Royals Fans, Take Pride!

 No, not necessarily in your team, but in yourselves. Here's the reason:

Yesterday, in The Hardball Times, Craig Calcaterra of the Shysterball blog wrote the following review of Mariners-Royals:

Royals 3, Mariners 0: When I first typed this I accidentally inverted this score to show the Ms winning it. Quick show of hands: how many of you would have noticed if I had kept it that way? But let's not be totally dismissive here. Kyle Davies was impressive (8 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 8K) and Soria got his 38th save for a team with only 66 wins. It would be even more impressive if Seattle had put together even a AAA-quality lineup for this game.

Ha-ha, let's laugh at the pitiful teams playing out the string, right? Well, here's the game summary for the next day:

Mariners 6, Royals 3: Attendance was listed as over 19,000. The fact that these two teams can draw that many people at this point in the season when Tampa Bay cannot absent a huge influx of Sox fans tells you a lot about the relative maturity and viability of the Tampa Bay market.

How ironic! Shyster makes the same mistake he just mentioned the previous day! Waaaaiit a second . . . I contacted Craig to alert him to the error, and also complain a little - this isn't the first time this year he's done this to a Royals score. But his response to me warmed my midwestern, cholesterol-clogged heart:

Brian,   I did it on purpose.  I actually have a lot of Royals'  fans who read the blog and immediately piped up yesterday to say that they would have noticed.  I wanted to test the assertion.  I am happy to report on behalf of Royals'  fans everywhere, that it was almost immediately noticed by several people.  Royals fans are good fans.  Sharp fans too.   I suppose I do give the Royals too much hell.  I think I've actually been harder on the Giants this year, but you're right: I probably need to moderate that a bit.  It's nothing personal.  Sometimes it's just hard to think of something interesting to say about a game without playoff implications this time of year.   Craig

So, I say to internet Royals fans everywhere, show a little extra pride today. Walk with the head a little higher. Stick out the chin with a little more Gload-ian grit. For we might not be the largest fan base, and we might not root for the best team (Hah! Understatement!), but today we have shown we yet retain our dignity and our self-respect. Let us hope our team can follow in our footsteps.