A Christmas thank you to Royals Review readers

Without you, we wouldn’t be here

A few years ago, I found myself typing again and again something along the lines of “last year’s World Series winning Royals team” or the like. Winning the American League pennant in 2014 and the World Series in 2015 was such important context to how the Royals were doing that it mattered in nearly every article.

This year, I find myself doing something similar, but far less fun, with phrases like “due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” I’ve referenced it in one way or another for most of my articles, including this one, because it is relevant to, well, everything that has happened sports-wise and sports-agacent this year. When you’re in a once-a-century pandemic, its gravity pulls everything towards it, even as you desperately want to never say “COVID” or “face mask” or “pandemic” or “vaccine” ever, ever again.

Today is Christmas. For those of you who are able to spend time with family this year, every moment should be treasured even more than usual. But for many of us, it sure doesn’t feel like Christmas. While the calendar may read December 25, so many things are different this year. For some, that difference is due to the loss of the loved ones. For others, that difference is because the standard Christmastime family gatherings have been altered in one way or another beyond recognition. Some of you are meeting virtually, but that still doesn’t quite feel the same.

And yet, I can’t help but be more fond and thankful or the internet and virtual communication than I have ever been. That’s true for holiday get togethers, and it is equally true for Royals Review. I have met a majority of the fellow names in the masthead, and even some commenters. But for the most part, Royals Review has been a virtual experience, and the virtual experience has remained unchanged by the pandemic (there it is again).

We do good work here at Royals Review. I know that. However, a lot of internet outlets do good work. You can go read stories closer to the dirt at the Kansas City Star. You can read in-depth longform about your favorite Royals at The Athletic. You can even sign up for a Twitter account and participate in Royals-related fun and games in real time.

But Royals Review is what it is because of you, the readers and the commenters. Will McDonald founded this site about a decade and a half ago, and during those times there was no reason to write or talk about the Royals, whose incompetence was limitless and whose losses piled up like forgotten trash. But at his site, some people did talk about them. More and more people joined, not only to read but to discuss, to form a community. And it is that community which makes Royals Review special.

So on this Christmas Day in a year that has been hard for the world in general, I would like to thank each and every one of you for reading, commenting, and make this a truly unique place to hang out on the internet. Thank you. And, of course, go Royals.