To My Beloved Royals,

I grew up with you. My first ever baseball game was to see Dennis Leonard lose to the brand new Seattle Mariners. The first four games I ever went to featured Dennis Leonard. He was 0-4. I thought he had to be your worst pitcher. Turns out, he was the “ace” of the staff.

But I had fallen in love. Those were the heady days of George Brett, John Mayberry, Frank White, Freddy Patek, Amos Otis… WOW.

I was in college when you won the World Series.

Then… it all hit rock bottom, and stayed there for so many years. I held on and held on. I thought I was the eternal optimist, until I started reading Joe Posnanski. Every year he would write why this was YOUR year… and every year you broke his heart. Finally, he had to leave town. (Granted it was for Sports Illustrated, but I’ve blamed you all these years.) Actually, it was a good thing Joe left. I love his writing, but he was from Cleveland. He brought all that bad karma.

Well, he’s gone, Dayton is here and now we have a core team we have hope in.

I confess I tried to swear off you guys for a couple of years. I grew so tired of all the empty promises.

But being a Royals fan is much like having leukemia. It’s blood-born. I was in remission those two years, but now the disease has returned. You have given me hope.

So, here I am at the beginning of Spring Training to say, “Go ahead, break my heart again!”

You’re in my heart… and my bloodstream. And there is no getting rid of you. I’m prepared to have my heart completely shattered once again. Please don’t do it… but in case you do… I can only say right here that I asked for it.

All my love…