Best Year Ever
The 2014 Royals were a whole lot of fun.
The Kansas City Royals are celebrating their 2014 AL Championship team this weekend at the K as they host the Oakland A’s. A wide-range of activities are planned, including an on-field reunion before Friday night’s game, and they’ll be giving out a different bobblehead at each game. All three members of their dominant HDH bullpen (Kelvin Herrera-May 17, Wade Davis-May 18, and Greg Holland-May 19) will be represented in bobblehead form, and the pieces even connect to form one big collectible.
I’ll be out there on Friday night with both my dad and my sons, but I suspect it will hit harder for me than any of them. My sons are too young. They didn’t go to their first game until the following season, and their memories of that experience are vague, at best. My dad is a casual fan, but even he can recall what an effect the Royals’ run to the World Series had on the city and surrounding area.
For me, it was even bigger than that. As I talked about in my last post, I was going through some things in the years leading up to 2014, and baseball (specifically the Royals) played a major role in helping me through the worst of it.
The turnaround, for both me and the Royals, began in 2013. I hit my rock bottom and committed myself to cleaning up and fixing my life. On the field, the Royals young core started to click and the team became relevant for the first time in decades. Ultimately, the 2013 Royals fell short of the postseason, but something positive was taking shape out at the K. I sometimes wonder if I would have gotten clean when I did if the Royals hadn’t become interesting again in 2013. I like to think so, but there’s no denying it helped. They gave me something healthy to focus on and borderline obsess over, which I desperately needed.
Perhaps mirroring my own up-and-down recovery, the 2014 season started out with high expectations and initially face-planted. At the All-Star break, the Royals were underachieving and it appeared the season was going to be a massive letdown. Then, newly-acquired veteran (and former Royal) Raul Ibanez gave the young team an inspiring pep talk, telling them they had everything it took to be a great team. Fans saw it, writers saw it, even other teams could see it. They just needed to see it in themselves.
The rest is history. The Royals went on a tear, moving into first place in the AL Central in August. In the end, the Tigers caught them in the division race, and the Royals settled for the Wild Card, their first postseason appearance in 29 years. The day they clinched their playoff spot in the Southside of Chicago was special.
That’s when the real fun started. Hosting the A’s in the Wild Card Game, the Royals fell behind 7-3 after eight, before clawing their way back into it and forcing extra innings. The A’s took a one-run lead in the top of the twelfth, on an RBI single by none other than Alberto Callaspo, a former Royals cast-off. But in the bottom of the twelfth, Eric Hosmer tripled with one out, and much-maligned top-five draft pick Christian Colon singled him home to tie the game again.
Colon stole second after an Alex Gordon foul-out, and Salvador Perez came to the plate for one of the biggest at-bats in Kansas City history. Reaching for an outside pitch in typical Salvy fashion, he roped a liner down the third base line, past a diving Josh Donaldson, and Colon came around to score as the city erupted in a frenzy. I’m obviously biased, but I believe the 2014 AL Wild Card Game holds its own as one of the greatest games in baseball history. A’s fans probably disagree.
After that, there was no stopping the Royals. Or so it seemed. They swept the Angels in the ALDS, despite the Angels possessing Mike Trout and the best record in baseball. Then they went to Baltimore to face the heavily favored Orioles. Genius manager Buck Showalter was supposed to school dumb ol’ Ned Yost. Instead, the Royals swept them too. The bats were clutch, the bullpen was invincible, and the Royals’ speed gave the O’s fits. They were so rattled even Billy Butler stole a base in that series. Country Breakfast himself!
The good times came to a screeching halt 90 feet short of home plate in Game 7 of the World Series against the San Francisco Giants. We’ll never know for sure what would have happened if Mike Jirschele had sent Alex Gordon home to attempt an inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the ninth— I think he would have likely been thrown out, but the chance of a misplay by the Giants was always on the board. The Royals played even with the Giants dynasty, and if it hadn’t been for a performance for the ages by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, aka Madison Bumgarner, they were so close to coming out on top.
Nevertheless, the 2014 World Series was an amazing experience, filled with memorable moments. I wasn’t able to attend any of the games, but the atmosphere at Kauffman was electric, even filtered through my TV screen. James Shields was probably a bit too keyed up when he took the mound in Game 1, but I couldn’t blame him. I felt the same way watching at home.
The most lasting highlight for me will always be Yordano Ventura’s brilliant start in Game 6, shutting down the Giants as the Royals faced elimination and forcing a Game 7. Ventura’s life was tragically cut short in car accident following the 2016 season. We should have gotten many more iconic performances from him, but at least we’ll always have Game 6.
Was 2014 really the best year ever, as the title of this article claims? That’s completely subjective. Obviously, as much as I love baseball, I’ve had many years that were more important to me personally for other reasons. And the following year, 2015, was pretty outstanding both on the diamond and off. I met the love of my life and started a new career, and the Royals finished the job, winning their first championship in 30 years.
But the 2015 team was more business-like. After coming so close in 2014, they reported the next spring with a chip on their shoulder. Don’t get me wrong, it was an amazing season. But the Royals were expected to be great, and unlike so many runners-up talking the talk, they actually delivered. They ran away with the division and took care of business in the postseason.
The success of the 2014 season, on the other hand, didn’t come completely out of the blue, but the extent of it was definitely unexpected. Whereas the 2015 team faced a fair amount of pressure to finish the job, and survived a major scare against the Astros in the ALDS in the process, the 2014 team had no outside expectations and entered the postseason playing with house money. I can’t say they were better than the 2015 team (or the 1985 team, for that matter), but they might have been the most fun.
I miss seeing Hoz and Moose and LoCain and Esky out on the field. I even miss Ned Yost in the dugout. Listening to his tomato analogy at yesterday’s press conference reminded me that his postgame pressers were underrated treasures. At least we still have Salvy.
And the Royals are actually relevant again for the first time since that core last played together in 2017. The temptation is to compare this year’s team to the 2013 Royals, and maybe that will turn out to be the case. A year from now, while we’re celebrating the ten-year-anniversary of the 2015 World Series team, this group might be doing its best impression of the 2014 Royals and ending the team’s playoff drought. It’s not completely out of the question that they may do it this year, slightly ahead of schedule.
But this year’s team is built different. Salvy is the lone holdover. The starting rotation has been phenomenal so far. The bullpen has shown promise, but it’s a far cry from HDH. Unlike the previous version, this year’s team has a bona fide superstar in Bobby Witt Jr., but the 2014-15 Royals excelled at keeping the line moving. There were no black holes in their lineup, which definitely hasn’t been the case in 2024.
Maybe they’ll get there, either this year or the near future. As a Royals fan, I’ll be rooting for them, starting with tonight’s game against Oakland. But that doesn’t mean we can’t also take a moment to appreciate one of the greatest teams in franchise history, and one of the most fun I’ve ever watched. I’ll be doing that tonight too.
Thanks for reading Powder Blue Nostalgia. Share your favorite memories of the 2014 Royals in the comments below. And while you’re here, why not subscribe, if you haven’t already?
Enjoyable read, so happy for Royals Fan's to be seeing an exciting team playing at the K!
Go Royals!!!