Keep the good times rolling

In just a few short hours the Royals, winners of six straight, will take the field against the worst team in baseball -- statistically, physically and probably spiritually speaking -- the Seattle Mariners, losers of their last seven. At the moment of the first pitch, during those two- (or three-, depending on the number of fingers the catcher -- probably John Buck -- sets down) tenths of a second between the release of the ball and whatever happens next, an ancient clash just a few nanoseconds younger than the universe itself will have been renewed: the repulsion of opposites. Opposing forces heading in different directions, like the explosive elements which ignited the primordial stew that gave rise to life, will draw strength from the other's leaving and strive for the lengthening of absence between them. As such, the worst team in baseball will get worse, headed towards its first 100-loss season since 1983, while our hometown team, in front of a home crowd, will continue on its divine, cosmic path towards a record that surpasses last season's (two more wins will do it) while finding a new plateau unseen in five years: not last place in the division (three and a half behind Detroit).

What can we expect to see? More heroics from Jose Guillen. Maybe another home run for Ryan Shealy, who has six in 10 games while batting .500. And, for the heck of it, an at-bat for Kila Ka'aihue. It can go assumed and unsaid a win for Zack Greinke and, by extension, a win for all the angelic beings twittering like swiftlets in their silky nests next to a thing called Heart and a thing called Soul, delighted that Good has won back three inches in its eternal trench war with those sinister forces trying to pervert the universe's homely darkness.


The Heart and Soul Nebulae, from this incredible website.

And with that by way of introduction, may I strongly recommend you go over to Sam Mellinger's Ball Star blog to read his post "Why We Still Care." We'd give you an excerpt, but that would be unjust for the parts unexcerpted.

POSTSCRIPT 1: One person wrote about the Rockies among the reasons. And that was enough for me to dig up what I wrote about the Rockies last season, after one of the greatest baseball game I'd ever seen.

POSTSCRIPT 2: Congratulations to the Royals' Burlington Bees, your Class A Midwest League champions.