Love blooms in the Spring

My first contribution to Out Standing in the Field was intended to balance out some of the Rockies love fest, but the date (tomorrow specifically) changed my focus to another love fest or two. You see, tomorrow (April 8th) is my lovely wife's birthday and my love for her has led me to post about her love for Alex Gordon. You know the one; he of the striking smile, boyish good looks, sweet swing, and high expectations of many Royals fans. I guess Alex is something of a 'pretty' boy; I know my wife thinks so anyway. What hasn't been pretty for Alex is his transition from 2nd overall pick in the 2005 draft to big league mainstay.

Alex garnered a ton of attention his Junior year at the hated University of Nebraska, sweeping the collegiate baseball awards. According to Wikipedia, he won the Dick Howser Trophy, Golden Spikes Award, the Brooks Wallace Award and the ABCA Rawlings Player of the Year. He was an ESPY Award Finalist for the best Male College Athlete and earned 1st team All-American honors for the 2nd straight season. Talk about a can't miss draft prospect.

Most baseball fans can attest to the fact that Kansas City IS a baseball town without much hope (lately) for a REAL baseball team. Whether right or wrong, we poor, baseball starved, Royals fans placed super high expectations on Alex. He, along with Billy Butler, were to be the core of our future return to good baseball. Not only was 2007 the arrival of Alex, but the purse strings were loosened to the tune of $67 million. Maybe the tides were changing and KC would return to the promised land. Alex mustered a respectable (for a rookie) .247 BA and 15 HR and showed real promise. The expectations only increased when the Royals posted a great 69-93 record.

WHAT!?! 69-93 is a great record!?! Only for a Royals fan, who had suffered through 3 straight 100 loss seasons.

Alex posted similar numbers his sophomore year (.260/16), but 2009 brought an injury plague and Alex only played 49 games in the bigs. 2010 wasn't much better as Alex started the season on the DL and was later demoted to Triple AAA. Through it all, Heather has remained true.

2011 finds the second time that Alex has been rostered on my fantasy baseball team after the draft. Is it my love for her that makes me draft him, or the dopey hope that he finally lives up to his promise. I can say that Gordon brought me a nice piece in trade (Ethier) from another dopey hoped owner and the ire of my wife the first time around. Here's to the hope that his 6 extra-base hits in the first 6 games lead to a full season of them.

If that happens, my budding Spring-time love may bloom to full blown, Heather level, love fest.