MLB Showdown Obsession

 When the free agency era began in baseball, it began the (not so) proud tradition of teams blaming their failures on the rich teams buying up all the good talent. To this day it remains the go to excuse for teams that refuse to spend money on why they don't make the playoffs. One of the most notable "small market" teams that don't spend money (and pocket the revenue sharing money they receive) are the Kansas City Royals. So the irony is rich that when free agent spending became a thing in baseball, the Royals went on a dominating run of winning the AL West 7 times in a 10 year stretch, that included 2 pennants and a championship. When the 2000s began, the Royals were on the opposite end of that success, refusing to spend money on players and living in the bottom end of their division. In the 2010s they began a rebuild that led to a World Series appearance in 2014 that went the full 7 games but was ultimately won by the Giants. The challenge now was could KC rebound o...

 Today, the Houston Astros are viewed in a negative light by fans of the 29 other teams. Their 2017 cheating scandal looms heavily over the franchise, and it doesn't help that the cheating didn't stop with trash cans, nor did it stop in just 2017. As a result, all their accomplishments are tainted, even by association. The 2017 title is viewed with an eyeroll. Their 2019 pennant is hand waved away. Heck, even their 2022 title is looked at with heavy amounts of skepticism. All this being said, there was one accomplishment the team can lay claim to that is free from scrutiny. If you ask someone to name a major rivalry from the early 2000s that wasn't same city or the Yankees-Red Sox, and I'm willing to bet they'd need a minute or two to think. Eventually, they'll list some notable face offs like the Mets-Braves or Cubs-Cardinals, but there's a reason that the Yankees-Red Sox duals were so intense; besides history, they were always in a fist fight for the penn...