It was hard to tell where the fountains ended and Mother Nature began at Kauffman Stadium, the skies matching the concourse, teardrop for teardrop. November’s icy killjoy crashing October’s party.
“When you have energy like this,” Craig Rookstool said, sporting a grin as wide as the puddles forming in Lot G before Game 1 of the 2015 World Series. “I’d forgotten that it was raining until you asked me about it.”
While his pal kept playing air guitar, Rookstool, a Kansas City Royals season-ticket holder from nearby Lee’s Summit, Missouri, leaned closer, eyes narrowing.
“How well do you know Ned Yost? Does he remind you of a guy that could play in this kind of weather?”
Yost? A guy who once worked as a taxidermist as a winter job while he was a young pup, toiling in the minors? Yost would play if lava were raining down from the sky.
“There you go. His guys can, too,” Rookstool said. He held a hand aloft, cupping the drizzle in his palm. “This is nothing. Look. Nothing. It’s nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
Nothing compared to chaos to come. Nothing compared to the longest Game 1 in World Series history, a 14-inning roller-coaster. Nothing compared to five hours and nine minutes of lunacy that started with Alcides Escobar banging out an inside-the-park home run and ended – more than four hours later – with Escobar scoring on Eric Hosmer’s sacrifice fly to right, the capper on a 5-4 Royals victory.
“One of the things we know about them,” New York Mets manager Terry Collins said, “is they’re never down and out.”
For Royals left fielder Alex Gordon, it was nothing. Nothing compared to launching the first tying or go-ahead home run in the ninth inning of a World Series Game 1 since Kirk Gibson’s epic one-hander off Dennis Eckersley in 1988, a shot that tied contest for the third time at 4-4. Nothing compared to tagging Mets closer Jeurys Familia for his first postseason run, and first playoff home run, to snap a run of eight straight scoreless appearances.
“The at-bat before, with Salvy (Perez), I saw him quick-pitch,” Gordon would explain later. “I wasn’t expecting that and I wanted to make sure, when I got in the box, that I was ready to hit. And he tried to quick-pitch me and left the ball right there to hit. And with a guy like that, you can’t miss pitches that he gives you to hit.”
For Edinson Volquez, it was nothing. Nothing compared to showing up at the park and being told that your father, Daniel, had passed away Tuesday in the Dominican Republic, a victim of heart disease at the age of 63.
“We found out about it before the game,” Yost recalled. “And the wishes of the family was, you know, let Eddie pitch. So I was kind of keeping my eye (on him), didn’t want him to hear about it. I was keeping my eye on him. And he was fine.”
For Escobar, it was nothing. Nothing compared to the bottom of the first, when he catapulted the initial offering from Mets ace Matt Harvey into left-center, a gapper that Yoenis Cespedes misjudged and mishandled, compounding a strange angle with a bizarre, ol’ backhanded swipe. It was only the second inside-the-park home run on a first pitch in World Series history and the first since Patsy Dougherty did the deed in 1903.
“Michael (Conforto) could’ve caught it,” Collins said. “He thought Cespedes called it. And he said (that) it was really hard to hear, but I thought he called it. Yeah, it should’ve been caught.
“But (he) didn’t.”
For Royals swingman Chris Young, it was nothing. Nothing compared to the three scoreless innings of relief, free and easy, fanning four after taking over in the 10th. Nothing compared to hitting 90mph on the radar gun more times in a single appearance than in any game since 2009.
“World Series adrenaline, I guess,” Yost mused. “We felt good about bringing Chris in that game because nothing effects him. Nothing.”
For Hosmer, it was nothing. Nothing compared to that funny hop in the top of the eighth, the screwball up the first-base line off Wilmer Flores that he fields cleanly 99 out of 100 times, especially with a runner on third.
“We pick each other up and we don’t hang out heads when stuff like that happens,” Gordon said of the error that put the Mets – briefly – up 4-3. “Gold Glove first baseman, it was a tough hop, but he usually makes that play.”
For television viewers around the country, it was nothing. Nothing compared to the top of the fifth, when the script turned from weird to downright surreal. Fox Sports reportedly lost power at one of its trucks adjacent to the park, killing the national feed. It also killed the replay feeds in both dugouts, which were tied to the Fox broadcast, causing a delay on the field for a few minutes until someone could switch over to an international feed that would stick.
For the 40,320 riding the roller-coaster inside Kauffman, it was nothing. Nothing compared to the bottom of the sixth, as even a two-run cushion couldn’t keep Yost’s Relentless Walking Like Of Dead down. A Ben Zobrist double, a Lorenzo Cain single, a Hosmer sac fly and a Moustakas single tied the contest at 3-all, a reset to open the seventh.
“We’ve got to put them away,” Collins said.
Momentum is a fickle mistress in October, but she’s been especially fickle in Kansas City. The Royals hold a 1-0 Series lead for the first time in franchise history, having dropped the opener in 1980, 1985 and last fall against the San Francisco Giants.
“I’ll tell you, we never get frustrated or hang our heads when we’re down,” Gordon continued. “We always feel like we can come back and either make it a game or win the game. I think that speaks for our team chemistry, that we all pull together and we’re all fighting for one thing. And that’s to get the ‘W.’”
By 12.30am local time Wednesday, the rain had moved on. Along Lancer Lane, though, the party was only just getting started.
