They didn’t come this far to come this far, but if they only come this far, that’s OK.
Take it from me, someone who has been writing on this website for more than nine years now, (Where does the time go?) coming up with catchy words is hard. So believe me when I tell you that Bobby Witt Jr. kid has a future in marketing if the whole baseball superstar thing doesn’t work out. First, it was the deceptively simple, “The boys are playing some ball!” that became a rallying cry for Royals players and fans alike. More recently it has been the somehow even more deceptively simple, “We didn’t come this far to come this far!” which has sparked joy in the hearts of all who support the Kansas City Royals.
I’m sure if you checked in with Bobby before tonight’s ballgame, he’d insist it was still as true as when he said it after the first win in Washington that broke a seven-game losing streak and instantly made the Royals heavy favorites for the postseason again. And he should! It would be a crying shame if the players and coaches decided they didn’t really care if they beat the Yankees in the ALDS.
But, well, the other team gets some say in it, too. And the Yankees have some very good players on their side. Among them, the guy who is likely going to prevent Bobby winning the first MVP the Royals have had since 1980, Aaron Judge. And if Judge and the Yankees beat the Royals, honestly, that’s OK.
Don’t get me wrong. I want the Royals to win, too! I promised myself I wouldn’t get upset if they lost the Wild Card series to the Orioles as long as they made a good showing. That didn’t stop me from feeling incredibly tense while watching every single pitch of both games. I might be OK with the Royals losing, but I definitely don’t want it.
There are a certain number of fans, both within Royals fandom and outside of it, for whom there exists a belief that nothing short of a World Series victory should be celebrated. To me, that’s absolutely insane. Only one team gets to win the World Series every year!
If you’re rooting for the Astros, Dodgers, or Yankees I think that expectation can make sense. Those teams are expensive and perennial contenders. Baltimore and Atlanta have expectations they didn’t meet this season not just to make the playoffs, but to win some series once they got there. Once you reach a certain height, the expectations increase.
But when you’ve missed the playoffs for nine straight years and lost 100 games the year before, it should be OK to look at a team that not only made the playoffs but swept the first round and think, “Yeah, they did pretty good. That’s a successful season!” That’s where the Royals are right now. As many other writers have noted, they’re “playing with house money.”
In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, it refers to the idea of a gambler at a casino who has already made a profit. That means they currently possess money that once belonged to “the house,” a nickname for the casino one is gambling in. If a gambler is playing with house money, they’re only using money that they have won through the course of their night’s gambling. Even if they lose all of it, the worst they can do is break even - assuming they don’t then continue betting into the money they brought with them and lose that as well. And, of course, a wise gambler might set aside even some of those winnings to ensure they finish the night with more money than they started.
The Royals have already won. They’ve already banked a playoff appearance and even a series victory. The wins they play for now will benefit them, and Kansas City fans. But even if they lose, everything they’ve accomplished still counts and still is a big step up from where they were last season.
Of course, as I noted earlier, the expectations change when a team succeeds. When the Royals weren’t eliminated until the World Series in 2014, they immediately gained an expectation that they would compete for the World Series again in 2015. That expectation lasted through 2017. They’ve already increased expectations again for next season. At this time last year, most would have said that winning 80 games in 2024 would be a success. At this point, anything less than a playoff berth in 2025 would certainly seem like a disappointment.
So if the Royals get knocked out by the Yankees, it’s OK to be sad. I can’t tell you how to feel, but I definitely think I would feel like I was overreacting if I got mad about it. I imagine the Royals themselves will be pretty upset because none of those players or coaches know when they’ll get another chance. None of that will change the fact that they did all that could reasonably be expected from them and more.
Still, until they are knocked out - by the Yankees or whoever else - it’ll be incredibly fun to see just how high the Royals can raise the expectations for next season.
