March 20, 2007
Same Hope, Different City
Joe Posnanski notes that his springs haven't changed much since his childhood:
I find it both goofy and oddly touching that the Kansas City Royals train in a city called "Surprise." It's a bit like Bill Clinton being from a place called Hope. Every year, I come here, get stuck in the quagmire that is suburban Phoenix traffic, eat at various chain restaurants with names like Carrabas, and every year I feel that pointless, self-destructive but undeniable feeling that the Royals really COULD surprise, you know, if twenty or two hundred things happened to go right.
This is a baseball feeling that goes way back. The Cleveland Indians of my childhood were almost equally hopeless, and yet come March I would always put together a rather lengthy list of "Things that have to go right for the Indians to win the World Series." The list usually involved Rick Waits putting things together and Charlie Spikes finding his power stroke. Now, with the Royals, the list involves Gil Meche putting things together and Emil Brown finding his power stroke.
It's amazing how little my life has advanced in 30 years.
He also lists the ten worst seasons by a player since he arrived in KC in 1996 to see how many Royals make the cut.