It's Chevalier's Thread and He Can Do What He Wants To

[Cornflakes]

Excellent narrative of the baseball I did not understand baseball at all growing up. Players stand around in a field or sit on a bench for 3 hours, each only getting a few opportunities at bat ... Zzzz... The more successful the pitching, the more standing around and less action. My wife and her family are big baseball fans though so I am starting to understand and appreciate the sport. Reading your descriptions I'm seeing more strategy and teamwork than appears on the surface to my casual observation

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 18




Scout has vanished, to the northeast almost certainly. Well, he can't do any harm there. Let's see if I can find the camp. I also finish the settler and set him off towards Zobrist, while starting a builder (4 turns). We'll get some mines up and improve production - I do need animal husbandry soon for those sheep. Hmmm...Fit that in after sailing, perhaps? Going to start a galley as soon as sailing is done, I think, get out onto the water. 

======

Today's story continues the tale of the 2014 Royals, who had just won the ALDS as massive underdogs against the Angels in an improbable 3-game sweep, including 2 extra-inning games. Now, I'll tell you how they fared in the ALCS, the American League Championship Series, a 7-game match up to determine who will represent the American League against hte National League in the World Series (the Promised Land).

Video summary if you hate reading (again, adapted from highlight videos and crudely edited by Yours Truly): https://youtu.be/UYYIz-I8MSU

The ALCS was a matchup of opposites. In the other Divisional series, the Baltimore Orioles had defeated the Royals’ nemesis, the Detroit Tigers, in a 3-game sweep. The Orioles had won the AL East going away and were eager to make it back to the World Series for the first time since 1983. They led the league in home runs - but also struck out a LOT. The Royals had the lead in stolen bases - fewest home runs. Could the scrappy Royals’ offense overcome Baltimore’s explosive power?

So naturally, the ALCS became a power showoff for the Royals.

Game 1 in Camden looked to be going all Kansas City’s way at first. Alcides Escobar (!) opened the scoring with a homer in the third, then Alex Gordon once again cleared the bases with a triple, giving the Royals a 4-0 lead. In the entire 2014 season, the Royals had never lost a game that they led by 4 runs. But then Baltimore struck back.

In the 5th, James Shields had given up an RBI double and a 2-RBI single to let the Orioles crawl back to within a run. Then, in the 6th, Brandon Finnegan was unable to repeat his Wild Card performance and walked John Schoop, then allowed a single to Nick Markakis to put the tying run at second and the go-ahead run at first.

Alejandro de Aza tried to bunt the runners over, but took an 0-1 pitch low and away – and then Salvador Perez made a snap throw to second base that had Schoop picked off. But Schoop tried for third, and Alcides Escobar’s throw hit him in the back and bounced away. Markakis made it to second, and instead of having one out and a man on first, there were no outs and men on second and third. And if that wasn’t enough, de Aza, now free to swing away, swung at the next pitch and popped it up on the infield – except that he hit a sand wedge that died about 20 feet behind the pitcher’s mound, in the absolute perfect spot where no one could catch it. Escobar dove for it futilely; de Aza was safe at first, and Schoop raced home from third with the tying run as the crowd went bananas singing that “Seven Nation Army” atrocity of a song.

If momentum meant anything in baseball, this is where the Royals’ magic dies. This is where the Orioles put the game away. But momentum means nothing in baseball. Herrera came on and put out the fire, preserving the tie.

The game stayed tied at 5 entering the ninth inning. The Orioles turned to their closer, Zach Britton, who in 2016 would be the best relief pitcher in baseball. Here, though, he proceeded to do the unthinkable: he walked the bases loaded. First he walked Alcides Escobar on a 3-2 count, which is difficult enough on its own. But Britton then faced Jarrod Dyson, who can’t hit lefties worth a damn, and had entered the game as a pinch-runner for Nori Aoki in the 7th (and then was thrown out trying to steal second base) – on four pitches. Britton then walked Lorenzo Cain – on four pitches. The bases were loaded, there were no outs, the heart of the Royals’ order was due up, and the pitcher on the mound suddenly couldn’t throw strikes. You might even say that the Royals had…momentum.

And then Zach Britton, on a 3-2 pitch to Eric Hosmer, got Hosmer to ground out to the first baseman – who, with the infield in, threw home and got the force out to keep the game tied. That brought up Billy Butler, and Buck Showalter called on Darren O'Day - like Britton a groundballer, but who also had the benefit of being right-handed - to face off against one of the game’s biggest GIDP threats. Sure enough, on the 7th pitch of the at-bat, Butler rolled over to the shortstop, who started an easy 6-4-3 double play. Butler’s double play had a WPA of -35%, making it by the far the most damaging plate appearance by a Royals hitter in postseason history. (No other play is even at -20% WPA.) After having the bases loaded with no outs, the Royals didn’t score, and the Orioles would bat in the bottom of the 9th with their 2-3-4 hitters due up, needing single run to end the game. You would definitely say that the Orioles had…momentum.

It was Earl Weaver who said “Momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher”, because Earl Weaver was a very smart man. Rany Jayazerli has proposed a 21st-century corollary to this rule that applies to momentum within games: Momentum is the next inning’s reliever. And in the history of baseball, there has never been a better reliever to call upon in the next inning than 2014 vintage Wade Davis.

Davis had already pitched the 8th inning, but having dispatched the Orioles on just seven pitches, and with the game tied and poised to continue indefinitely, it made sense to try to milk another inning out of him. And oh, what an inning it was. Pitching through a steady rain, Davis struck out Alejandro de Aza on four pitches. He then struck out Adam Jones on three pitches. And finally, he struck out Nelson Cruz on four pitches. 11 pitches had neatly dispatched the best 3 hitters in the Orioles’ lineup.

The game stayed tied into - you guessed it - extra innings, and again the Royals flexed extra-inning power. In the top of the 10th, Alex Gordon homered...then, two batters later, so did Mike Moustakas. The Royals led, 8-5, and Orioles fans were sad:



The winning streak was now 5 games.

We were giddy, at home. All we had wanted was to make it to the playoffs, for the first time in our lives for many of us. All we had wanted was a good game or two. But now, since the miracle of the wild card game, The Royals could not stop winning. And how they won! Extra innings! Flashy defense saving games by the skin of their teeth! They had taken on baseball’s top team - and beaten them. Now they were going against the plucky, surging Orioles - and beating them in their home park, too. It was wild, it was exhilarating, it was like nothing in the city could ever remember. Every street corner was packed with people wearing Royal blue. Every conversation in every bar, at every bus stop, with every store clerk revolved around the Royals. And every night, damn near every TV in the city turned on to watch the Royals do it again. I’ve never seen the city so united before, and I’ve never seen it so united since. Everyone’s mind was on one thing: how far could the Royals go?

Game 2 saw them once again take an early lead, after Eric Hosmer blooped a single with 2 men on (put the ball in play. Run like hell.). The Orioles would catch up to within a run an inning later, only for Billy Butler to get the run back with a vintage RBI double the next inning. Then Adam Jones hit a 2-run homer for Baltimore to tie the game - only for Moose to answer with a homer of his own and give Kansas City the lead. The Orioles had not led all series, yet, and once again, the Royals’ defense shined as Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain robbed hits in the outfield, giving the starting pitchers just enough support that the game stayed tied late.

For the 5th game in a week, the score was tied in the 9th. This time, though, the Royals didn’t wait for extras - they decided to go ahead and win right then. Omar  Infante led off with a single, then Alcides Escobar doubled him home and made Orioles fans sad again:



The winning streak had now reached 6 games in a row.

Across Kansas City, celebrations were starting. The Royals were about to win Game 2 of the ALCS, meaning they had beaten the Orioles twice in a row at home. Meaning they were an excellent bet to win the entire series.

Meaning that the Royals were probably going to the World Series.

After the game, Jarrod Dyson raised some Orioles’ fans hackles when he was asked if he thought the series would return to Baltimore. He replied that no, he did not think it would, and he suspected neither did the Orioles. That provoked the following exchange in an Orioles’ fan forum:



They literally felt powerless (and Wade Davis was ever afterwards known as the Cyborg).

Game 3 saw the Orioles with their backs to the wall - only one team in history had ever come back from a 3-0 deficit (the 2004 Red Sox, who won their first World Series in 85 years). A loss tonight would all but doom them.

For once, they had an early lead, 1-0...until the 4th, when AGAIN the Royals tied the game. The Royals also had more flashy defense:

This play was not only technically amazing and aesthetically perfect, it was the essence of the 2014 Royals distilled into a single play. There was the tremendous defense. There was the maximum effort. There was the complete lack of regard for personal safety in the service of making the play. And there were the fans, emotionally feeding and being fed by the players in perfect symbiosis, who were metaphorically there for the Royals all October, now literally there. They were there with the presence of mind to stay the hell out of Moustakas’ way – 11 years to the day after a famous play in the stands at Wrigley Field didn’t turn out so well for the home team, or the fans – and there for Moustakas when he toppled over the dugout rail as he made the catch and fell into the dugout suite, with the fans there to cushion his fall and prevent serious injury.

Normally with the Royals it’s the pitcher tipping his hat to his fielder – in this case, as Moustakas returned to his position on the field, it was the fielder tipping his cap to the fans.



To whatever extent a playoff series can be won or lost on emotion, I think the Orioles might have been officially defeated on this play. They had already been victimized by great defense in Games 1 and 2, and they had already lost two games after being tied headed to the 9th inning. And here was another tie game and another great defensive play, and how are we supposed to beat these guys? The answer was, they weren’t. In the bottom of the inning, Billy Butler would drive home the go-ahead run , and that was all it took. The 7th inning saw Herrera, the 8th saw Davis, and the 9th saw Holland seal a drama-free 1-run win. In other words, a blowout by Royals’ terms.

The winning streak stood at 7.

The day of Game 4 dawned with Kansas City hungry. The ride so far had been incredible, and no one wanted to stop. They had 4 chances to seal the deal and punch their ticket to the World Series, but no one wanted to let their boot off the Orioles’ neck for even a moment. The only other team in postseason history to sweep their way to the World Series had been the 2007 Rockies (a fantastic story in and of itself - albeit the Rockies were swept in turn IN the World Series by the Red Sox). The Royals needed just one more win to do it.

In the bottom of the first inning, Escobar led off with a single, then Aoki was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Cain bunted them over, and then Eric Hosmer hit with runners on second and third and one out. He hit a stupid little infield single, which Orioles first baseman Steve Pearce easily fielded, and tossed to catcher Caleb Joseph to get Escobar at home.

A few years before, there had been a rule passed that catchers could no longer block home plate against a runner while waiting for the ball - they ahd to set up behind home plate. In return, runners could not bowl the catcher over anymore - previously, if the catcher dropped the ball, the runner was safe. This had led to some injuries, so the rule was changed. So Joseph set up behind home plate, then had to spin and drop the tag on Escobar. It was late afternoon and long shadows broke Kauffman up into patches of light and darkness. It may have been that Joseph didn’t have the ball squarely at home when he caught it. It may have been that Escobar kicked it way. It may have been that the Royals just got lucky.

Whatever the truth, as Joseph spun, Escobar’s sliding foot kicked into the catcher’s mitt - and sent the ball caroming back to the backstop. Escobar scored. Racing in behind him came Aoki, and the Royals led 2-0. They were the only 2 runs they would score in that game. They were the only two runs the Royals would need.

The Orioles played like doomed men, in a script they had seen before. They made great hits - that Gordon or Escobar or Moustakas or Hosmer or Infante or Cain robbed. They saw the bullpen trio of doom take the field. They were helpless against Herrera. They accomplished nothing against Davis. And when Holland came out in the 9th, with the score 2-1 (Adam Jones hit a solo home run in the third), the crowd at Kauffman was ravenous for a win. They could taste victory, now just three outs away. Three outs from the World Series. Three outs from continuing the most magical run anyone in the grand old city could remember.

Holland walked the first batter. Nelson Cruz hit an infield single - Holland scooped it up and hurled it wide of second - and Escobar just caught it and touched second base. One out.

Delmon Young came on. Young had tripled in the decisive runs against the Tigers in the ALDS a few days before. He could tie the game with a hit - Holland struck him out.

And then, with the entire stadium on their feet, ten thousand cellphone cameras recording the moment, J. J. Hardy stepped up to the plate, who had hit 25 homers the year before and certainly had the ability to give Baltimore the lead with one swing. But Holland got ahead of him 1-2, and then Hardy hit a groundball to Dayton Moore’s first-ever first-round pick in 2007, who threw the ball to Moore’s second-ever first-round pick in 2008. The two guys who were supposed to be the cornerstones of the Royals’ resurgence, who had both endured very disappointing 2014 seasons but had persevered nonetheless, now combined to record the final out of the ALCS and send the Royals to the World Series.

Kauffman exploded. The Royals surged onto the field, back in the World Series for the first time since 1985. All across the city, fans in bars, in living rooms, at the stadium, were going nuts, hugging complete strangers, crying tears of joy There are teams that make the playoffs for years without making to the World Series. The Dodgers took decades, losing year after year, before making it in 2017. The Cubs were in the postseason repeatedly but won no pennants at all between 1945 and 2016. The Royals, after being 2 outs from elimination, had done it on their first crack at it in 29 years.

More than any other sport, baseball celebrates the act of making it to the final round of the postseason. Baseball is the only sport in which the loser of the final playoff series fashions itself a championship ring, because baseball is the only sport in which the leagues have such a historic resonance that making it to the World Series means you have already won something: a pennant. Winning the ALDS was a special moment, but they don’t make rings that say “ALDS Winner”. Winning the ALCS meant that the Royals, no matter what else was to come, were 2014 American League champions, now and forever. There are teams (the Mariners, the Nationals) who have never been league champions; there are teams that have waited 50  years and counting since their last league championship. Mike Moustakas-to-Eric Hosmer guaranteed that a generation of Royals fans wouldn’t suffer the same fate. And the best was yet to come.


---------

Now that I've reached the end without spoiling, here's the full (unedited) version of the video I adapted for the ALCS and ALDS, made by the same dude who did the Wild Card highlights (and a high school friend of mine). It's slightly higher quality if you don't mind spending 20 minutes on it.  [video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCwxuOKRO78 [/video]

[El Grillo]

I've never followed or understood baseball, but this was a real treat to read, and watching the videos afterward emphasized how well you captured some of those epic moments. Best of luck with the Civ'ing too!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Thanks for the words of encouragement! I really do feed off them.

Turn 19




Sending my slinger south, and I find ANOTHER decent city-site, except it's too close to the Cain sites. There might be a possible second-tier city near that river, but it depends on how I squeeze Cain in. The most convenient spot, sadly, is also terrible - all flatlands in the first ring, except for the salt, which would at least be a mine. The build times also aren't going to line up properly - sailing isn't done for 4 turns, but the builder finishes in 3, meaning I'll need to sink a turn of production into something. Possibly a slinger, since I know I'll need another one of those later. 

City #2 is due on turn 22, Zobrist. Not sure if I want to wait for Early Empire/Ancestral Hall/both (almost certainly not both) to push for Cain. More cities faster is better, I can get the efficiency on later settlers. 

------------

2014 World Series, Part 1

Video summaries for those who hate reading, or just want to accompany video to my narrative:
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3 

When we last left our heroes, the Royals had clinched a World Series berth for the first time in 29 years. It was a huge moment in Kansas City. Every year 5 teams enter the playoffs from each league - only one of those 5 will make it. Teams have tried for decades without managing to break through (just ask the Oakland A’s, or the Washington Nationals). Now the Royals had done it on their first try. It was only the third pennant in team history - the first had come in 1980, 11 years after the Royals’ foundation, and they had lost to the Phillies in 6 games. 5 years later, after being down 3-1 against the Blue Jays in the ALCS, they had come back to clinch a spot against the St. Louis Cardinals, only to go down 3-1 AGAIN in the Series - before coming back to win their first and so far only World Series championship (we will not speak of Don Denkinger here for reasons of space, but if you want to know more about THAT fiasco just ask me later). They had won 8 games in a row, and just needed 4 more to be crowned World Series champions.

But to win those 4, they had to go through the San Francisco Giants.

It’s impossible to talk about the Giants and the World Series without mentioning the name of Madison Bumgarner (MadBum). There are a lot of elite pitchers in baseball. Corey Kluber. Carlos Carrasco. Max Scherzer. David Price. Jon Lester. Johnny Cueto. Clayton Kershaw. But Madison Bumgarner stands head and shoulders above them all. Not because of his regular season stats - those are great, just not better than anyone else of that talent level. Bumgarner is one of the best pitchers of all time because he handles pressure so well. In a playoff game, you can hand him the ball in almost any situation and he will give you a victory.

In 2010, as a rookie, he won the clinching NLDS Game 4 for the Giants, then pitched again to victory in Game 4 of the NLCS. In the World Series, he threw 8 shutout innings in Game 4 before the Giants won the whole Series the next day.  In 2012, he shut out the Tigers over 7 innings, as the Giants swept to their second title in 3 seasons. He had never yielded a run in a World Series game. Ever (and unlike many pitchers, he had appeared in multiple World Series games!).

In 2014, the Giants had had their own wild ride through the playoffs. They played their own Wild Card game against the Pirates - Bumgarner threw 9 shutout innings to seal the win. In the NLDS, they had won a 1-run Game 1 over the Nationals, then stole Game 2 after an 18-inning marathon (the longest game in postseason history). Bumgarner had faltered slightly in Game 3, as the Nationals won 4-1 to avoid the sweep, but the Giants finished them off the next day. Starting Game 1 in the NLCS, Bumgarner shut out the St. Louis Cardinals for 8 innings, Game 2 went to St. Louis, as the Cardinals hit the winning home run in the bottom of the 9th, but the Giants took Game 3 in 10 innings, then took Game 4 as well. Finally, Game 5 stayed tied into the 9th inning, when the Giants’ Travis Ishikawa hit a walk-off 3-run homer to send the Giants to the World Series.

Foolishly, I had channeled my grief over my grandfather into the Royals. As long as they were winning, I was able to tell myself that he wasn’t really gone. And if they could win the whole thing? Well, that would be a perfect exclamation point to his life. I found myself rooting for a team in order to give meaning to my own situation. Do not do this. Ever! It is extremely poor judgment.

Particularly since Bumgarner was Bumgarner and destroyed the Royals in Game 1 of the World Series. The Giants scored 3 runs in the first inning, 2 more in the 4th, and never looked back. You could salvage a moral victory, I guess, when Salvador Perez hit a home run off Bumgarner in the 7th inning - but it was poor compensation for losing Game 1, at home.



After winning 8 consecutive playoff games, it was about time for the Royals to lose one, especially to the buzzsaw that is Madison Bumgarner, but we at home were worried that it would snap whatever fairy magic had sustained the Royals thus far, and that they would proceed to roll over and die.

There is precedent for this. The Colorado Rockies had been founded in 1993, but had never accomplished much in the playoffs. In 2007, halfway through the season they found themselves mired at 44-44 and well out of the playoff hunt. By middle September - with just 2 weeks left in the season - they had improved their prospects slightly, but were still miles from anywhere important. The Rockies then won 11 out of 11 game, racing back from a distant third place to tie the Padres at 89 wins apiece. In those days, there was only one wild card team - the double elimination playoff game would come in 2012 - so the Rockies and Padres had to hold a tiebreaker game to determine who went to the playoffs and who stayed home.

The tie-breaker was just as insane as the Royals’ (well, not quite as insane, but close!). The Rockies took an early 3-0 lead, but a 5-run 4th inning saw the Padres seize the lead. The Rockies battled back and tied the game in the 5th, then took the lead in the 6th, only for the Padres to tie it themselves in the 8th. The game stayed tied into the 12th inning, when the Padres scored two runs in the top. The Rockies battled back, however, and scored three in the bottom to walk it off (except that the winning run possibly never touched home plate)

The Rockies went on to win THEIR next 7 games, giving them, like the Royals, an 8-game winning streak going into the World Series.

Where they were promptly swept by the Red Sox. The Rockies to this day have never returned to the World Series.

The fate of the Rockies was in everyone’s minds as the first batter to lead off Game 2 homered off Yordano Ventura. The Royals had trailed the entire World Series. But they righted the ship, tying the game in the bottom of the first, then taking their first lead of the series in the 2nd when Omar Infante doubled and then Alcides Escobar doubled him home. The Giants tied the game, but missed their chance to take the lead in the 4th on a nifty double play.

Ah, yes, just like they drew it up in spring training, I’m sure. The play became the basis for the headline in the next day’s Star:


In the 6th, the Royals made it all moot as they busted the game open against Jake Peavy. Butler singled home Lorenzo Cain with the go-ahead run, Perez followed up with a 2-run double, then Omar Infante iced the game with a 2-run homer that he blasted out of the park. Herrera, Davis, and Holland were automatic and the Royals had proven to the world that they would not be the 2007 Rockies.

The series was 1-1 going into San Francisco, meaning the Royals needed to win at least one game on the road to avoid elimination. Escobar got early, ambushing the first pitch of the game and coming around on 2 groundouts in a row to score the first run of the game. The narrow 1-0 lead held up until the 6th, when Gordon doubled in Alcides Escobar (again), then Hosmer won an 11-pitch battle to drive home Gordon.

 Only one other Royal in history has scored a hit after 11 pitches (Frank White when the Cardinals were busy melting down in the 5th inning of Game 7, 1985), which is an extremely impressive display of hitting by Hosmer. The run was crucial because Ned Yost stuck with starter Jeremy Guthrie a bit too long into the 6th and the first two batters reached. Herrera came on but couldn’t stop the runs from scoring. In the 7th, Brandon Finnegan appeared again and was again perfect when the Royals needed him to be, handing the 1-run lead over to Davis in the 8th. Davis and Holland were flawless, and the Royals had won Game 3 3-2.


They had now won 10 of their last 11 games. They just needed 2 more and they would be World Series champions.

But the night is dark and full of MadBums.

[Ituralde]

Thanks for the alternate upload on Vimeo and the other uploads as well.
Though I have to say that without reading your text the videos would have made very little sense to me. I enjoy your descriptions and you can do whatever you want in your thread!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 20




Found the barb camp. The spearman will probably emerge to attack me, so I'll need to withdraw towards favorable terrain. What I may do is set up a defense with the slinger, and wait for the warrior to finish escorting Zobrists' settler - then the two units can join forces and push south to clear this camp. After that, we scout to the east, into the desert, and see what we can find (unless the island extends a significant way to the south beyond the barb camp, but I expect from the coast that we should find it's a small peninsula). 

2 turns from settling the next city.

----------

2014 World Series, Part Two

Video Summaries:
Game Four
Game Five
Game Six

Four games left to play. Just two wins left to go. And by the third inning of Game 4 of the World Series, the Royals were leading 4-1, the bases were loaded, and Jason Vargas had just taken ball 3. At this point, the Royals’ odds of winning the World Series stood at something like 83%. Vargas, who is unused to hitting*, had just lost track of the count, and had attempted to walk to first base on ball 3. He laughed, Hosmer laughed, the whole Royals dugout laughed - even Dayton Moore, the General Manager, creator of the Process, smirked from his box seat, before shaking his head. If you lose focus in this game for one moment, the Baseball Gods will punish you for it. 

But the Royals had let their foot up from the gas, just for an instant, and the Giants pounced. Vargas struck out looking at the next pitch - a borderline call, but if you’ve just embarrassed the ump like Vargas had, would you really take a close pitch like that? The human element in calling balls and strikes is always a factor. The rally was over, but the Royals still had a 3 run lead. In all their games, they had NEVER lost when leading by 3 runs or more.

But Giants scored a run in the bottom of the third, then another two in the bottom of the fourth, and suddenly it was a one-run game by the 5th. Yost didn’t go to Herrera/Davis/Holland early - not with another game tomorrow, he needed to preserve his precious bullpen arms as much as he could. He went to Danny Duffy instead. With the bases loaded and 1 out, Juan Perez hit an extremely shallow blooper to center. Jarrod Dyson was there and made a brilliant catch - seriously, look at his speed to get there, the jump he had on the ball, his positioning, everything. This was an amazing defensive play that was ultimately in vain. 

The Giants tagged and scored the tying run while Dyson was still recovering. In the 6th inning, Duffy would give way to Finnegan as San Francisco poured 3 more runs on - but Finnegan was no better, as he collapsed in the 7th and gave up 4 more runs. The rout was on and the Giants ran away with Game Four, known forever after as the Game That Got Away. If there’s any game at all that I regret, it was this one. This game changed everything - but we didn’t know it at the time.

In Game 5, Madison Bumgarner took the mound, well-rested since shutting down the Royals in Game 1. He was murderous. He threw a complete game and allowed no runs. The Giants scored 5. The Series was now 3-2, Giants, and San Francisco was one victory away from their third World Championship in 5 years. The Royals straggled back to Kansas City needing a miracle.

They got one.

Yordano Ventura, the young rookie who had imploded in the Wild Card Game, took the mound. A few days before, the young Dominican’s friend, Oscar Taveras, had been killed in a traffic accident in the Dominican Republic. Taveras was an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, who had been eliminated by the Giants that year in the NLCS. If the Cardinals had instead won, and gone to the World Series, Taveras would not have gone home for the winter, and would still have been alive...Perhaps that was in Ventura’s mind, as he etched O.T. 2014 into the dirt of the pitcher’s mound and scrawled his friend’s name on his cap. Then, in memory of Oscar, he threw the best game of his life.

On the offensive side, the game was a tense-nailbiting affair - for about 30 minutes. Then the bottom of the second started. Alex Gordon singled. Then Salvador Perez singled. Then Mike Moustakas, the bottom of the order, hit a double to score Gordon and move Perez to third. Infante struck out, then Escobar came up to bat. Escobar managed to hit a slow groundball that Brandon Belt fielded with plenty of time to flip to Joe Panik covering first base for the out. Except that Jake Peavy called and pointed for Belt to throw home, a curious thing to do given that the runners were holding. Belt hesitated for a split second before he looked towards the plate and realized that, in fact, the runners were holding – but he still had time to flip to Panik for the out at first base.

But then Belt, perhaps not realizing that Panik had a beeline to first base because he had been focused on Salvador Perez at third, decided to go for the tag on Escobar. This was a footrace that Escobar would win, punctuated by the rare feet-first slide into first base.

Aoki came up, the man with the lowest strikeout rate on the team. With 2 strikes, he fouled off three consecutive pitches, staying alive, then slapped the ball into left field, scoring Perez. Then Lorenzo Cain followed up with another single, scoring Moose and Cain and pushing the score to 4-0. The crowd, on edge, knowing that tonight could have been the night the Royals’ season came to an end, started to give way to exuberant joy. Watching at home, my fist kept punching the air. They were going to do it. They were going to win for Papa, and my grandpa could rest in peace.

Hosmer followed up, chopping a ball off the ground in front of him that somehow bounced over the shortstop’s head, and then Billy Butler added one more run to make the score 7-0 Royals by the end of the second.

Meanwhile, Ventura was brilliant. He ran into some trouble in the third, when he loaded the bases, but a strikeout and double play ended the threat. He went 7 innings and allowed no runs. The Royals added a little more insurance to the fire, a few more homers here and there, and Game 6 ended with the score 10-0 Royals.

The World Series was tied 3-3. It would go the full 7 games.

It was Game 7, I think, that changed everything.

*Pitchers batting is a controversial topic in baseball. The pitcher has the most important defensive position on the field, and the most exhausting one. As a result, they really can’t focus on their hitting too much, and pitchers are universally terrible batters. In the ‘70s, the game of baseball was suffering in popularity compared to up-and-comers like the National Football League and the National Basketball Association, so the American League adopted a rule to boost offense and make games more exciting: No longer would the pitcher bat - instead, another player would bat for him, the “designated hitter.” The DH made American league lineups a lot more dangerous, since there were no longer any easy outs in the lineup for pitchers to use to try and escape from sticky situations. The National League still requires pitchers to hit, which has the advantage of being a purer form of the game, and requires more strategy when it comes to offensive and defensive substitutions on the part of the manager (once a player is removed from the game, he may not later re-enter it). Since Games 3, 4, and 5 were played at the National League team’s ballpark, National League rules apply and the pitcher bats.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 21




Yep, the spear came out and attacked. What's more, the scout is making his way back, and a warrior has spawned. If the scout makes it all the way to the camp, he'll trigger another wave of barbs. Fortunately, I think I have this under control. The slinger pulls back adjacent to the scout. Spear can't catch him. If the scout attacks, it dies. If the scout tries to run, I should be able to mop it up with the slinger and get the Archery eureka. Then I'll need ot heal up, rendezvous with the warrior, and head out to clear this camp.




Broader overview. Zobrist is founded next turn, and we get our first builder. I'm thinking one mine for sure. The other two charges? I see a couple of options.

1)Pasture the sheep

This alleviates some of our food issues, and works us closer to the Craftsmanship inspiration, which is a lot of free culture. Worth thinking about. However, it's only +1 food (I believe) and I still need to research Animal Husbandry.

2)Fishing boats.

Does double duty for Craftsmanship and Celestial Navigation, an important tech to unlock harbors. However, crabs are otherwise a subpar tile that I really don't want to work, particularly with all these hills around to work instead. 

3)Galley -> Holy Site chop. 

Worth saving a charge for? I need a couple of things first. I need Foreign Trade for Maritime Industries for sure, and I need Astrology to be able to place the Holy Site. I'd also like Magnus if possible, which means Early Empire or State Workforce. That's a lot of things to try and line up. I'd think about doing this with my SECOND builder, but production is precious, too - I need at least 2 galleys (in all likelihood), the Holy Site itself, another slinger or two...Hm. I think the builder accelerates the growth curve more than all those things, that might be how I do it. 

Anyway, the micro is getting more intensive, so I have more to talk about in my thread - but I'm sort of committed to doing this baseball story right, even if it's just for my own sake. Thankfully, we're done with the 2014 Royals today.

_________________

2014 World Series Part Three

And so it came to Game 7.


Game 7. Game 7. Do you know how many Game 7s there have been? From 1988 to 2014, there were more Presidential elections than Game 7s. There have been more World Cup Finals than there have been game 7s. You can be a fan of a baseball team for decades and never see them play in a Game 7. But it’s the most intense, exciting realm in all of baseball: Eden or agony, determined by one game.

Everyone in Kansas City had their hearts in their throat for the game. Recent history favored the Royals - home teams had won the last 6 Game 7s, including the 1985 Royals in an 11-0 blowout. The Royals had also won their last 8 elimination games in a row, dating all the way back to 1985. But the Giants...the Giants had also won their last 7 elimination games. The Royals had Herrera, Davis, and Holland. The Giants had Bumgarner. The Royals had won 89 games in the regular season, the Giants had won 88. The two teams were about as well-balanced as any two teams can be.

So naturally Game 7 was a heart-pounding, nail-biting classic. The Giants got on the board first. A tiny hit-by-pitch and a single put two runners on, then two sacrifice flies saw them take the lead 2-0 in the third. Scratching and clawing for runs - the Royals way. In the bottom of the inning, Billy Butler singled, bringing up Gordon. Gordon ambushed Tim Hudson’s first pitch and sent the ball all the way to the wall. Butler, who as we know is not a fast man, was sent home all the way from first. He beat the ball by a clear but uncomfortable margin, and the score stood 2-1. Gordon moved to third on a sacrifice fly by Moustakas, then tied the game on Omar Infante’s sacrifice fly. 4 runs on 4 sacrifice flies and the game stood tied at 2-2. The longer the game went, the closer the bullpens came, and it looked like the Royals had just taken the Giants’ best shot and come up standing.

Unfortunately, the Giants pushed them to the brink one last time. In the 4th inning, Pablo Sandoval beat out an infield single when Omar Infante’s leg slipped on the grass as he pivoted to throw to first base. Pence singled to center. Guthrie retired Brandon Belt on a fly ball to left field, but Sandoval tagged up and challenged Gordon, who probably has the best arm of any left fielder in the majors. Ordinarily, having a guy nicknamed Kung Fu Panda — they don’t call him that for his martial arts skills — tag from second to third on a ball to a left fielder with a cannon is a suicidal move. This being the Giants, it worked.

Only then did Yost call for Herrera, who got ahead of Mike Morse, 0-2, and then shattered Morse’s bat — but the ball carried to right field far enough to fall in for a single. Sandoval scored. Herrera would right the ship by striking out Brandon Crawford and retiring Juan Perez, but the Giants had taken a one-run lead with 18 outs to go.

In the bottom of the 5th, with the score 3-2, the Giants’ bullpen gates opened. Out onto the field stepped Madison Bumgarner, and the stakes became clear: the Royals’ road to the championship lay through him. They would have to beat the best pitcher in postseason history to claim the title.

Bumgarner was tired. He had thrown a complete game 3 days before, in game 5. He was about to throw more innings than any other pitcher had in the history of the postseason. It was apparent that the Giants meant to ride him to the end - whether it was to glory or going down in flames, the hell with it. They were using their best.

The anxiety in Kauffman rose ever higher and higher as the innings dragged on. Bumgarner worked around a leadoff hit in the 5th. He has to be tired by now, right?

In the 6th, he sent the Royals down in order. Gotta be exhausted. He’ll crack soon.

In the 7th, he sent the Royals down in order. Please let him crack!

In the 8th, he sent the Royals down in order. Please, God, let him crack next inning...he has to crack…

In the 9th, he retired Hosmer, and then Billy Butler. Alex Gordon represented Kansas City’s last chance. A fastball blew by him. Strike one. On the second pitch, Gordon swung -

- and knocked the ball into left field. Gregor Blanco came on to make the catch - and missed. The ball skipped past him for the outfield wall, and Gordon was already on his way to second. Juan Perez dove for the ball at the wall - and bobbled it, the ball rolling away from him, and Gordon was already digging for third. The ball was at last recovered  and sent flying to the infield - and Gordon held at third, representing the tying  run. 90 feet to go. 90 feet, and the game would be tied, and the Royals’ bullpen would protract the game as long as necessary. MadBum was the end of his rope and the next few batters would be his last - one way or the other.

Gordon held, and for one, brief, shining moment, the Royals had the opportunity to do something which had never been done before: Salvador Perez had the opportunity to hit a walk-off home run in Game 7, with his team losing. Never, in 111 World Series, had that ever happened. The at-bat that followed between Perez and MadBum was historic.

----------------
I really do advise watching the video summary for game 7. I edited this one a bit more heavily than the other ones, but it’s worth it. I think it’s better if you don’t know the outcome ahead of time.

Video here.



-----------------

Perhaps the rarest phenomenon in the history of baseball is known as the Golden Pitch. The Golden Pitch is simply that pitch which has the ability to win the World Series for either team - either the batter makes an out and loses or he bats in the winning run. By definition, then, the Golden Pitch must be thrown in the 9th inning or later of Game 7 - for only in Game 7 can either team win the World Series. The road team must be leading, since only when the home team makes its final out would the series be over. In the long 115-year history of baseball, there have been an estimated 50 million pitches thrown. Out of those 50 million, there have been perhaps 40 Golden Pitches.

When he stepped into the batter’s box, Perez was just the 4th batter in history to have the simultaneous opportunity to win the game for his team - or to make the last out. The other three:

In 1962, with the Giants down 1-0 to the Yankees, Willie Mays batted with a man on first and two outs. He didn’t make an out - but he also did not win the game for his team. Mays hit a double, putting the tying and winning runs at third and second, bringing up…

Willie McCovey, who hit a scorching line drive to second base to end the game.

The third is Pete Rose, in 1972. The A’s led the Reds, 3-2, with a man on first. Rose flew out to end the game.

Perez was the only man in history who had ever scored a run off Bumgarner in the World Series - a towering home run in Game 1. Bumgarner was tired - he had thrown 52.2 innings in the playoffs that year, more than any other pitcher in history. He was nearing 300 pitches thrown just in the World Series. By any measure, the duel of Bumgarner and Perez to end the 2014 World Series stands alone in baseball history.

The 6 pitches that Madison Bumgarner threw to Salvador Perez that night, October 29th, 2014, 30 days after the Royals had played their first playoff game in 29 years, were all Golden Pitches. They were all fastballs, and they were all up out of the zone, and Perez swung at 4 of them.

On the 6th pitch, with the coun 2-2, he sprayed the pitch high and to the left, into foul territory. Pablo Sandoval was under it. The crowd at Kauffman roared - and then deflated all at once as the ball dropped neatly into Sandoval’s glove for the third and final out. Final score, 3-2, Giants. World Series champs for the third time in 5 years.

To this day, I still remember the sharp little gasp of pain I had when Sandoval made that catch and collapsed backwards in joy. It felt like someone had just punched me into the stomach. I was numb - in shock, I think. I couldn’t believe it. The script didn’t go this way. This wasn’t the way that sports movies ended - with the tying run 90 feet away, with the movie’s hero failing. This wasn’t the way Papa wanted the Royals to be remembered. This wasn’t fun anymore. This...sucked.

Let me close by quoting (at length) someone else’s words: Rany Jayazerli, who I’ve quoted several times already, said it best. Worth reading the whole thing:

Sports are pain. That’s the dirty little secret you don’t learn until after they’ve sucked you into their addictive grasp. Sports are about losing the final game of the season, then having to acknowledge how blessed you were to even be there.

Sports are a land steeped in income inequality that would make the Gilded Age blush, where the top 3 percent take home all the spoils and the bottom 97 percent get nothing and have to like it. And where there’s no income equality, there’s no income mobility: Just six teams have accounted for the last 11 MLB championships, meaning 25 have gone at least a decade without a title. If, like George Steinbrenner, you measure success or failure simply by whether you take home a ring, you’re consigning yourself to an almost perpetual state of misery by choosing to care about sports.

But it’s the dream of joining the 3 percent that tempts us into that pit of despair. The promise of the orgasmic joy of celebrating a championship, and the postcoital bliss I’m told lingers for years to come, cons us into a sucker’s bet like a scratch-off ticket. Sports fandom is a triumph of hope over experience.…

Everything was lined up for the perfect ending, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about sports, it’s this: Never expect the perfect ending to actually happen. In sports, Voldemort beats Harry. The six-fingered man doesn’t prepare to die. Sauron claims the Ring. Call it the Rule of Gordon: If perfect endings existed, Gordon Hayward’s half-court prayer against Duke would have found the bottom of the net, and Alex Gordon would have circled the bases in the bottom of the ninth on Wednesday like his hair had caught fire, and the Royals would have gone on to win.

But sports are like life: There’s joy, and suffering, and a whole lot of tedium and ennui. And there are no perfect endings.

So much of fandom is the shared experience — not simply witnessing moments and wins and losses, but knowing there’s a community around you witnessing those same things and caring about them as much as you do. Even painful memories galvanize and unite a fan base, further forging that sense of community. To be able to go up to a complete stranger wearing your team’s colors, to be able to begin a conversation based on nothing more than shared memories, is a powerful thing. To be able to say, “Hey, do you remember [X]” to tens of thousands of people forges a bond and a sense of belonging that makes being a fan of a team — even a team with a tortured history — worthwhile.

The problem is that until a month ago, the Royals didn’t have [X]. They didn’t have a tortured history, because since 1985 they had no history. There wasn’t a single on-field moment that resonated with the entire fan base, unless you count the moments of comic futility: the dropped fly ball that extended a losing streak to 11 games; the time our first baseman inadvertently clocked the pitcher when trying to throw a ground ball home; the time two outfielders each jogged to the dugout expecting the other to catch the third out, only for the ball to drop behind them.

We had moments of misery, but we didn’t have moments that mattered. No Royals fan under the age of 35 could go up to another and talk about that one Royals game, because there was no one Royals game. We were a hollow fan base, with a hard shell of devoted followers — devoted beyond reason, honestly — but a core devoid of anything worth rooting for.

If nothing else, the past month has filled that void to overflowing. Each game in the Royals’ giddy eight-game winning streak to start the postseason delivered at least one iconic moment. Game 1 of the ALDS against the Angels featured Nori Aoki blindly stabbing his glove out and catching Howie Kendrick’s potential two-run double as Aoki’s face crashed into the outfield wall, preserving a tie that the Royals broke in extra innings. The next night saw Eric Hosmer flat-out murder a baseball in the 11th inning with a man onboard, the precise moment when I realized that this just got real — that the Royals were probably going to win Game 2, which meant they were probably going to win the ALDS, which meant they were one series away from playing for a world championship. In Game 3, the Royals rolled out to an early lead against the Angels at home, and there was Billy Butler — maybe the slowest man in baseball — stealing second base, looking for all the world after he stood up like he was the cat who ate the canary.

In the ALCS, there was Wade Davis quieting a raucous Camden Yards crowd by striking out the side in the ninth in a tie game in the opener, followed by Gordon parking a Darren O’Day pitch in the right-field bleachers in the 10th. There was Lorenzo Cain making sensational catches on back-to-back line drives in the fifth inning of Game 2, getting to his feet and flexing his muscles like he was in a Mr. Olympia competition. There was Mike Moustakas tracking a foul ball right up to the edge of the Dugout Suites at Kauffman Stadium in Game 3, flipping over the fence, his fall cushioned by the fans — and coming up with the catch. There was Alcides Escobar sliding into home plate in the first inning of Game 4, kicking the ball away from Caleb Joseph and leading to the only two runs the Royals would need to clinch the pennant.
And before any of that, there was the wild-card contest, arguably the greatest baseball game since Game 6 of the 2011 World Series. The wild-card win itself gave Royals fans more memories than the previous 29 years combined: a three-run rally in the eighth on a procession of singles and walks and steals; Jarrod Dyson’s Dave Roberts moment, stealing third base with one out in the ninth and scoring the tying run moments later; Hosmer’s triple off the wall with one out in the 12th; Christian Colon topping an infield single to tie the game; and Salvador Perez erasing an atrocious game with a walk-off single past a diving Josh Donaldson two batters later.
Those moments mattered. They will always matter. For an entire generation of Royals fans, they were the only moments that mattered. What happened Wednesday night doesn’t change that. It’s just that it almost made those moments matter so much more.…

And then, before all the Giants had even reached the dog pile, the chant broke out. “LET’S GO ROY-ALS! LET’S GO ROY-ALS!” It was spontaneous, and cathartic, and it spoke to how improbable this whole ride was, how an entire fan base and an entire city — Game 7 carried a 58.3 TV rating in the K.C. market — and at points an entire nation got caught up in a completely unexpected whirlwind in late September that upended everything we thought we knew about baseball.

Until the wild-card game, no one expected this team to go so far. We were the proverbial happy-to-be-here folks. That’s why the crowd was so nuts during the A’s game: As far as we were concerned, that was our World Series Game 7. For a generation, the only thing the Royals were good at was being a prop, the other team in the montage of season highlights for pennant winners and world champions. Our only cinematic moment was as the patsies in the historically accurate climax to Moneyball. Then, suddenly, and then continuously for nearly four weeks, the other teams were the patsies, the hapless victims of Royals rallies, the luckless losers after another Royals extra-inning victory. Sports fans think their team is a Team of Destiny, but every team is a Team of Destiny. We just don’t know what that destiny is.

What hurts so much isn’t that something was taken away from us, but knowing that something amazing and life-altering was very nearly given to us. A title is rare enough; to win a title like this — with a generation of irrelevance melted away in an instant — wouldn’t have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It would have been something most fans will never experience. We were 90 feet away from the kind of triumph you might see once or twice a decade in all of sports. We were so close to it that we were planning for it — by necessity. The city had the parade route mapped out for today. There was champagne on ice in the clubhouse. Everything was perfect.

Everything but the ending. And that will live with us for a long time.

But if the ending will live with us, so will everything that made it possible. The Royals didn’t just bring us joy for a month or give us memories to last a lifetime; they gave us a sense of mattering again. The Royals are relevant. They are the champions of the American League. Yost will manage the All-Star Game next season. We didn’t #TakeTheCrown, but we still own the pennant — a pennant the Yankees and Red Sox and Tigers can never take from us. More than one Cubs fan has already told me he’d trade a testicle for the chance to lose a World Series by one run.

The Royals have returned to the land of the living. Sports are pain, but pain is something only the living can feel. For far too long, the Royals weren’t good enough to trigger any nerve endings. You stand up after your foot’s been asleep for 29 years, and the pins and needles are going to drive you crazy for a while. But it’s better than being numb. For a quarter-century, there was nothing for Royals fans to discuss. Now, “they should have sent Alex” will be our shibboleth until they finally win it all....

Sports are pain. But there’s meaning in that pain. There’s a sense of belonging in that pain. It’s that meaning and that sense of belonging that kept me tied to the Royals for the last 29 years, and that made the last five weeks the most joyful, exhilarating ride I’ve ever been on. And I imagine it’s that meaning and that sense of belonging, more than the hope of the final payoff, that will keep me tied to the Royals through whatever pain is still to come.

- Rany Jayazerli, "Pain Demands to be Felt"

At home, I quietly shut off the TV. “Sorry, Grandpa. We’ll get ‘em next year.”

[Cornflakes]

Pasture improvements are +1 production regardless of the resource (horse/sheep)

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

ah, thanks. So a sheep becomes a 3/2 tile. I think I knew that but I had a brainfart on what the base yield was.

[williams482]

That's a beautifully written piece by Jayazerli. 

Maddison Bumgarner is a stud. In addition to everything written here, he is the rare pinnacle of national league baseball: a pitcher who doesn't embarrass himself in the batters box.

Please do continue doing the baseball story right! I'll certainly understand if you have to table it for a bit as the game heats up, but it's been a blast so far.

____

As for Civ, with a qualifier that I'm nobody's idea of an expert and I've never played R&F:

Pastures add +1 production, not food, so the improved plains sheep hill would be 2f3h. That (or the identical quarried grassland stone hill, if the tile picker grabs it instead) would be clearly the best available tile for you to work, so improving whichever of those the tile picker goes for seems like an excellent choice. Which of those tiles is favored at the moment, and how long will it take to expand?


A mine (presumably on that bald grassland hill) isn't going to help you much for now, because you already have two 2f2h grass forest hills to work. However, the longer term benefit (post chops and/or apprenticeship) and the contribution towards craftsmanship makes it seem worthwhile. 

As you said, a fishing boat on the crabs is little more than a contribution towards the Craftsmanship and Celestial Navigation boosts. You won't work that tile for a long time.

I'm generally not a fan of passing up the craftsmanship boost by chopping with the first builder. That's an extra 16 culture you have to hard research (maybe 7 turns?) and the added opportunity cost of chopping pre-Magnus is pretty big as well. On the other hand, getting that first governor title without a chop is going to be tough: growing to pop 6 for the Early Empire boost is going to take a little while with your limited food, and there's little chance of boosting state workforce in a timely manner without a chop of some sort. You also have six chopables in the first two rings (four forests and two stone) and a bunch of natural production, so the opportunity cost of spending one early without Magnus is less of a problem. 

With all that said, I think the biggest problem with the galley->holy site chop plan is how long it's going to take to set it up. You're looking at having a builder sit around for ~10-15 turns, without boosting craftsmanship or using Magus for that chop. Going for the craftsmanship boost with this first builder, then chopping with the second seems like a better play. The priority of improvements should then be resource hills > mines > crabs. 

One other oddball possibility: what if you placed a mine or quarry at Escobar, then marched the builder over to Zobrist to mine one of those hills and harvest the wheat? That forgoes the Craftsmanship boost and requires pottery, but it improves more worked tiles and it would accelerate the boost for Early Empire (and thus, Magnus). I don't know if I like this option more than just booting craftsmanship, but I think it's worth some consideration.