .

It appears that the KC Royals alone can lay claim to the title "America's Team". All 50 states are rooting for them in the World Series.

http://espn.go.com/espn/fp/flashPollRes ... Id=4551733

I guess all 50 states were disappointed in last night's outcome. 7-1 Giants.

[littlebeast13]

As much as I should be rooting for KC, there are two reasons I'd rather see them lose...

First, for purely selfish reasons, one of the things I've enjoyed about my annual pilgrimages to KC over the past 17 years is that the team always sucked ass... which translated into smaller crowds and more affordable prices (a welcome change from what I'm used to at Cardinals games). I already dread how the atmosphere will be different next year after they streaked their way to the AL pennant, let alone how crazy it might be is they actually win it all...

Second, and probably most importantly, is that I absolutely despise the brand of baseball the Royals play, and would like for it NOT to become a model that other teams want to copy. The current squad isn't much different from the old Whiteyball Cards... but at least they had Astroturf to bounce balls off of that made smallball a bit more entertaining, and also had Jack Clark in the middle of the lineup as a legitimate power threat. A team that hits less than 100 homers in a season should not be in the World Series. A team that employs sacrifice bunts prior to the 7th inning should not be in the Major Leagues, period. Down with Yostball! This is not 1914....

lb13

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

http://is.gd/44A3YD

Homeland Security on the job protecting America's Team panties

[smilergrogan]

Second, and probably most importantly, is that I absolutely despise the brand of baseball the Royals play, and would like for it NOT to become a model that other teams want to copy. The current squad isn't much different from the old Whiteyball Cards... but at least they had Astroturf to bounce balls off of that made smallball a bit more entertaining, and also had Jack Clark in the middle of the lineup as a legitimate power threat. A team that hits less than 100 homers in a season should not be in the World Series. A team that employs sacrifice bunts prior to the 7th inning should not be in the Major Leagues, period. Down with Yostball! This is not 1914....

lb13

Oh, come on - you want every team to play the game exactly the same way? That's my definition of boring. Maybe you were too young, but Tom Herr driving in 110 runs with less than 10 homers was exciting, McGee and Coleman stealing four bases on one play was exciting, Ozzie Smith scoring from second on a sacrifice fly in the World Series was exciting, Glenn Brummer stealing home was exciting, and Whiteyball was exciting. No question about it.

[Jeemie]

The Bunt for Ned October.

If you notice, most of the innings where the Royals score multiple runs are the innings where they DON'T employ small ball.

Lending credance to the sabregeeks' contention that bunting is simply throwing away outs...a notion I agree with.

[littlebeast13]

Second, and probably most importantly, is that I absolutely despise the brand of baseball the Royals play, and would like for it NOT to become a model that other teams want to copy. The current squad isn't much different from the old Whiteyball Cards... but at least they had Astroturf to bounce balls off of that made smallball a bit more entertaining, and also had Jack Clark in the middle of the lineup as a legitimate power threat. A team that hits less than 100 homers in a season should not be in the World Series. A team that employs sacrifice bunts prior to the 7th inning should not be in the Major Leagues, period. Down with Yostball! This is not 1914....

lb13

Oh, come on - you want every team to play the game exactly the same way? That's my definition of boring. Maybe you were too young, but Tom Herr driving in 110 runs with less than 10 homers was exciting, McGee and Coleman stealing four bases on one play was exciting, Ozzie Smith scoring from second on a sacrifice fly in the World Series was exciting, Glenn Brummer stealing home was exciting, and Whiteyball was exciting. No question about it.

Not necessarily... but I don't want to see more teams build around the glorified Royals formula. Not that it would work well on most teams anyway, particularly those with bad bullpens...

You are correct that I'm too young to appreciate the golden age of Whiteyball. By the time I really started following baseball, the last of those 80's icons were on their way out of town. I grew up on those dreaded Breweryball days (Joe Torre, Hall of Fame manager... whouda thunk it?) and came to truly love the game during the steroid era... so I'm just a new generation "purist" who wants to know where the power game has gone...

Outside of that wacky wildcard game against the A's, I haven't particularly found the smallball Royals to be all that exciting this postseason. As Jeemie already said... a lot of their success this postseason has come from their offense finally waking up, not on their old school baseball mentality...

lb13

[Appa23]

If the Royals blueprint of defense, great base running, and lights out relief is so terribly boring, how is the Giants' postseason blueprint of "rely on your opponents to screw up so you can score without getting a hit" so much more attractive?

I do think that the first two games likely were outliers, and we will see 3-5 tight, low-scoring games. Neither team has a big-scoring offense filled with power hitters (look at the Giants previous postseason games).

[elwoodblues]

Second, and probably most importantly, is that I absolutely despise the brand of baseball the Royals play, and would like for it NOT to become a model that other teams want to copy. The current squad isn't much different from the old Whiteyball Cards... but at least they had Astroturf to bounce balls off of that made smallball a bit more entertaining, and also had Jack Clark in the middle of the lineup as a legitimate power threat. A team that hits less than 100 homers in a season should not be in the World Series. A team that employs sacrifice bunts prior to the 7th inning should not be in the Major Leagues, period. Down with Yostball! This is not 1914....

lb13

Oh, come on - you want every team to play the game exactly the same way? That's my definition of boring. Maybe you were too young, but Tom Herr driving in 110 runs with less than 10 homers was exciting, McGee and Coleman stealing four bases on one play was exciting, Ozzie Smith scoring from second on a sacrifice fly in the World Series was exciting, Glenn Brummer stealing home was exciting, and Whiteyball was exciting. No question about it.

Not necessarily... but I don't want to see more teams build around the glorified Royals formula. Not that it would work well on most teams anyway, particularly those with bad bullpens...

You are correct that I'm too young to appreciate the golden age of Whiteyball. By the time I really started following baseball, the last of those 80's icons were on their way out of town. I grew up on those dreaded Breweryball days (Joe Torre, Hall of Fame manager... whouda thunk it?) and came to truly love the game during the steroid era... so I'm just a new generation "purist" who wants to know where the power game has gone...

Outside of that wacky wildcard game against the A's, I haven't particularly found the smallball Royals to be all that exciting this postseason. As Jeemie already said... a lot of their success this postseason has come from their offense finally waking up, not on their old school baseball mentality...

lb13

I guess most baseball fans want the game to be the way it was when they were young. My favorite player when I was a kid was Lou Brock. (And at my Sports Jeopardy audition this year I may have doomed my chances by saying that. Their target audience probably doesn't know who that is.) I enjoyed the game of cat and mouse between him and the pitcher when he was on first. During the steroid era the most common strategy for a runner on first was to stand there and wait for a home run, and the stolen base became a lost art.

And I thought Joe Torre did a pretty good job as the Cards' manager under the circumstances. He was there at a time when the ownership refused to spend a dime on improving the team, and their best players were the likes of Ray Lankford and Todd Zeile. I would like to see what La Russa would have done with those teams. And we saw what happened when Torre had the benefit of the Yankees' checkbook.