These players and coaches and their manager share one another's joys and laughter during a nine-month journey. They share victories, large and small. They also share some pain, because that's part of life too.
That's what the Royals were dealing with again in the hours after a tense, compelling 14-inning 5-4 victory over the New York Mets in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series that ended in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
It was a spectacularly entertaining game, one that lasted five hours, nine minutes and became something of a war of wills.