Within an hour after arriving in Kansas City on Wednesday, we were surrounded by baseball fans wearing their blue and white in front of the big screen ready to watch their team win.
Sound familiar?
You could compare the downtown Power & Light District to the ‘Bird’s Nest’ in Toronto I suppose. It’s a gathering place for the Royals faithful to cheer and groan and yell at the umpires from 1,600 kilometres away.
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Although, these folks all have beer in hand from the bars nearby and no one is throwing cans. Game 5 wasn’t one to get excited about though. There was lots of frustration and long faces when the Blue Jays took over the game and eventually won.
The Kansas City crowd all have stories about how long it’s been since their team was successful.
Sound familiar?
Before last year’s trip to the World Series, the Royals had waited 30 years for a trip to the playoffs. It’s been well documented at this point that 1985 was the year they came back to beat the Blue Jays in three straight games to win the ALCS.
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It was the ‘crowning’ moment for the Royals this city holds onto. Speak with anyone on the street or in the local BBQ joint and they’ll remind you of that.
Travelling the streets, the blue flags are flying high. There are posters in windows where you wouldn’t normally see them. The buses have signs saying ‘Go Royals Go’ in the windshield.
Sound familiar?
Kansas City is one of those places where you’ll find the people are overly friendly as well. It’s much like the stereotypical Canadian greeting you at every turn and doing their best to accommodate you.
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Although, chances are, neither Jays fans nor Blue Jay fans will be offering a “sorry” or apologies if their team wins this series and makes it to the World Series.
That journey continues tonight with Game 6. We’ll be in a sea of blue and white t-shirts and towels. This time there will be very few Toronto logos with red maple leaves among them.
VIDEO: The Toronto Blue Jays-Kansas City Royals rivalry has become so heated that even the local libraries are trash-talking. Here’s a look at how the two libraries fared in a Twitter face off as the American League Championship Series rages on.
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