Forever Royal

Last year, the Kansas City Royals accomplished many unthinkable tasks, even by their fans’ standards. They broke their 29 season streak of not making the playoffs. They managed to slip into the Wild Card playoff game, and come back to defeat the Oakland A’s 9-8. With eight wins in a row, they broke the previous league record of seven consecutive playoff victories, sweeping the Oakland A’s, the Los Angeles Angels and the Baltimore Orioles. And they made it all the way to the World Series, only to come up one game short of being champions. Now that spring training has started, and the Royals have many high expectations and fans waiting for them in Kansas City.

After the season ended, the Royals made trading actions in the offseason that upset many fans. The Royals said goodbye to three key post-season players: Nori Aoki, James Shields and Billy ‘Country Breakfast’ Butler. Each left for different teams during the postseason. Aoki was an outfielder, who batted in the beginning of the line up. Shields was the big pitcher, and Country Breakfast was the designated hitter.

“I think we should have spent all of our money [to keep] James Shields,” freshman fan Jonah Watt said, “He was our best pitcher.”

Many fans were upset to see the three players leave, but understood that money was the issue.

“I was sad to see them go,” math teacher and avid Royals fan Patricia Kennedy said, “but they just wanted too much money and they weren’t worth what they were getting.”

Since the three left, the Royals had to add players to fill the roles of those who left. They picked up pitcher Edinson Volquez from Pittsburgh, designated hitter Kendrys Morales from Minnesota and outfielder Alex Rios from Texas.

With spring training starting, many fans including Kennedy are heading down to Surprise, Arizona, to get a glimpse of what this year’s team will look like. Spring training is the baseball equivalent to preseason for football, but it lasts longer. According to many lancer fans, including junior Andrew Stottle, the atmosphere at spring training is more relaxed, and not the same as a regular season game at the K.

“Spring training is not like a normal MLB baseball game,” Stottle said. “The weather is really nice, and the players are more interactive with the fans. You get a lot of balls and autographs and stuff like that.”

Prior to the start of Spring Training, Sports Illustrated ranked each of the thirty MLB teams. The Washington Nationals landed at the top, and the Royals were voted 19th. However, rankings can change, and games won’t start to matter until the season starts. Spring training ends on April 4. After that, is when games start to count. On April 6, the royals will kick off their season against the Chicago White Sox out at Kauffman Stadium.

Last year, the Royals finished in a close second in the American League Central, behind the Detroit Tigers. Currently, the Tigers are ranked 7th by Sports Illustrated. The past four seasons, Detroit has ended up at the top of the division.

“Detroit is going to be really good,” Stottle said. “But I think it will just be a two-horse race in the AL Central.”

As well as the Royals did last year, many people doubt that they will return to the World Series, and the trading they did in the offseason will come back and hurt them.

“I think our offensive looks good,” Watt said. “But I don’t think we will do as good as we did last year, without Shields.”

Royals started their spring training last Thursday, Feb. 19. Now with the regular season coming up, the fans are waiting for the start