KANSAS CITY — Royals fans, meet your newest good-luck charms.
Kansas City’s favorite team hasn’t lost since twins William and Josephine Reid entered the world on Wednesday evening, and those two are solely responsible for all three playoff victories since their birth. The facts are pretty much indisputable.
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Will was born before first pitch of the Royals’ ALDS Game 5 winner-take-all contest against the Astros at Kauffman Stadium. His sister, Joey, greeted her parents, Shawn and Carrie Reid, about an hour later, at a very pivotal moment in the Royals’ postseason push.
“They delivered her right after (Johnny) Cueto gave up the home run to (Luis) Valbuena, right after that second inning,” Shawn said. “And by the time they had her cleaned up and brought her back to us, Carlos Gomez was falling on his butt and allowing (Lorenzo) Cain to score from first on a single.”
Like any good Royals fan, Shawn was tracking the game on the MLB At-bat app on his phone — Carrie kept asking for score updates between Will’s birth and Joey’s arrival, so it was OK — and like any good hospital staff in K.C., nurses provided updates along the way.
Joey, obviously, was the catalyst for the Royals’ first run in Game 5, which cut Houston’s lead to 2-1. Her older brother took care of the late-game rally that put the game out of reach, a 7-2 Kansas City victory that put the Royals in the ALCS for the second year in a row.
“We got back to the room,” Shawn said, “and I was holding Will when they rallied against (Dallas) Keuchel in the eighth. Man, it was so cool.”
And then it was Joey’s turn.
“We went to the recovery room after delivery,” Carrie said, “and the game was still on, and Shawn held his daughter during the end of the game.”
The family was watching Game 1 of the ALCS at home — though, admittedly, the twins weren’t paying complete attention — as K.C. starter Edinson Volquez blanked the Blue Jays.
And you think the Royals rallied for the Game 2 win because their knack for playoff comebacks or because of David Price’s issues in the postseason? Nah.
That was all Will and Joey. They turned Cueto back into an ace for Game 5, remember? You think they'd have trouble with a little three-run deficit?
In their world, the Royals never lose playoff games. Their parents like this world. Both Shawn and Carrie — who are first-time parents — are lifelong Royals fans.
Carrie became hooked on the team because, as a little girl in Kansas City, she’d help her dad wash the car and they’d listen together as legendary broadcaster Denny Matthews called Royals play-by-play on the radio.
Shawn grew up in the tiny town of Houstonia — which is about an hour east of K.C. — and was completly sold on the Royals when he watched Bo Jackson hit a triple in the first game he ever attended at Kauffman Stadium. That was maybe his fondest Royals memory until last fall, when he was at the crazy wild-card game comeback against the A’s.
“I was sitting on the aisle, maybe 10 rows up in my section, and as soon as (Salvador Perez’s hit) got down the line, I ran all the way down the stairs to the fence and was just losing it,” he said. “So excited. Twenty-five years of waiting, kind of all coalescing into one moment.”
Shawn’s 33 now, so he was too young to remember Kansas City’s 1985 World Series victory against the cross-state Cardinals. Like every Royals fan, though, he has a story. His dad just happened to be on a business trip in St. Louis during that unforgettable series.
“He was having a beer at the hotel bar one night while he was there. He glanced over to his left, did a double-take and realized it was George Brett sitting there,” Shawn said. “It was the players’ hotel, as well. So my dad actually brought a souvenir back from that trip, George Brett’s autograph on a bar coaster. I don’t remember it, but I’ve got a memento.”
That’s pretty cool. And now his twins are delivering a pretty cool gift, too.
Full disclosure: Shawn’s a good friend of mine.
He was finishing up his bachelor’s in journalism at the University of Missouri — he and Carrie met at Mizzou when Shawn was her TA for a copy-editing class (she got an A in that one, by the way) — while I was at the J-School as a grad student. When he graduated, Shawn was hired at Sporting News and soon after, he encouraged me to apply for a job that opened at the magazine.
His “you’d better hire this guy” recommendation worked; that was 10 years ago at the beginning of this month. I’m eternally grateful. We haven't worked together for a couple of years, but when I’m writing something about the Royals, especially anything historical about the franchise, I’ll typically run it past him just to make sure I'm on the right track.
And when I’m in Kansas City, we’ll grab some barbecue. He had to pass this time.
Asked a buddy if he wanted to grab lunch in KC tomorrow. He offered up some lame excuse ... pic.twitter.com/bF9jupDF1X
— Ryan Fagan (@ryanfagan) October 14, 2015But because his good-luck twins delivered victories in Games 1 and 2 of the ALCS, that guarantees I’ll be back in town, for either Game 6 of that series or Game 1 of the World Series. And then we’ll get barbecue and he’ll tell me stories of his magical twins.
