Kansas City: Miracle City

There are a lot of us out there that would love to make it to a world series game.  Unfortunately the prices have soared to $1000+.  That makes it next to impossible for someone like Noah Wilson to go a game.  Noah, 6, is battling cancer in his spine, but wanted nothing more than to see his home town heros take on the Giants in this years fall classic.  That's when Ryan Zimmerman, a freelance writer and family friend, started an online campaign to get Noah and his father to one of the games.  After raising $8000 dollars plus in one day the online ticket provider stubhub chimed in and offered to donate 6 tickets to the family.  That, however, isn't where the miracle ended.

@ABC on behalf of @MLB we would like #NoahWilson to be our guest @ the 2014 #WorldSeries. Save the $ for school! @RyanZOnline DM @DanScavino
— Joe Torre (@JoeTorre) October 17, 2014

Joe Torre of MLB, invited Noah and his family to be guests of the MLB at Game 2 of the 2014 World Series.  

Three things to watch for.

While the whole city is caught up with the royals amazing post season run, the calendar still says its Friday, and the schedule says that there is a Chiefs game this weekend.  Here are three things to look for the upcoming game versus the San Diego Chargers.

1. KC D-line vs SD O-line-  The chiefs have 15 sacks over 5 games putting them tied with 8th with multiple other times, while the Chargers have allowed only 9 sacks over 6 games, which is good enough for 8th in the league. (only 1 team in front of them have played 6 games, the rest have had bye weeks)  With the chargers having to turn to the rookie running back, Brandon Oliver out of Buffalo you can expect to see a heavy dose of Philip Rivers' passing game.  If the Chiefs allow him to sit back in the pocket and pick a part the already shaky secondary it will be a long game for the Chiefs.   However if Hali and Houston can get pressure from the corners and Poe can help get Rivers on the turf this will help slow down the MVP candidate.
2. Can Eric Berry return to the field- After being inactive since week three, the Chiefs are hoping that Eric Berry can return to the field and help bolster a struggling Chiefs running defense that is 23rd in the league in rush yards per game.  If the Chiefs can shut down Brandon Oliver and take away the Play action this will help slow down the Passing attack of the Chargers.
3. Game plan for Charles-  After the humbling loss to the Titans in week one when Charles as only given 11 touches, Andy Reid remarked that they need to get Charles the ball more.  After coming back from his injury Charles exploded onto the scene with 21 total touches and 3 touch downs.  But last week he seemed to be missing from the game plan again with only 16 touches.  What was more startling than the lack of touches however was the lack of running game in short yardage situations.  Reid chose to pass it mulitiple times in short yardage situations instead of handing it off to one of the top 3 running backs in the league.  I'd look for an increased usage of Charles against the Chargers.

Edit- 

Eric Berry, Chris Owens ruled out vs. Chargers http://t.co/CnHeGbH3j9

— Arrowhead Pride (@ArrowheadPride) October 17, 2014

Eric Berry has been ruled out for the Game.  He is still dealing with a nagging injury Ron Parker will take over for him.

Royalty

A young man sits on I-70 over looking the sports complex.  A crack of the bat, and a hushed crowd.  The man stood up, waiting, as the crowd sound would let him know what happened next.  A tremendous roar came over the stadium and you knew that the Royals had just won the 1985 world series.

Royalty.  That's what we were.  We were the champions of the world and no one could take that from us.  We thought that we were going to be triumphant year after year after year.  But that would be the last time we tasted victory so sweet.

We all sat by and we watched the Royals fail year after year.  One continous cycle of "next year we will be better" that turned to (false) hope, and then back again to "next year"

Who can blame fans who stopped paying attention?  Who can blame the young fans who never started, and instead adopted our hated rival to the east or some other big market team as their own?  After all why support a team that doesn't seem to want to support itself?

That's when, in 2006, the Glass family decided they needed a change.  They sought out a young up and coming baseball executive who had worked his way from scout to assistant GM of the Atlanta Braves.  That's when the Glass family decided to hire Dayton Moore.  Who would have thought that the man who was sitting on I-70 in 1985 would be at the helm of the greatest turn around seen in modern sports?

Now, headed back to the world series, Dayton Moore will have a much better seat than he did for the last one.