Dear Kansas City,
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Here's something a lot of us haven't always been willing to admit: You're one of the best kept-secrets in the U.S.
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We talk about other awesome cities out in the middle of America — Chicago! Austin! Minneapolis! — but right there, literally right in the center of the map, you've quietly created a remarkable city.
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Your food is incredible.
Your beer is amazing.
And your passion for your city is something else.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
We've seen it every time Monday Night Football goes to Arrowhead, or any time ESPN cut to Power & Light during the World Cup. Your city is just freaking crazy about sports.
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And sure, other cities are nuts about one of their teams. But not the way you're crazy about the NFL and college hoops and soccer and, oh, yes, these guys.
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These 25 men who've done something nobody outside of the Midwest would've thought possible.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
The rest of us turned off that Wild Card game in the 7th inning.
TBS / Via bleacherreport.com
The rest of us counted your team out against Mike Trout and the Angels.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
The rest of us said that there was no way, absolutely NO WAY your Royals were getting past the sluggers that Baltimore lined up.
AP Photo/Michael Conroy
And yet…here they are: the pennant-winning Kansas City Royals, about to play for a World Series.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
Is this real life? Is this actually happening?
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What did you do to get a team like this?
AP Photo/Travis Heying
AP Photo/Orlin Wagner
Deals with the underworld? Voodoo? TELL US AND WE'LL DO THE SAME. Seriously, there are sports fans in Cleveland prepared to do whatever you say.
What did you do to get an outfield as freaking talented as this one?
AP Photo/Travis Heying
This might be one of the best defensive outfields in the history of postseason baseball. And baseball history goes back FOREVER.
What did you do to get a bullpen as dominant as this one?
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AP Photo/Matt Slocum
AP Photo/Orlin Wagner
What could you possibly have done to get a team that somehow runs this fast AND can hit for power?
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And that makes clutch play after clutch play?
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We're astonished, Kansas City. We'd never have believed that your Royals could do this. But here we are, on the eve of a World Series Game 1 at the K.
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Watching this team in the postseason has been a remarkable thing. We weren't ready to believe a month ago. Now we are.
We don't know what else we can say, K.C. Except maybe this:
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Go take your crown.
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