Column: Ritch Price marvels at run by Royals

By Tom Keegan     Oct 20, 2014

Baseball, such a grinder sport, offers no shortcuts. Each step up in competition requires more adjustments. Sometimes, even when a player is ready, he doesn’t know it and needs something to break the dam of pressure.

It even can happen to a team all at once.

Kansas University baseball coach Ritch Price, who has friends in the organizations of both World Series teams, did a nice job of articulating the key moment for the Royals, America’s darlings. He identified it as the comeback from four runs down in the wild-card game against the Oakland A’s, saying it took the team to “another level.”

“I honestly believe right before our eyes, (Eric) Hosmer’s become a superstar,” Price said. “I mean, he’s railing balls to left-center. He’s hitting home runs. (Mike) Moustakas is hitting home runs, clutch home runs. Those guys, right before our eyes, that one win has taken and propelled that whole team to the next level.”

Price likened that game to another famous moment in sports history.

“I think that every great team, I go back to the 49ers of (Joe) Montana and (Jerry) Rice and when Montana hit the great touchdown to John Taylor for that comeback win in the Super Bowl,” Price said. “If they don’t make that drive and Montana doesn’t hit Taylor, they may not win those four championships and be a dynasty. That elevated them.”

Royals general manager Dayton Moore and manager Ned Yost showed patience in believing their young players were the long-term solution, even when they so often struggled with the present.

“I honestly believe that comeback win (vs. the A’s) has taken that whole group of guys to the level they thought they could be at, that group that they’ve been trusting in and believing in, and now the players believe it,” Price said. “That swagger in the dugout now, it’s like watching the Yankees when they were winning world championships. They know they’re going to win. That swagger in their dugout and that energy, you only see that in college. You don’t see that in pro players very often. It’s awesome to watch.”

And for Price, frustrating to listen to so much of the talk along the way.

“I find it unbelievable when I’m driving home from the airport after a recruiting trip, and I’m listening after the Royals lost, and the fans are just beating up Ned Yost,” Price said. “And then when this thing is all over, you can make an argument that Bruce Bochy and Ned Yost have managed their bullpens better than anyone in baseball.”

One of Price’s favorite moments of the baseball season came when Bochy handed the ball to his son, Brett, on the mound Sept. 13 for the former KU closer’s major-league debut with the Giants. Not on the postseason roster, Brett Bochy has spent time recently in Lawrence visiting his girlfriend and working out at KU.

“Ritchie’s a Giants fan,” Price said of his son and assistant coach. “I was a Giants fan my whole life. We’re both telling Brett this is his dad’s best managing job. When you look at it, they’ve got four guys batting under .200, their pitching, they don’t have Matt Cain. They don’t have (Tim) Lincecum in the rotation. He’s piecing it all together. He’s putting guys in positions for them to execute to be successful, and Yost is doing the same thing. The two best managers in baseball this year are going head to head.”

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