Fall feels good again – especially in Kansas City

The Fall Classic is right around the corner. You can feel it in the air. You can see it on the calendar.

It’s Sept. 28, the final day of baseball’s regular season for 2014. Cool, bring-your-jacket games are upon us – even if the thermometer passes 80 degrees today in Connecticut. The leaves are changing in New England and soon the area will be blanketed in vibrant colors, the most beautiful season of all in this part of the country.

Around here, there isn’t much to cheer about. The Red Sox and Yankees end their season today. Derek Jeter’s long goodbye ends with a tribute from Fenway Park. The unpleasant thought of Alex Rodriquez returning to the Bronx next season must be depressing to everyone. Jeter for Rodriquez? Not a good trade.

After winning the World Series in 2013, the Red Sox will finish last in the AL East. There was a midseason fire sale and most of the players from last year’s glorious team – including ace Jon Lester – are gone. After three World Series trophies since 2004, Red Sox Nation has accepted that pretty well but still scratches its collective head over what went wrong.

Yours truly, the man behind the Files, is fine with all of that. Contrary to popular belief, the world does not stop revolving if the Yankees or Red Sox don’t make the playoffs. In fact, west of the New York State border the world is a happier place. Fans in Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco aren’t shedding any tears.

That’s right. Kansas City is on the list. Even though I adopted the Red Sox as my “other favorite” team when I moved to Connecticut in 1985, the Royals have always been my team. I grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City. I was born in 1958 (you do the math, yes I’m old now) and suffered through Charley Finley’s Athletics teams until he packed the trucks and moved to Oakland. Loved the A’s players, saw Campy Campaneris play all nine positions, saw Catfish Hunter and Reggie Jackson called up – and then they were taken from me. Even Charley O. the mule.

Then they won it all in Oakland just to make it more painful.

After one year without major league baseball, Ewing Kauffman brought the Royals into our lives in 1969. I joined the Lou Pinella fan club. I saw Frank White come through Kauffman’s Baseball Academy. I saw this kid named George Brett, with the mullet and the coolness of California, arrive and start winning batting titles. I loved it when Hal McRae barrel rolled into second base. And there was nothing like Willie Wilson racing around the bases for another triple or inside the park home run.

By 1976, they were an elite MLB team. They lost the American League pennant to the Yankees (did I mention I hate the Yankees?) in 1976, 1977 and 1978. George ended all that in 1980 with his towering blast into the upper deck off Goose Gossage that silenced Yankee Stadium in 1980. The Royals lost to the Phillies that year but I attended – and covered – my first World Series. Five years later, with Bret Saberhagen joining Brett and White as the heroes, the Royals won the I-70 Series over the Cardinals.

That glorious moment came three or four weeks after I moved from Baltimore to Connecticut. I couldn’t go home for the Series. I had a flight to Philadelphia the day after Game 7, and a meeting with Villanova basketball coach Rollie Massimino to kickoff a series of features on Big East teams. I remember it like it was yesterday.

In the 29 years that have passed, the last day of the regular season has always been accompanied by sadness in my baseball heart. It always meant the end for my Royals (I’ll call them that if I want. They are my team and always will be.)

Some of those endings were harder to take than the others. Losing Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye, Zach Greinke and Wil Myers was painful too. The cheap owners of the Royals never did anything to keep teams together, always let the good players go. So Kansas City baseball fans suffered. Many gave up and went away.

By the way, Tampa you can keep Myers. We got Big Game James and Wade Davis. Not a bad deal at all.

I adopted the Red Sox. People always ask me how I can pull for two teams. It’s not hard. You can’t be a loser for almost three decades. You need some winning. So, I thank the Red Sox for making the Davis family happy every now and then. My son, Joe, lives in Kansas City but lives and dies with the Sox.

My heart is still in Kansas City. So, yes, I cried Friday night when the Royals wrapped up a playoff spot for the first time since 1985. I know I wasn’t alone. Last weekend, I traveled home to KC. Joe and I went to Kauffman Stadium three straight days to watch the Royals and Tigers. Detroit won 2 of 3. I heard young fans talking about never witnessing a playoff game. I saw older fans, my age group, soaking up the moment and keeping the past locked inside like a special treasure all their own.

But guess what? It’s the last day of the regular season and I’m happy. I know the Royals will have a home game in the wild card game – at the very least.

But despite the Tigers dominating the Royals – and despite the Red Sox taking 6 of 7 from KC since the All-Star break – Kansas City goes into the final day of the regular season just one game behind Detroit in the Central Division. If the Royals win today and David Price can’t get it done for the Tigers, there will be another game Monday. Harold Reynolds said on MLB Network that the Royals shouldn’t want the extra game? Are you kidding!!!!!!

A chance to win the Central, move on to the ALDS and avoid the one-shot wild card game? What are you thinking Harold?

So this final day means something in Kansas City – and in Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Oakland and Seattle. Depending on today’s results, baseball could have as many as three extra games on Monday. Game 163 with everything on the line.

Baseball is a beautiful thing. What other sport offers that type of suspense on the final day? I will not be watching the NFL today. It’s all about baseball. It’s all about the Royals. It’s all about putting the last 29 years in the past, reflecting on the glory days of George, Frank, Bret, Cookie Rojas, Amos Otis, Fred Patek, Dick Howser and all the other great Royals.

It’s about rooting for Hosmer, Infante, Escobar, Moustakas, Gordon, Cain, Aoki, Perez, Butler, James, Ventura, Duffy and all of the 2014 Royals. I know some of you are rooting for them too. You just don’t want to admit it. That’s OK. The 29-year drought is over.

The Royals are relevant again.

There’s happiness on the final day of the season and optimism for the playoffs.

That is what October is all about.