Until this year, I hadn’t closely followed a World Series since the Royals won in 2015. But I got interested this year just by chance, when I decided to root for the St. Louis Cardinals in their one-game playoff with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
I’ve always hated both the Cardinals and the Dodgers — the Cardinals because they used to regularly beat my Cincinnati Reds when I lived in Louisville, KY, and the Dodgers because they’re too smug, too rich and win too much.
But the Cardinals got my attention and admiration late in the season because they have a 40-year-old, star pitcher, Adam Wainwright, and because they had a remarkable 17-game winning streak, which got them into the wild-card game with the Dodgers.
I watched that game, and although the Cardinals lost, I started following the playoffs because I wanted the Dodgers to lose. After they lost out to the Braves, I was too deep in it to turn back, and I began rooting for the Braves. Now, the Braves lead the series three games to two, with the series returning to Houston tomorrow night for Game 6 and Game 7, if necessary.
If you haven’t been watching this series, you’re missing out on some high-level and very exciting baseball…The only thing marring it is the damned tomahawk chop, which Braves’ management persists in promoting and which now looks just plain ridiculous. Jeff Passan, an ESPN writer who formerly worked at The Star and still lives in the KC area, wrote an article in which he called the chop “a wildly ahistorical, fundamentally problematic and altogether unnecessary ritual.”
Passan predicted the tomahawk chop will eventually be retired by the last three teams that employ it — the Braves, the Florida State Seminoles and…the Kansas City Chiefs.
It can’t come soon enough. Looking back on the days in the 70s and 80s when I attended Chiefs’ games periodically, I’m embarrassed that I opened my mouth to join in the chant and raise my arm in a chopping gesture. The only partially mitigating excuse I can offer is I was drinking during the 70s, and that’s pretty lame.
But other than that, like I say, this World Series has produced some amazing stuff. Consider, for example…
:: Former Kansas City Royals’ slugger Jorge Soler led off the Series by hitting a home run. It was the first time in Series history that the first batter up has hit a home run.
:: In Game 4 on Saturday, Soler was part of another rare feat, when teammate Dansby Swanson and Soler hit back-to-back home runs to give the Braves the lead, which they held onto to win the game. (I wrote earlier this year I was glad the Royals traded Soler, and I still am, but it’s good to see him enjoying himself and doing so well in the Series.)
:: Braves’ relief pitchers Tyler Matzek and Will Smith have shut down the Astros in the late innings of each game the Braves have won. Icily efficient, those guys remind me of Wade Davis and Greg Holland in 2015.
For me, though, the biggest thrill was in Game 4, when Braves’ left fielder Eddie Rosario made a breathtaking, on-the-run catch.
It was the top of the eighth inning with two out, nobody on base and the Braves leading 3-2, thanks to the Swanson-Soler homers. Astros’ star Jose Altuve hit a long drive to left field. Rosario raced back toward the wall, eyeing the ball. A few steps before he got to the wall, he took his eyes off the ball for an instant to see where he was in relation to the wall. Just as quickly, he turned back, stuck his glove out and, smack, the ball landed in his glove.
He bounced off the padded wall and emitted a shout. Heading back toward the dugout, he balled his right hand into a fist and smacked it against his chest. Just then, an inspired TV director switched to a camera shot of Soler, who was standing at the dugout railing. Soler’s mouth was wide open in awe, a big smile on his face and hands clasped on top of his head. You can see the play and Soler’s reaction here.
The TV announcers, led by Joe Buck, son of legendary Cardinals’ announcer Jack Buck, didn’t give Rosario sufficient credit. None of them pointed out that Rosario had glanced at the wall, which multiplied the chances of him not catching it.
Soler understood it, though. After the game, through an interpreter, he said: “When Eddie turned to look at the fence, we thought to ourselves — or at least I thought personally — that the ball either hit the fence, or it’s gone. then he just kept running and threw the glove out there and made the catch, and we all looked at each other in amazement, like: ‘Did that just really happen?’ It took us all by surprise, and it was something truly out of a movie.”
Soler didn’t come up with quotes that like when he was playing for the Royals. Of course, the Royals weren’t making incredible clutch plays in pivotal games, either. There were no pivotal games. Happily for Jorge, he’s now in some games he’ll remember the rest of his life. Smile on, Jorge.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
I don’t watch baseball, but my wife is the sports fan. She thinks it’s hilarious that after they moved the All-Star game from Atlanta in protest of their new voting regulations to a state that not only had more restrictive voting laws, but a city with a higher white population, that Atlanta is now in the World Series. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
Fitz, had I known you were following the World Series, I would have invited you to Johnny’s Sports Bar in Prairie Village last Wednesday to watch Game 2 with me, Jeffery Spivak, Loren Stanton and your good friend and former City Hall cohort Kevin Murphy.
Great group, Mike…I got to see Kevin for the first time in a long while a couple of weeks ago at the Bier Station. Marty Rosenberg has a group, mostly of former business desk people, he gets together periodically. We had some incredible talent back before the fall, and great personalities. (You’re one of ’em, buddy.)
And The Braves have a great organist in Matthew Kaminski! Fun to have live music.
I like that organist too! I wish the Royals had that rather than the eardrum-breaking music they blare over the loudspeakers.
When the Washington Nationals’ Bryce Harper was trying to decide late in 2018 whether to stay in DC or become a free agent, the Braves organist played “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” when Bryce came to the plate.
Jim, I love your posts and don’t want to be snarky but the Chiefs chop is a 21st Century thing. Roz and my relatives had season tickets in the 70s into the 80s and we never did the chop at games. The Chiefs fans adopted it well after Florida State and the Braves embraced it.
Not snarky at all, Steve…The chop has become such a tradition at Arrowhead I projected it back well beyond its origin. I just have no recollection of when it got started. I think the last game I went to was four years ago, and I’m pretty sure I participated in the chop. Thanks for clearing up the historical inaccuracy.
You might recall that Will Smith pitched for the Royals before being traded to the Brewers for Nori Aoki, a steady-hitting, shaky-fielding right fielder who contributed to the Royals’ 2014 pennant-winning success. My son and I went to NW Arkansas in July 2012 to see the Royals’ can’t-miss phenomenon, Wil Myers. Weren’t impressed by him that night, but saw Smith go seven strong innings and a catching prospect named Salvadore Perez get two hits, a homer, three rbis and throw out two runners. Smith has six saves in post-season play and should be a candidate for Series MVP if the Braves can win one of the remaining two games.
We gave up Will Smith? Oh, my. Great story about your N.W. Arkansas trip…Wil Myers, now 30, is playing for the S.D. Padres, and before that played for the Tampa Bay Rays. Looks like he’s been a productive player but not the star he was anticipated to be when he was in the Royals’ farm system.