KC and KC

Ahhhh, how bout dem Roys?!? What a game, what a night, what a week, and what a season. October baseball is back! I missed the very end of the game Tuesday night but woke up Wednesday to the picture below and man did that make my day!

Plenty of folks have analyzed and reported on the Royals amazing, come-from-behind-as-many-times-as-necessary, do or die thriller of a game on Tuesday night in KC, only one day removed from the Chiefs amazing performance on the national stage. Rather than add to the same old analyses, I thought I would chime in from a different perspective.

Last week was one of the greatest weeks of my life, in part because the Royals qualified for the postseason for the first time in 29 years, and also because Kenny Chesney released a new album.

Everyone that knows me is well aware that Kenny Chesney is my boy. I started listening to him in 2002 when I was sort of dating a girl that liked country music and I wanted to impress her. I bought his “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems” album and my enjoyment of his voice and songs took off. His music has been a mainstay in my cd player and iPod ever since. They helped me get through my father’s death and my many moves across the country, and several Kenny songs were played at my wedding (my first dance with my wife was to a Kenny song). Every one of my friends sends me a text when they hear a Kenny song on the radio, and certain songs of his conjure special memories that my friends and I share. 

If you are wondering what Kenny Chesney has to do with discussing the Royals game on Tuesday, the answer is pretty simple. The new Kenny album marks a return to his old style of music and a departure from the Jimmy Buffet island-style tunes he put out on his last two albums, and the messages in those songs are directly applicable to the KC Royals and this past season. I thought I would explain how below, using lyrics from each of those songs. If you haven’t listened to it yet, check it out. 

Track 1 – The Big Revival. This is the title track and a great song to start the album with. A mid-tempo song, it has enough energy to get you ready to rock. The album was released on Tuesday, Spetember 23, and in an eerie way, the lyrics describe perfectly what was yet to transpire later that week. Kenny starts the song by softly singing “Get ready for the big revival,” foreshadowing the impending glory days that were brought back to Royals fans 3 days after the album's release on Friday September 26, when they qualified for the postseason by beating the White Sox. And Kenny reminds us all that “If your faith ain’t strong enough child, you might wind up dead” – almost a direct reference to the game on Tuesday. The Royals needed every one of their fans to have faith and stick around for the entire game, even when they were down by 4 runs in the 7th inning. And for the Royals faithful, it paid off; in fact, the Oakland A’s themselves admitted that the noise from 40,000+ passionate fans might have played a role in the game. First playoff team to come back from 4 runs down in an elimination game. Kudos, KC.

Track 2 – Drink It Up. Kenny brought out the guitars for the second track. And with those guitars screaming in the background, he reminds us that there are “only so many times you get to feel like this” so we should “light it up, burn it out, that’s what life’s all about.” Perfect advice for a city that has been starved for a playoff victory for over two decades. Get out there and celebrate! Wear your Royals blue, your Chiefs red, and go crazy. And as Kenny points out “you can’t just take al little sip, fill your cup, drink it up.” Just make sure you fill your cup with Boulevard.

Track 3 – Til It’s Gone. This is probably my favorite song on the album. A mid-tempo rocker, this song has a great melody and I SWEAR IT SOUNDS LIKE THE ROYALS WROTE THIS SONG FOR KANSAS CITY FANS. Just look at the lyrics: “tonight we’re running on luck, if we’re gonna use it all up, there’s only one thing left to do: gonna take a deep breath and hold it in, twirl you around til my head spins”. Then later he sings, “One life, one chance, one ticket to the big dance. You and me still holding on, right down to the last song.” The Royals were running on luck all season long – luck that no major injuries occurred, luck that the American League was soft this year, luck that Oakland and Seattle choked down the stretch and enabled KC to lock down a playoff spot. Then we all took a deep breath on Tuesday night and WHAM the Royals twirled us around, spinning our heads and giving us the thrill of a lifetime. If this is the Royals one chance, their one ticket to the big dance, they wanted us fans there with them to the very end. And if you still haven’t listened to the album yet, you are crazy. This album was made for Royals fans.

Track 4 – American Kids. This was the first single released on the album and has received plenty of radio airplay. The song is an ode to being young in the USA. The Royals have several young players on their roster (Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Salvy Perez), and Royals fans have had to deal with their hitting struggles and weird haircuts and those odd hand signs they do when they get on base. American Kids is sort of cheesy, but it has a great tune and perfectly describes those young players: “a little messed up but we were all alright.” And despite those hitting struggles and weird haircuts, Hos, Moose and Salvy all did alright on Tuesday night and have given KC their first postseason victory in a long time. 

Track 5 – Wild Child. This is the song I like the least on the album. It is slow and terrible and the tune sucks. And he sings it with Grace Potter who has a great voice but it never comes out on this track. However, the song does describe many folks and their relationship with the Royals: “might break my heart but God she drives me wild child.” Raise your hand if the Royals have broke your heart in the past few years...

Thought so. And that is how I have felt the past several years. The good news is that the Royals making the playoffs mended my broken heart and all is well again.

Track 6 – Beer Can Chicken. This is the my second least favorite song on the album but offers two messages that are important for Royals fans. First, Kenny begins the song by singing “Seems like everything that’s good in life, you’ve gotta wait for.” And boy how KC fans have waited. TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF WAITING. But the Royals made it all worth it with their victory on Tuesday. This is a good message to apply in other areas of life. And second, Kenny sings “It’s the little things that make life worth living.” Your family, friends, favorite beer, good songs - all make life worth living. When life gets you down, or the Royals face another long stretch without playoffs, think about what Kenny sings: “Would you look at this night that we’ve been given” and remember the small things that got you there, and got the Royals to the playoffs. Small things like having the most stolen bases and fewest strikeouts in all of baseball, shutdown relievers and only losing 1 game when leading after the 7th inning. Bunts upon bunts upon bunts but hey, WE WON A PLAYOFF GAME USING THOSE BUNTS and tied an MLB record with 7 stolen bases on Tuesday night. It’s the little things that make life worth living. 

Track 7 – Rock Bottom. A rocking song that I really like.  It perfectly captures the Royals on Tuesday night, as well as the Royals of the past decade. Kenny sings “I hit rock bottom, started bouncing back” and the guitars wail behind him and you want to “crank it up” and destroy anything getting you down. And that is what the Royals did on Tuesday. After 2 home runs, when the score was 7-3, against a solid baseball team with one of the best pitchers in MLB postseason history, needing 8 runs to win it and they hadn’t scored 8 runs in one game in well over a month, the Royals had their backs to the wall and had basically hit rock bottom. They were literally 9 outs away from losing a home playoff game, their first taste of postseason IN FOREVER. Then Alcides Escobar ran out a grounder up the middle and was safe at first. Stole second base. Moved to third on a chopper by Nori Aoki. Lorenzo Cain drove him home. Eric Hosmer walked. Billy Butler drove Cain home. A wild pitch allowed Hosmer to score. The Royals relievers pitched as if their lives depended on winning this game. Josh Willingham blooped a hit and Jarrod Dyson pinch ran for him. Escobar bunted him to second, then Dyson stole third. Aoki drove him home with a long sacrifice fly. Later in the 12th inning, Hosmer jacked a triple off the wall, Christian Colon grounded him home, then stole second, then Salvador Perez hit the biggest hit in 29 years in KC down the third base line and Colon scored easily and just like that the Royals had bounced back from rock bottom. ARE YOU NOT CREEPED OUT BY HOW MUCH THIS KENNY ALBUM MIRRORS THE ROYALS?????

Track 8 – Don’t It. At first I did not like this song, but after several listens, it grew on me. Kenny showcases his voice with this slower tune, and also offers some great lyrics that of course, directly apply to the Royals and their fans. On the song, he sings “I’ve been right and I’ve been wrong, somewhere in between for so long,” which I imagine everyone can relate to, not just in life, but in how well we all thought the Royals would do this season and on Tuesday night. I was pretty sure that the Royals would not make the playoffs, then I was pretty sure they would claim the AL Central, then I was just happy to be in between those with them making the Wild Card game. And during the game, I was pretty sure the Royals would lose, then I was DEFINITELY sure the Royals would lose, then I thought the Royals had a chance and then I was just happy to see them fighting to stay alive AND THEN OMG THEY WON THE FREAKING GAME AND WHO CARES IF WE WERE RIGHT OR WRONG. As Kenny sings “Life has its way of proving you wrong, don’t it?” then later in the song, “life has its way of keeping you strong, don’t it?” Yep, it sure does Kenny. Being proved wrong has made me strong. And I have never been more happy to be wrong about these Royals.

Track 9 – Save It For A Rainy Day. This is a great song. It is about letting go of heartbreak and the one you loved who ran away. And I think that it applies to everyone in KC, especially those who jumped ship when the Royals were terrible, and it applies even to those Royals fans (myself included) who have found fault with every player and Ned Yost and Dayton Moore and even the ball boys at Kauffman Stadium. Kenny sings “the sun's too bright, the sky’s too blue, beer’s too cold to be thinking bout you, gonna take this heartbreak and tuck it away, save it for a rainy day.” And that is precisely what we should all do. Let us bask in the glory of the Royals, the Chiefs and Sporting KC and put our heartbreak and playoff droughts and playoff losses aside. And for those of you Kansas Citians who jumped ship, come on back, there is plenty of room on the Royals bandwagon. 

Track 10 – Flora-Bama. This is another cheesy Kenny song, but it has a good tune and offers a good beat. It refers to the beach where Florida and Alabama meet, which has nothing to do with KC or the Royals, but Kenny sings “Bout to open up a big old can of good times, unwind, Fall in and out of love in the same night,” and I am willing to bet that every person who tailgated before Tuesday night’s game was thinking they were opening up a can of good times before falling in and out of love with the Royals that night. What a crazy night. Nothing beats a Royals game at The K. This is the perfect song to blare when tailgating for these Royals. Your next chance to do so is this Sunday when the Royals host the Angels in the AL Divisional Series. I recommend buying this album and blasting it while waiting for the gates to open. 

Track 11 – If This Bus Could Talk. The last song on the album, this song showcases Kenny’s personal side. The song is about Kenny’s memories through his history as a singer, from playing small crowds, to county fairs and the summer tours that have made him so famous. In a lot of ways, it mirrors the Royals. They are a small market team, and typically play to smaller crowds (although they had their highest attendance since 1991 this season!). They have had “some crowds that didn’t care” but they have kept “rocking through it all.” No one believed the Royals were good enough (only 13 ESPN writers out of 44 picked the Royals to even make the playoffs before this season started) but they kept playing their brand of “small ball” until they had clenched a postseason berth. They went from a joke that nobody cared about to a team that has trended on Twitter several times and averaged 5.2 million viewers on national TV during their game Tuesday night. They made the cover of Sports Illustrated and have garnered new fans across the globe and one has to wonder: what would the Royals bus say? My guess is that “he’d tell you that I love you, if this bus could talk.”

So there you have it. Kenny Chesney’s album “The Big Revival” perfectly captures the Royals and what it is like to be a fan of the team, whether you have “been caught in a hurricane” and “hit rock bottom” with them, or experienced their “big revival” and “one ticket to the big dance.” Take Kenny’s advice and “kick back and watch the big wheels turn, light up the night and let it burn, til its gone” and “keep living every day like its Saturday night,” while making sure you cheer on our Boys in Blue as they play baseball in October for the first time in 29 years. The first ALDS game against the Angels is at 8:07 p.m. tonight. Drink it up! Kenny would want you to...