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Keep Memories of Beltran Fresh
By Nick Scott
Sports fans need to have a short memory so that the stings of past losses, horrible seasons and bad trades do not linger on and ruin our enjoyment of the current season. If you are a Royals fan, you have to forget the past even more since these stings seem to happen very regularly. However, I want to break the unspoken fan contract by speaking about a bad loss for a moment. I do not mean a game loss, but the loss of Carlos Beltran. I know that there was no way he was going to stay around Kansas City forever, but it still hurts so much to see him gone.
The only thing I have heard about Carlos from Royals fans is
"Hey, did you see what Beltran did last night?"
"Yeah" sigh. "I did."
We knew how great Beltran was and we let him know it as often as we could, but there was no way we could pay him what he was worth. That is not Carlos' fault, just as it is not the fault of Royals fans, so we should not mourn the loss of Carlos. We should celebrate what we saw and what he gave us while he was here.
It just is not the same when I go to the game and Beltran is not prowling around center field, just waiting for the opportunity to make a dazzling catch or amazing throw. I just got that feeling when he was at bat that anything could happen. He could hit for power, or leg out a triple. He gave his best for a team that was extremely sub-par, and he did it professionally.
My favorite Beltran moment was in a game against the Yankees. It was that day that 810 got people to walk out in protest of the economic disparity in baseball. I did not walk out and saw an amazing game. Beltran made an amazing throw home to get a runner out and save the game. The Royals won and it still might be the best ballgame I've ever been to.
It is that moment and so many that made a Kansas City summer what it was. Even though the odds the Royals were going to lose were high, you had the opportunity to go out and see one of the best players in all of baseball. These are great memories to remember, not push down in the vast collection of repressed sports memories.
I hate not being able to talk about Beltran the way I can talk about Frank White, Willie Wilson or George Brett. In today's baseball, players are more mobile and just do not stick around forever, even with high salary teams. It is a shame we will not be able to retire Beltran's number and induct him into the Royals Hall of Fame. However, all of those things should not preclude us from talking about the glory days of Beltran. I will remember him fondly and tell my kids how one of the best players in baseball started out with the Royals. Wear your Beltran gear, and cheer for him in New York. He is still a Royal at heart and we should support him. As the kids say these days:
"Don't hate the player, hate the game."
