AL Champs

Wow, what a season. What began as a defense of the Royals’ first American League title in 29 years last year turned into a season-long march as the best team in the AL for the majority of the 2015 season. Can’t help but be enormously proud of the Boys in Blue. The Royals secured home field advantage yesterday by beating the Twins. And also the Blue Jays lost. Below are how the Royals finished the regular season rankings in several stats (you can skip the next paragraph if numbers bore you):

Home runs (24th with 139; first place had 232); Runs (7th with 724; first place had 891); Triples (6th with 42; first place had 49); doubles (2nd with 300; first place had 308); hits (3rd with 1497; first place had 151); RBI’s (7th with 689; first place had 852); bases on balls (29th with 383; first place had 570); strikeouts (30th with 973, first place had 1518 and every team had at least 1000 K’s except KC); stolen bases (5thj with 105; first place had 134); batting average (2nd with .269; first place had .270); on-base percentage (11th with .322; first place had .340); slugging percentage (11th with .412; first place had .457); ERA (10th with 3.73; first place had 2.94); Saves (3rd with 56; first place had 62) and Walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP) (13th with 1.28; first place had 1.15).

In a sense, the Royals did not truly lead the league in anything except for having the fewest strikeouts, but as David Schoenfield points out here, the Royals are actually fairly well-built for postseason success thanks to their low strikeout rate, high contact rate, and excellent defense and bullpen. On the other hand, the Houston Astros squeaked into the playoffs this year after the Rangers defeated the Angels yesterday. This is despite the fact that the Astros LOST their game against the Diamondbacks on Sunday. The Astros haven’t made the posteason since losing the World Series in 2005 and their fans have been suffering awhile through some pretty poor seasons. I wanted to compare how I view Houston’s experience to Kansas City’s since I now live in “H-town,” and see which group of fans has had a more miserable time rooting for their team and thus is more deserving of the Long Suffering Loyalty crown. 

First and foremost, the Astros had a 10-year playoff drought which is nothing compared to the 3-decade wasteland that the Royals gave their fans. Ten years is peanuts to what Kansas Citians had to endure. 

Fan misery advantage: KC

Secondly, both teams have had their share of terrible teams and 100-loss seasons. Houston lost at least 106 games 3 seasons in a row (2011-2013), which included their worst ever season of existence in 2013 when they lost 111 games. Just for the record, the Detroit Tigers hold the AL record for most losses in one season with 119 (HAHAHA the Tigers suck) and the modern-day MLB record for most losses is 120 by the New York Mets. During their 10-year playoff drought, the Astros finished the season in 2nd place twice, 3rd place once, 4th place twice, and last place 4 times.

Kansas City also had 3 straight years of 100-loss seasons (2004-2006), which included their worst season in existence (2005, with 106 losses). During their 29 year playoff drought, the Royals finished in 2nd place 4 times, 3rd place 7 times, 4th place 7 times, and last place a whopping 11 times. Yuck. The Royals essentially spent over a decade in last place. 

Fan misery advantage: KC

Third, I don’t think a city has ever been so elated to exorcise its demons as Kansas City was in 2014. Although I was not there to witness it in person, that city exploded with baseball fever when the Royals clinched a playoff spot. Enough tears were shed to fill Brush Creek on the plaza and people partied like the end of the world was imminent. The Royals themselves partied so hard upon clinching a playoff spot after beating the White Sox in Chicago that the White Sox had to replace the carpet in the visitor’s locker room. Postseason gear was sold out in hours and the Royals were the top-selling team on websites. Fans had to drive all over the city to find what they wanted.

Meanwhile, in Houston, when it was announced they had earned a playoff spot in the Wildcard game, the following celebrations occurred (pics are from Astros twitter):

Houston fans shop in their team store after clinching a spot in the playoffs. This scene has the same serenity as a breeze blowing through a meadow.

Whoa! Don’t party too hard bro!

I have lived in Houston for 15 months now and even though there are plenty of fans here (Astros had over 2.1 million fans attend games this season), my perception is that they are apathetic and lifeless. I have attended about 15 games in my time here and have not seen anything close to a sell-out except on opening day. In addition, I had to put up with The Wave at every single one of the games. Barf. Houston is miserable but not because they suffer with the Astros. At least in KC they could fill the stands when Zack Greinke was pitching, even though they would lose 1-0 on those nights…

Fan misery advantage: KC

Finally, the fact that the Royals had any fans prior to 2014 is a shock by itself. In 2013, the team had traded away its star prospect (Wil Myers) and still employed Jeff Francouer and Chris Getz. Prior to that, the Royals kept trotting out Yuniesky Betancourt despite his inability to play replacement-level baseball, Billy Butler was snubbed in the Home Run Derby, fans had to endure one of the worst pitching performances in the history of baseball, and the Royals had 16 years with only one representative in the All-Star game, including 10 straight years (1990-1999). They also kept hiring inefficient and inept managers who were only notable for their postgame quotes. Prior to Ned Yost, there were 12 managers during their playoff drought. Awful. 

In contrast, the Astros have had 6 managers (3 were interim) in their playoff drought and have climbed out of their depths of despair by getting high draft picks that are performing very well (Carlos Correa, George Springer, Jason Castro) and signing foreign players (Jose Altuve), which is essentially the formula that GM Dayton Moore has brought to KC. However, Houston was able to copy GMDM’s plan and implement it in 10 years, whereas the Royals spent almost 30 years trying to figure it all out. 

Fan misery advantage: KC

The bottom line is that while it is nice to see Houston overcome its failures and poor seasons, their 10-year wait is overshadowed by the period of playoff dormancy that KC endured for 3 times as long. It is not a contest to see who is more miserable, or longer-suffering, or who might be more loyal to their team. I mostly just wanted to compare the two cities since they have both recently overcome playoff droughts using similar tactics in team building and I have lived in both cities in my lifetime. We should celebrate both teams, who might end up facing each other in the ALDS which starts Thursday. And no matter what happens, I will never forget these past 2 years. #ForeverRoyal