For Me, The World Series Changed After 2014 & 2015

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By Seth Herrold @HerroldTimes
I have always been infatuated with the World Series.
One of the earliest memories I have from sports was Joe Carter hitting a walk off home run to clinch the 1993 Series for the Toronto Blue Jays. Since that night watching Joe round the bases on the console television in my Grandparent’s living room I have seen a lot. I’ve seen Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza trying to turn the Series into the Royal Rumble. I’ve seen Mariano Rivera be inhuman, then human, then inhuman, again. I’ve seen curses broken, game sevens won and lost and an unholy amount of the Yankees and Red Sox.
But in 2014, the World Series as I knew it changed when the Kansas City Royals somehow got back to the biggest stage in the world. I have always loved the World Series, but when the Royals climbed into the pinnacle of the game, the Series became even more to me.
I was in the stands for game one in 2014, when the Royals got Bumgarner’d. I was in the stands for game seven, when the Royals got Bumgarner’d, again. But I was in the stands for game two in 2015 as well – when the New York Mets got Cueto’d. Those two years were a whirlwind, but I remember everything and I always will.
The past two seasons, the Royals have not been in the World Series – or even the playoffs for that matter. But each year, when the World Series rolls around it is still different than it was before the Royals’ madness began. It is impossible for me to watch a World Series game now without going back to those two years.
We live in a social world now. Sometimes that is a good thing, sometimes it’s bad. But, everything becomes documented and anyone with Facebook or Timehop knows that you get a reminder every day about what happened on this date last year, the year before that and the year before that. It goes back as far as Facebook or Twitter or Instagram will allow. So when I grab my phone off the charger in the morning, there it is – a picture of a freshly cut crown in the outfield grass as the grounds crew prepared for a World Series game.
All the memories come flooding back when I sit down to watch a game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros. Speaking of the Dodgers, you don’t need Facebook or Timehop to be reminded about the 2015 Royals when you are watching the 2017 Dodgers.
This year’s Dodgers are almost the second coming of the 2015 Kansas City Royals. Now, this Dodgers team is probably a better team top to bottom than the Royals were and I can admit that, but Kansas City probably had a better bullpen, at least in the back end, and better defense (Yasil Puig just missed a diving catch as I am writing this). But here is where the comparisons are.
For starters, let’s get the obvious out of the way. The uniforms are almost identical. Blue, White, almost the same script across the chest. Blue caps, interlocking initials for their respective cities. In fact, the Royals’ uniforms were said to be “inspired” by the Dodgers look when the team popped up as an expansion club in 1969.
Next up, there is the way the teams went through the season. Both squads played wire-to-wire within their respected divisions, dominating the field. By the All-Star break in both seasons, it was apparent each team was playoff bound. Then came September. Both teams slumped big time to close the season, but still won their division handily. There were doubts entering the playoffs, because of the way they played in September, but both teams made it through the playoffs and into the Fall Classic. Oh, and covering the Royals on their journey in 2015? Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star. Covering the Dodgers this year? Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times. Funny how that one worked out.
So while a Dodgers’ run to the World Series isn’t going to make the Royals champs again, it certainly serves as a means of time travel for me as I go back to those two years that forever changed the World Series for me.
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Here are a few extras for you.
I stumbled across a stat on Twitter the other night that is too good not to share. When the Royals went to the World Series in 2014 it was their first appearance in the Series in 29 years. When the Mets made it in 2015, it was their first appearance in 29 years. So, how long has it been since the Dodgers last played in a World Series? Yep, 29 years. The Cubs and Indians messed this up last year, but Chicago had gone 108 years between appearances, so I will let it slide.
Another Twitter find – a picture of a very young Carlos Beltran alongside Johnny Damon and Jermaine Dye – also very young in this photograph – posing in the outfield grass at Kauffman Stadium. I remember that picture and it feels like a lifetime ago when I first saw it.
It’s funny how time works. The years went by, all three players moved on to bigger salaries and better things. Damon got his World Series ring in 2004 with the Red Sox and another with the Yankees in 2009. Dye would get a World Series ring in 2005 with the White Sox – in a series he was the MVP of. Then the Royals got theirs in 2015. If the Astros can win it this year, Beltran will get his and everyone in that photograph will be a World Series Champion. I thought they would all be World Series champions when I first saw that photograph. I just had a different scenario in mind about how it would happen.