Keep Your Ticket Stub: A new Kings of Kauffman series

As the new guy at Kings of Kauffman, I want to introduce myself with a story giving you an idea of what you can expect from me moving forward. With a degree in history and a minor in baseball (not formally recognized by any accredited university), I enjoy writing about baseball's storied past. But as much as we all enjoy reliving Salvador Perez walking Oakland off in the 2014 Wild Card Game or George Brett's dominant performance in Game Three of the 1985 ALCS, those kinds of moments are few and far between for even the most spoiled franchises, and I think we can all agree that KC Royals fans are far from spoiled.

The best KC Royals game I've ever seen

So, what I want do with this series is highlight the regular season games and accomplishments that make up the backbone of every KC Royals fan's experience. Some of these games will be more recognizable than others; none are likely to be the subjects of books or commemorative videos, with the possible exception of the Pine Tar Game, a baseball moment that has achieved the legendary status of an epic playoff game. But that's exactly the sort of thing we're going for here.

These are the kind of games that you bring up over and over when reminiscing about old glory days. They might seem meaningless in the big picture, but they're the triumphs that keep us engaged in between trophy presentations, which might take decades, as Royals fans can attest. And they're even more meaningful to us if we just happen to be in the stands. That's why I'm going to start us off by telling you about the greatest game I ever watched in person.

The game had a little bit of everything: an upset of a juggernaut team (or soon-to-be juggernaut, at least), superstars aplenty, positive and negative fan interactions, timely pitching, big knocks, an epic comeback, and of course, a walk-off dinger. So pull up a seat and I'll tell you a tale, and maybe you can tell me about the best game you ever saw when I'm done.

Setting the scene: The Royals, Houston, and the 2017 season

Here's the deal. I wasn't even supposed to be at the best game I've ever attended. My birthday is June 9 (might want to mark that down, since I assume you'll be wanting to send presents), and what I wanted in 2017 was to attend a game with my family. Not just my wife and kids, either. I wanted my cousin and my dad to come as well. It was going to be a big thing.

Yet, despite the fact that it was my birthday, I was somehow put in charge of buying the tickets. Not sure how that happened, but it did, and maybe it was meant to be because our plan was to watch the Royals play the Astros on Thursday, June 8. But I clicked the wrong button and ordered six tickets for Tuesday, June 6, instead. And this is not the only time I've done something like this. If you take nothing else away from this article, let it be that I should not be put in charge of purchasing tickets if we ever attend a game together.

Fortunately, no one in my party had a conflict with the new date, and by the end of the night, they'd all be thanking me for screwing up. Had we gone June 8, we would have seen Lance McCullers Jr. shut down the Royals for a fairly ho-hum 6-1 Astros win. Instead, we got to watch a game none of us would ever forget.

Long before news of Houston's sign-stealing scandal broke, the Astros were an up-and-coming powerhouse loaded with young talent. After breaking through in 2015, and losing to the Royals in a classic ALDS, Houston took a step back in 2016 before truly arriving in 2017. Led by Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, and George Springer (there was no player in the last decade I longed to see in a Kansas City uniform more than Springer, even though I knew it would never happen), the Astros were already running away with the AL West in early June and arrived in KC with a 13-game lead.

Of course, Houston won its first World Series that season, and for at least a part of the year it looked like a playoff rematch with the Royals was possible. The core of Kansas City's World Series teams (Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas) was on its farewell tour, and the season turned out to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride.

Less than two months later, the Royals were in possession of an AL Wild Card spot at the trade deadline, but the moves General Manager Dayton Moore made blew up in his face. Melky Cabrera could not recapture the form he showed for KC in 2011, and the acquisition of pitchers from the Padres was a disaster.

The Royals finished 2017 with an 80-82 record, five games behind the Minnesota Twins for the second Wild Card spot, and 22 games behind a Cleveland team that won 102 games, including a ridiculous 22-game winning streak. Kansas City happened to be hot at the same time but failed to gain any ground because Cleveland was playing so well.

The 2017 season qualifies as the last good Royals campaign. Sure, it fell short of the playoff euphoria of 2014-15, but compared to the three 100-loss seasons and general malaise that followed, 2017 still feels like part of a golden era. Heading into that June 6 game against Houston, however, the Royals had yet to find their groove. They were 25-32 and bringing up the rear of the AL Central, but a case could be made that this was the night the Royals turned it around and made 2017 interesting.

The game begins

The pitching matchup was David Paulino for Houston vs. Jakob Junis for the Royals. Junis came into 2017 as a rookie with little fanfare, but after finishing the season with a 9-3 record, 4.30 ERA, and 1.281 WHIP, and combined with the tragic death of Yordano Ventura and Danny Duffy's inconsistency, was arguably the team's second best pitcher after Jason Vargas. Unfortunately, much like Brad Keller after him, his career took a downward turn after a promising start and he never quite recaptured that early promise.

This was only Junis' second career start, and I was excited to see what the young prospect had against one of the most potent lineups in the majors. Our seats were in left field, right in the heart of what was then known as "Gordo Nation". We were in prime home run territory, hoping that none would come at Junis' expense, and in high spirits. Only one thing could ruin that.

In my experience, games at great ballparks involve at least one subplot about the fans around you. I remember a 2015 game against the Orioles that was amazing — the Royals were at the height of their power, beating up a good Baltimore team, and the section we were in was unlike anything I'd ever seen. We were all strangers high-fiving and hugging each other, dancing and excitedly talking for all nine innings.

June 6 was not that. Two couples were seated in front of us. The guys were arrogant and didn't know much about baseball. They heckled Alex Gordon, and reliever Peter Moylan in the bullpen, and they thought they were hysterical, even if everyone around them didn't. I still don't understand what they had against Moylan; by all accounts a likeable guy, he was probably KC's most reliable reliever that season.

But the Astros jumped on Junis early and led 7-1 in the fourth. Apparently sensing a blowout, the guys fortunately left to salvage their dates, which let us refocus on the game.

On the flip side, my eight-year-old son was horrified to hear some Astros fans cheering a few rows behind us. He turned to them in disbelief and asked (loud enough that the whole section could hear), "Wait a minute. Are you actually rooting for the Astros?" They were, and they turned out to be very nice people. We exchanged compliments about each other's teams, and spent the rest of the game conversing and indulging in friendly trash talk.

And isn't that why we pay good money to go to these games? To have a good time? Of course, it never hurts when your team wins. And when they win in dramatic fashion, well, that's as good as it gets. So let's get to the good stuff.