Perseverance and Royals Baseball

The Royals Baseball Team has captured the heart of Kansas City and in my opinion are a perfect example of perseverance.   A crowd of an estimated 800,000 people attended the Royals victory parade in downtown Kansas City.  Schools were closed for the day and many businesses shut down early so that families could attend the parade. People waited in line for hours for shuttle buses and in gridlock traffic. Smiling faces were filled with joy and I could sense the genuine excitement of the crowd despite having waited hours for the parade to start.  While it would have been nice to be part of the excitement, the thought of not having easy access to a bathroom frightened me and I’m also claustrophobic.  After seeing this photo and talking to friends who went to the parade I’m certain I made the right decision.

photo from the Kansas City Star photographer David Eulitt

At the rally players stepped up to the podium to speak who weren’t part of the starting lineup yet proved to be an instrumental part of the Royal’s success.  I’m not going to pretend to know a lot about baseball and all the background history of the players because I don’t.  What I do know though is that the Kansas City Royals display perseverance.  There were many games where they came from behind to finish strong during the last few innings.  They never gave up and persevered.  To quote my Bible study leader, “Great things can happen in the first innings (or nothing much at all). It’s how we Finish!!”

photo credit R Peters Photography

A friend shared this great photo with me of crowd favorite and MVP Player Salvador (Salvy)Perez. Not only is he a great catcher, but his positive attitude and playfulness are qualities that really shine on the ball field.

Sometimes in life or during a ball game nothing is happening and time seems to drag on and on.  We start to question if our efforts really matter and we give up or we don’t prepare ourselves for what’s to come.  The Kansas City Royals are a team who believes and has persevered through personal sorrows and setbacks. There were many times during the post season I wanted to go to bed or walk away from watching a game that dragged on for hours.  However I couldn’t (sometimes due to the prodding of friends) because there were so many times the KC Royals came back from behind to win the game in extra innings.  Even if you aren’t a fan of baseball I think there are a lot of lessons to be learned from this team that can be applied to your own struggles in life.

It would be nice if this team stayed together, but already a few players haven’t been retained. Players may come and go, but as long as they continue to work as a team and display perseverance it’s hard to beat the Kansas City Royals who never give up.  I think Babe Ruth would have agreed.