Running 2015 MLB Regular-Season Thread

So Brewers give up a grand slam to go down 4-0 in the top of the third. Come back to tie it 4-4. Now, it's 11- Reds in the bottom of the 5. Brewers are a total train wreck right now.

 

Regarding the Steelers, I assume he was talking about going 26 seasons between Super Bowl victories, though they did make the playoffs 13 times during that span. I understand your question, though. They haven't really gone through an extended period of being really bad since before I was born. The longest they went between playoffs appearances was four seasons, from 1985 through '88.

I have engaged in some behavior that might fit under the heading of "Suck it, haters," but for good reason. The Steelers have drawn plenty of negativity around here since Super Bowl XL and they even deserve a good bit of it when you consider issues like the team's shameful history in protecting the health of its players and willingness to tolerate disgraceful behavior by some key players. In those regards, they really aren't much better or worse than most of the NFL, but some people bought into the class organization garbage and that tends to draw a backlash.

 

Here's how hard sliding used to be handled:

 

The Oakland A's inability to close out a game is why the Royals became the story last year.

If Oakland gets six outs with a 4-run lead against a demoralized Royals team that really wasn't hitting, then KC doesn't rip off 7 straight wins and get within MB's once-in-lifetime pitching performance of winning it all.

If Oakland wins, then they would have gone to Anaheim, lost meekly in 3 or 4 games and that's it. Brad Pitt hears the last out in his car radio and thinks about his daughter.

Instead, it ignited a tempest in Kansas City.

Now it's weird. You have fans like me from the pre-1985 who were fairly dignified and reserved during the Glory Years and now meshing with the tattoo-tongue pierce generation that has fallen in love with this team.

If you're under 35, this team always sucked until last fall.

If you're under 30, all you know are Hosmer-Cain-HDH-Salvi and that George Brett used to be really good.

Kauffman Stadium was a ghost town from 1995 until about Labor Day last year. It's new money. It's like Kansas State football -- the tradition really isn't there and we do have a lot of obnoxious new fans but, you know what, it's a lot of fun to be in that city on game days now.

Last year, we went for the Wild Card game and there was a sense of "just glad to be here". Three weeks later, when we returned for WS Games 2 and 6, entirely different and in a good way. I'm proud of the fact that Royals fans are popping up, shitty hot dogs and all.

We live a day's drive from KC but when I see some Royals hats around our city, it does spark pride -- I am even proud that, when the team stunk for 20 years, that people didn't go to the games, unlike Cubs fans.

 

Ah, the fucking Royals are just fucking rubes. That's what Bryan Price told me.

 

Well, they're plump because they've been simmered/boiled/whatever within an inch of their own existence. They sweat the bun.

But ND gets too harsh a rap for press box food, I'll agree there. And I'll take a hot dog, rather unhealthy as they tend to be, over the far too common chicken sandwich that tastes like grilled dust and salt with mustard on it. I'd eat a raw vegetable sandwich, and have, over a grilled chicken sandwich. I've had about two good chicken sandwiches in my whole life and neither were grilled.

 

I'm an age that doesn't quite fit into any of exmediahack's categories. I was born a few days before Tug McGraw finished off KC in 1980. I have very vague memories of 1985, but it's about the people around me being so happy, not understanding what was happening.

I came of age as an actual fan when the cool things about the Royals were Bo Jackson and George Brett getting to 3,000 hits. I lived through being a Royals fan devolving from we aren't as good right now to we haven't been good for a while to we're a fucking joke.

I wept tears of joy multiple times last October because I really never believed anything like that would ever happen again.

Now, yeah, I'm not really sure how to act. I'm old enough to be proud of the history and know in my head it's possible the Royals can be a model franchise again. But a big part of me is just waiting for it to fall apart. The Royals I know are capable of losing 12 in a row at any time. When you start seeing them lose guys hit by pitches or taken out at second, you think ok, so this is how it happens this year. That's where the over emotional response comes from.

Plus Brett Lawrie's a little bitch and always has been.

 

"It's plump, juicy, three inches thick. Look at this sorry, miserable, squashed thing. Can anybody tell me what's wrong with this picture?"

 

Small market whiny fans are fun. You are relevant for once, stop being whiny bitches. You will be irrelevant soon enough.

It's a hard slide, get over it.

 

Nobody will be talking about it in two days, unless Reddick still has things to say.

 

You say that as if the system somehow favors large markets over small.

Seriously, fanboy logic is fanboy logic, regardless of market size.

 

The Royals' awful 20 years wasn't solely because of market size. It was largely because of inept ownership and management.