9/22: Open game thread

Why look at those Kansas City Royals. Our long, bitter rivals for the rolling pastures of Grass Creek have found themselves some new money and my haven't they just gone and fancified themselves up all purty like? Why, to look at them now one can barely remember that this is an organization that just 14 months ago was arguably the saddest, most inept, forgettable, woe-begotten, I-May-Be-A-Mariner-Fan-But-Thank-God-At-Least-I-Don't-Root-For-Dayton-Moore bunch of sucks that ever sucked.

Now their Bee Jesus of a manager is walking around with an iWatch. I mean, shit, this team could not be more the Beverly Hillbillies of baseball, but if the Hillbillies were angry and got in fights whenever someone told them installing the entire Sky Mall catalog in the front yard is tacky.

A few years back I traveled to a friend's wedding in small town Missouri. One of my friend's groomsman was there, a recent Columbia grad and he had put on airs. Every conversation with this person inevitably drifted towards The East Village, the Upper West Side, music, arts, etc. Whatever pretentious, cliche New Yorker thing this guy could do or say he did. It's because he came from my friend's hometown, Taijuan Walker's own Yucaipa, CA. The IE, the 909, the part of LA in the gritty movies about LA. This guy couldn't wait to lose every trapping and memory of that upbringing.

People remember where you're from though. We did, and we gave him hell, probably more than we should have in retrospect, but we were young and jerks in that special way youth allows. But the point remains: Remember where you're from, it's a part of you.

Remember where you're from, Royals. Today you look at back-to-back World Series, you're living the high life of squeezing career years out of Kendrys god damn Morales, Eric Hosmer is playing so well no one mentions his facial hair, and so on. But remember 1986-2013. Remember that, for years, your team's offseason plan was to try and improve by poaching the Mariners of players in free agency. Remember Angel Berroa, Mitch Maier, Mike Jacobs, Yuniesky Betancourt, Brett Tomko, Rey Sanchez, Jay Witasick and on and on. Every 2014 Wade Davis Greg Holland of today could be a 2015 Wade Davis Greg Holland tomorrow. Remember.

Win, ya party crashers.

Game info

• Mariners @ Royals, 5:10 PM PST, Kauffman Stadium
• TV: ROOT, Radio: 710 ESPN, Online: MLBTV