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Welcome to Royals Review in 2019!

The dumbest and smartest place for Royals community

By Matthew LaMar
Kansas City Royals right fielder Brett Phillips (14) is congratulated by first base coach Mitch Maier (24) in the game against the Chicago Cubs at Kauffman Stadium.
Kansas City Royals right fielder Brett Phillips (14) is congratulated by first base coach Mitch Maier (24) in the game against the Chicago Cubs at Kauffman Stadium.
Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

Well, hello there. My name is Matthew LaMar. You can probably surmise that from my name appearing just below the title of this here article. I’m the Deputy Manager of this here site you happen to be reading on the series of tubes that is the World Wide Web, Royals Review. It is my job this year, therefore, to roll out the welcome wagon from its winter storage in the large parking lots of Kauffman Stadium.

We’ve seen a lot of turnover here in the writer department recently. Longtime editor and wordsmith, Josh Duggan, signed off for the last time at the end of February. Meanwhile, we’ve brought on multiple new writers in Michael Augustine, Jesse Anderson, Josh Keiser, Jack Johnson, and Paul Shirley.

We’re a week away from the start of the 2019 season, which also means another thing: many of you readers and commenters are new, dipping into the Royals Review waters for the first time. And you know what? That’s totally fine! We’re happy to have you.

I feel pretty confident in saying that Royals Review isn’t your average media site. We’re proud of it. So, to help introduce you to us, here are three things that Royals Review is and what that means for you.

Royals Review is about the Community

You’ve probably heard the phrase “we’re all about the community,” and you’ve probably rolled your eyes, but it’s honestly true here. The aforementioned Duggan created his account in 2009 and wrote here for eight season. I’ve been around as a commenter since 2011 and have been on the masthead since 2014. Many commenters have been around five years, some for a decade or more.

Yes, Royals Review is a component of our SB Nation overlords. But that is not where it originated. Will McDonald started what would be Royals Review way back in 2004. The Royals were unconscionably horrific then, and would be for years. Yet Will kept writing, and thanks to SB Nation’s robust commenting system, people showed up. They talked to each other. Began a community, a community that exists to this day.

Everything is shinier now. Our traffic is significantly higher. The Royals have even won an honest-to-goodness World Series. But the community remains, and that, more than our writers’ output, is what makes this place special.

To sign up, there’s a little silhouette icon near the top right of the navigation menu. You can signup via Facebook, Twitter, or just with a standard email account. There is a 24-hour waiting period after you’ve joined, but after that you are free as a bird.

Because our community is important, and because the internet can so often be a terrible dung heap thanks to the empowering effects of anonymimity, we take moderating very seriously and do so aggressively. Distilled into two words, it is “be nice.” In further words...

Royals Review is a Bastion of Irreverence

If you’re looking for a place to get straight-up game recaps and a serious, newspaper-like experience, this ain’t it, chief. We use our creativity to have some fun, poke some holes in what can be sometimes silly baseball logic, and enjoy ourselves in what will seem to be in August a neverending slog of baseball, baseball, baseball.

Put it this way: Max once wrote a recap entirely depicted by LEGOs. Last year, former writer Farmhand wrote about which cheeses the Royals were most like. I wrote half of a recap using the same six-word phrase, repeatedly, Shining-style.

Likewise, we embrace creativity in commenting, and we aren’t particularly aggressive about off topic content. Every morning, a ‘Royals Rumblings’ article is posted. That article features both baseball and non-baseball news, and OT discussion—yes, even political—is fair game. We recommend staying away from particularly divisive topics, of course, but no healthy community only talks about one subject over and over again.

Royals Review isn’t just a Website

No, I’m not going to say that Royals Review is a lifestyle. We are not. To some, we are, but that’s on you guys, not us. Though we do appreciate it.

We have a presence in all sorts of places, in fact.

Thank you for joining us. Let’s do this baseball season together. If the Royals are 2018 bad again, we’re gonna need it.

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