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Royals Rumblings - News for November 2, 2015

The Crown has been taken.

By Max Rieper
Elsa/Getty Images

Royals Rumblings - News for November 2, 2015

Salvador Perez is all smiles after winning World Series MVP.

Salvador Perez took foul balls of his mask, collarbone and fingers, and the Kansas City catcher kept on bouncing back, like some indestructible test dummy. No bruise was too painful. No ache was too much to overcome. Not only did he anchor the pitching staff, he hit .364 (8 for 22) and was voted the Most Valuable Player in the Royals' five-game World Series win over the New York Mets that culminated in a 7-2, 12-inning victory early Monday morning.

"Now I don't feel pain. I don't feel nothing," he said. Last year against San Francisco, Perez hit a foul pop to Pablo Sandoval for the Series' final out, with the potential tying run at third. Now that's long behind him.

"In 2015 Kansas City is No. 1," he said, the shiny trophy in front of him. "Who cares about what happened last year?"

Eric Hosmer talks about winning the championship.

Alex Gordon is staying?

David Schoenfield at ESPN has his five takeaways from the Royals winning it all, including a cameo from Josh Duggan.

This is why we love this sport. Throw out your analytics and your triple-slash lines and your WAR and your second-guessing and all of that. When the World Series is on the line and it's a tough battle with close, grind-'em-out games, it comes down to making plays at the game's critical moments. This is when we form those memories that stick in our minds that are already cluttered with baseball.

That, ultimately, is what the Royals did and what the Mets failed to do. Hosmer stood on third base in the ninth inning with one out, the tying run, the infield in, Jeurys Familia on in relief of Matt Harvey trying to get this World Series back to Kansas City. Perez hit the little chopper to David Wright's left, Wright fielded it and took a quick glance at Hosmer and threw to first, with Hosmer then making a dash for home plate. First baseman Lucas Duda turned, made a wild throw and Hosmer scored the tying run.

Did Hosmer make a smart play? A risky play? A bad play that simply happened to work out? A good throw from Duda -- as you can see in the Tweet below -- clearly nails Hosmer for the game-ending out and then we're heading back to Kansas City for Game 6 and asking Hosmer about his bone-headed decision. But Hosmer made a play and Duda didn't and that's what we'll stash away in our brains. A good defensive first baseman has the instinct to make a good throw there. In a way, it was an ultimate Royals play, and an example of their baserunning that hammered the Mets in this game.

Jon Morosi writes that Christian Colon is the quintessential hero.

Let's not forget the huge start by Edinson Volquez, just days after the death of his father.

He was the one who bought him his first gloves and spikes and drove him to emulate Pedro Martinez. "He was everything for me …," Volquez said. "He put me in the right way."

From the moment he returned to the team, Volquez said, they helped him be "in the right way," too. He was swarmed with hugs and smothered in words of encouragement in the clubhouse that reaffirmed what he’d been hearing and seeing and feeling for days.

"It was unreal," he said, later adding, "I never thought I would get so much love from a lot of people, even outside of the clubhouse and out of baseball. "And I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve got a lot of people that really care about what happened to me.’ And it’s a great feeling."

Terry Collins is going to be second-guessed about his decision to leave Harvey in for quite awhile.

Roger Angell waxes poetic about the Royals and Mets.

Watching them come up to bat again—Escobar, Zobrist, and Cain up top; Hosmer, Moustakas, and Perez in the middle; Gordon and Rios waiting down below—has made for a permanent Uh-oh! behind my breastbone this week, and the perverse passing wish that I had no stake in this series. I fell in love with these Royals in their near-thing début in the World Series last fall, and will find pleasure and pride in them as champions, if that’s what they become. So far, the Royals have struck out twenty-six times in this Series, which stands as a tribute to the Mets pitching, but they’ve also hit a million foul balls—confident fouls—and rarely swing and miss. Beyond this, there’s a collective élan to them, a bearded joy in their work, that you want to be part of. They know how hard baseball is, and—like the Mets, for that matter; like every pro—can hardly wait to play within its icy rules.

Joel Sherman praises Dayton Moore for his offseason and thinks it may be a blueprint for other teams.

For in a quieter way, the Royals and general manager Dayton Moore have duplicated — to some degree — what was done by the 2013 Red Sox, who famously avoided the top of the free agency field, had a remarkable batting average in the middle market with players such as Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli and Koji Uehara and essentially deepened themselves up and down the roster by diversifying their portfolio. The Royals did the same last offseason. They did not give out a free-agent contract of more than two guaranteed years, addressed several holes and spent just $35.875 million for 2015 to land Alex Rios, Edinson Volquez, Kendrys Morales, Luke Hochevar, Kris Medlen, Franklin Morales, Ryan Madson and Chris Young.

Some congratulations from old friends and new friends.

David Laurilia at Fangraphs has a not surprising note about the Royals.

Not surprisingly, Sveum likes contact, especially when his team is rallying. "You get three outs in an inning, and if you strike out for two of those outs, your odds of coming back aren’t going to be very good," said Sveum. "But if you put three balls in play, something might fall and you keep the line moving."

Alcides Escobar and Ben Zobrist have been KC’s best line-movers this postseason, and preparation-wise, they’ve done so with polar-opposite approaches. According to Sveum, Zobrist "will probably watch four hours worth of video on the pitchers," while Escobar "doesn’t watch anything."

Will Leitch at Sports on Earth writes how the Royals have become THE story despite the media wanting to make it about the Mets.

Remember, while the Mets were going through all the pain of the last 29 years, the troubled careers of Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, the 2000 Series, the Adam Wainwright pitch, the collapses of 2007 and 2008, the Royals were losing too. The Royals were losing worse, and for longer. The Mets have been a wild epic soap opera tragedy with constant twists and turns that we can't stop watching, but the Royals have been far more depressing: They've just been quiet, modest, sullen failures, the sort of barren, depressing novel that never makes the bestseller list and ends up going out of print. They've been going through the same pain Mets fans have, maybe even worse pain. This is their story too. And this is looking like their breakthrough.

The Star writes the Royals will wear the crown proudly.

Joe Buck heaps high praise on the Royals. No really!

See how the Mets and Royals expanded their fanbase.

No surprise, the Royals are expected to non-tender closer Greg Holland.

August Fagerstrom at Fangraphs looks at the costliest errors in World Series history.

A personality conflict led Alex Anthropoulos to bolt Toronto.

Pete Rose thinks he has a chance to be reinstated by baseball, but he doesn't.

Miami had a crazy play as time expired to beat Duke that involved several errors by the refs, leading to their suspension.

The best Grantland articles, as selected by the Fivethirtyeight staff.

The Chiefs should play more games in England.

Human DNA was found in some veggie dogs, but its no big deal.

NWA manager Jerry Heller issuing everyone associated with "Straight Outta Compton."

Sandra Bullock will lead an all-female cast of an "Ocean's Eleven" re-boot.

Your song of the day is Tina Turner with "The Best".

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