In the wake of Kansas City’s first World Series title in 30 years, countless tributes will be made to the genius of general manager Dayton Moore, the multiple home-grown young stars, the manager who reinvented himself, the spectacular defence, the unyielding bullpen and the contact-obsessed lineup.
All of that praise will be valid. The Royals have done things the right way. They have a talented corps of homegrown players, spiced with veterans with character. Now, don’t forget, they had to be very bad for a lot of years to accumulate all that top-flight young talent but nobody in baseball-mad Kansas City right now is remembering the journey, just the arrival.