7/13/2023 0 Comments Alex gordon game log![]() For a long time, Gordon was the Kansas City Royals, and not in that larger-than-life, face-of-the-franchise type way. It will be that no player better represents the last two decades of Kansas City baseball, from the endless sting of losing to the highs of two World Series runs to an iconic Game 1 homer off Jeurys Familia. Someday Gordon might deserve a statue, too.īut it won’t just be the stats or the three All-Star appearances or the seven Gold Glove Awards that he won at a position he did not start playing until he was 26. That puts him just ahead of second baseman Frank White, a hometown kid who has a statue at Kauffman Stadium. He ranks sixth in Royals history in games played, sixth in hits, sixth in runs, fifth in doubles, third in walks, fourth in homers and fourth in bWAR (35.0), behind only Brett, Amos Otis and Willie Wilson. He is not the best player, of course - that title may forever belong to Brett - and he’s probably not the second best, either. You can debate where Gordon ranks in the history of the Royals franchise. Need this quarantine training program my goodness. Just a not-so-small reminder that Gordo’s arms are bigger than your arms. (After openly discussing retirement last season, he showed up to spring training looking rejuvenated.) But if this is the end, it will mean the end for a franchise stalwart, a homegrown star who weathered the highest of expectations, changed positions, became a star and then became a champion - and in the process became something more, an athlete who embodied Kansas City. Gordon has given no clear indication on which way he is leaning. Because there’s a chance that this will be it, that one of the most decorated careers in Royals history will conclude in a shortened season with no fans and no cheers and no proper sendoff. It was easy to forget about Gordon again. He returned to the Royals on a one-year contract because he wasn’t ready to walk away, and because new manager Mike Matheny offered fresh energy, and because, after an improved offensive performance in 2019, he hoped to help with the ongoing rebuild. Not to mention, Gordon is 36 now, and he pondered retirement last winter, when his four-year, $72 million contract expired. The season has been historically short, and there hav been many other storylines to follow in Kansas City. His team started 14-28 and fell out the race. In fact, I presume there are Royals fans who haven’t thought much about him. ![]() You probably haven’t thought much about Alex Gordon this season. So if that’s the least of your worries, then so be it.” “If you’re not playing well, then stuff is gonna get said,” he said. It didn’t matter what people thought, he said. So, as we sat a table near a batting cage and I started to ask a question about his first years in Kansas City, he cut in. It was almost always in the same deadpan. Sometimes he’d offer a sly smile, realizing he was about to do you a favor and offer something good. In close to a decade of covering him, I can’t remember him turning down an interview or ducking a question. Which is not to say he was unfriendly to reporters. Gordon has never been one to fill up a notebook. I can’t remember exactly what he said, but I do remember that it consisted of just two or three words and a general answer of “OK.” When I showed up to watch Gordon hit that morning eight years ago, I was curious what he thought about that change.Ī few days earlier, I had approached him at a Royals FanFest event and asked if I could come watch a workout. The cold and clinical approach became a fastidious attention to detail. In Kansas City, the old perceptions melted away. 303 with 23 homers and 45 doubles while winning a Gold Glove Award. And when the 2011 season came around, he batted. Dominate? But he revamped his swing with Seitzer. But he made a famous promise, telling Kansas City Star beat writer Bob Dutton that he’d “dominate next year.” It was, amazingly, one of the most uncharacteristic declarations of his career. When Gordon returned from Omaha near the end of the 2010 season, he still wasn’t hitting. (Albert Dickson / Sporting News via Getty Images)īut Gordon was stoic by nature, an introvert who expressed himself in a flat deadpan, so when the injuries happened and the production didn’t come, so many people had questions: Why didn’t he show more emotion? Was he moping? Frustrated? How much did he really care?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |