It’s way too early to contemplate a Cardinals-Royals rematch…
Or is it?
Because aside from fears of jinxing things, it’s a reasonable possibility that this year’s Kansas City Royals could end up playing the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. You know, shades of 1985.
But don’t take my word for it, let’s check with the True Believers.
“I’d be super nervous,” says KCC sports scribe Brandon Leftridge. “I teeter between both wanting nothing else, but also wanting no part of it. If it happens, and the Royals win, it’s almost like eternal bragging rights. If they lose, however, it might be the worst professional sports moment I’ve ever experienced.”
Here’s why.
“Cardinals’ fans are insufferable– seriously,” Leftridge says. “Just go check out the @BestFansStLouis twitter handle if you’ve never seen it– and beating KC in an I-70 rematch might lead to some sort of interstate Civil War.
“Oh, and check out deadspin’s piece from Tuesday with white St. Louis fans fighting with Ferguson protesters outside of the game if you need more proof of just how out of touch they are.
“I’m sure I’ll write a piece if it’s still a possibility after the ALCS. But I’m sure there will be many, many pieces that could/should/will be written about it.”
But hey, the way I look at it, why wait?
Four years ago when former Kansas City Star sports scribe Jason Whitlock mysteriously disappeared from the pages of the newspaper with nothing said, I prevailed on Jim Fitzpatrick to write a Whitlock is toast column.
In other words, rather than wait for the word on whether Jason would stay or go, – since Jim thought he was toast – why not go out on a limb and write Jason’s newspaper obituary before. So he did and KCC published it. Then later, when it became known that Whitlock was indeed gone, we ran it again.
The idea came to me because of a Star practice of writing advance obituaries for prominent locals.
That way when they actually check out, it doesn’t take long to get the news stories up and out. It’s amazing how many such advance death notices have already been written. You can bet for example that they had R. Crosby Kemper Jr.’s done well in advance. And if they’re keeping up, they probably have ones ready to go for luminaries like Ollie Gates, Charlie Wheeler and Donald Hall.
So who better to call upon to weigh in on a possible St. Louis-Kansas City, I-70 World Series matchup than the clairvoyant Jimmy C?
First a little history…
For the Last 29 years St. Louis Cardinals fans have groused that a bad umpiring call cost them the 1985 World Series that they lost to the Royals.
It all went down at Royals Stadium in the 9th inning of Game 6 when umpire Don Denkinger blew a call at 1st base giving Jorge Orta a leadoff base it. The Royals were down 1-0 and Orta was later thrown out at third, but KC went on to win the game 2-1. The following night the Royals mopped up the ballpark with the Cards, winning an 11-0 laugher.
How hard did St. Louis take losing game six?
For starters, when the team returned to its locker room after the game cases of champagne awaited and their lockers had been covered with plastic in anticipation of a World Series victory celebration.
And to this day St. Louis fans blame it all on that bad call.
Which is kinda weird because it was only one out – versus a single base hit – with nobody out and nobody on. Plus Orta didn’t even score or drive in a run.
So it’s not like the Cardinals were really robbed is it?
“Robbed is a tough word, but no, I don’t think so,” Fitzpatrick says. “I do think they suffered a significant setback because of that, but who’s to say what would have happened had Orta been called out. Hal McRae might have hit a home rum instead of being walked. The Royals still might have won it, but from a St. Louis perspective, that call meant everything, because there haven’t been that many pivotal World Series games that turned on one blatantly incorrect call.”
Should KC snatche this year’s World Series from the Cards, will the Game 6 grousing go away?
“It won’t completely, but it would help put it further out of mind,” Fitzpatrick says. “Because if they meet this year, whatever happens this year is going to override what happened in 1985. Sort of like a wiping of the slate. The St. Louis team today probably doesn’t care about what happened in 1985, it’s the fans that do.”
Long as we’re out on this limb, Fitz’s take on who’s gonna win the Series, KC or St. Louis?
“Kansas City,” he says. “Because of the pitching and the defense and the fact that our young guys are energized and have built up more confidence in the post season.”
There you have it, tape up the lockers, rollout the bubbly.
Don’t want to piss all over anyone’s party but there still are two teams out there that might make this a non-discussion.
Exactly, dude…
But how else am I gonna be the first to explore this concept unless I anticipate it? And don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not competing with Craig or Brandon in trying to predict what will happen.
Just saying, that it might and if it does…
The cards have built a great team! Lefty acts like the
series is a gladiator fight and really its not.
Was in Columbia for the last kc/Louis series and it was
a blast. frat house marked off half the house as st. Louis
territory and the other half as kc territory.
Now 39 years later few if any of us think about it..
Had a phone conversation with a best friend in st. Louis..
I hadn’t even thought of the possibility.
But in st. Louis winning is expected. IN kc winning
is surprising.
I’ve got many many friends in st. Louis from college…and
not one time over the last 29 years has anyone mentioned
those games. I did because I wanted lefty to know that
the series is a blast for the teams and cities.
But it’s not the end of the world. Don Denkinger got boos
for years…but all in all the royals won …and that’s what’s
in the record books.
we were right at first base..swathe play….could have gone
either way….but game 7 proved the royals were champs.
and for those still bitching about game 6 (even in st. Louis
….) get a life!!!!! 29 years ago!
I can see both teams this year in the series…and what
a blast it would be.
regardless lefty…just making it that far (win another 4 games)
and when all is said and done…you’ll remember it forever
win or lose for the rest of your life.
we’ll be there all 3 gaems….when the city abandoned the
royals we were at 35-40 games a season.
theres nothing like a baseball game.
And yes, I hate the cards…would love to kick their ass!!!!
but they’ve won so many championships it won’t mean much
to them. St. Louis pople are like that….entitled ….while
kc people pray to just get close.
my wish …royals beat both orioles and cards 4-2/4-3 and in
the sixth game don denkinger throws out the first pitch in
the k!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that would be glorious.
Thanks for making me sound somewhat knowledgeable about baseball, Hearne. It took a bit of work, I realize that.
I hope it happens and the Royals sweep them in four just to rub salt in the wound.
What I want to know is how did the Royals get this far without a star player on the team? Not one of them has a shoe commercial? #crazy
Ha!
Do you think the Star has your obit ready to roll? Will it include your mugshot photo, which is, after all, the first one that comes up on a Hearne Christopher image search?
Nah, I’m not yet in that age bracket yet.
But thanks for thinking of me.
Good story Hearne. Those were the days. Maybe they are back. Royals are a team of destiny it seems, like in 1985. Maybe it will happen.
As a resident of both cities and being a fan of both teams, I’ve had to unfriend a few of my Cardinals fans from Facebook because my ass is tired about “the call”. These are the fans that are pretty smug and give the rest of the fans a bad name. I also know ALL of my Cardinals friends are rooting for the Royals because they are baseball fans and it would be very cool for both sides of the state. The video shown is sad, but the videos that don’t get shown are the ones taking place after the confrontation when things settled down and some Cardinal fans were very sympathetic with the protesters and pretty much shouted down the idiots. We don’t ever see that stuff, I guess, and I think it would be sad to paint all Cardinal fans with that. Most of us like good, well played baseball and that’s why the majority of fans are rooting for the Royals. During the 2004 World Series when Boston swept us at home, the crowd gave the Red Sox a standing ovation. That’s being great fans of baseball. Winning breeds contempt (see KU basketball) but I think I can speak for the fact that most Cardinals fans will be Royals fans until…I was at a bar in KC when the Cardinals clinched against the Dodgers and a number of people cheered. I hope those people don’t get drowned out by the idiots. As a fan of baseball, bring on another show me series, I’m in. I will probably deactivate my facebook account during it, but oh well…
“Winning breeds contempt (see KU basketball)…” maybe for some KU fans, but just like you can’t paint Cardinal fans in broad strokes, shouldn’t do it for KU either, Randy. I’m a Jayhawk and the only contempt I feel is toward my own team when they lose to the likes of a Bucknell, Bradley, etc. Winning the Big 12 and making deep runs in March, for me, isn’t a birthright. But it is expected.
all that said, KU has Late Night at the Phog tonight and I’ve heard that AT&T has rigged up a way to broadcast the Royals game there.
nice article randy…but most of the guys on kcc would rather discuss
the 1956 series….they got a kick out of that series!!!!!!!
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