Mike Moustakis’s spectacular catch
Sports Saturday
So the wild card Kansas City Royals have upended all predictions and stormed their way into the World Series, upending the favored Angels and then the favored Orioles along the way. With their go-for-broke style, which at one point involved diving into a dugout to snag a foul ball (see picture), they captured the American League and the imagination of baseball fans everywhere.
Speaking of storming, their upending of all the experts’ predictions reminds me of the chaos we encounter in Shakespeare’s Tempest. In both instances, the design is to restore royals to the throne. Or to be precise, in Prospero’s case to restore a duke to his dukedom. Here’s Ariel describing the commotion he has unleashed to bring this about:
I boarded the king’s ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flamed amazement: sometime I’ld divide,
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join. Jove’s lightnings, the precursors
O’ the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not; the fire and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune
Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.
PROSPERO
My brave spirit!
Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil
Would not infect his reason?
ARIEL
Not a soul
But felt a fever of the mad and play’d
Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners
Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel,
Then all afire with me: the king’s son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-staring,–then like reeds, not hair,–
Was the first man that leap’d; cried, ‘Hell is empty
And all the devils are here.’
Since being ousted by his brother 20 years earlier, Prospero has been plotting his return and, when the opportunity presents itself, he immediately seizes it. The desert island on which he and Miranda have been living is not unlike the American League cellar, the dwelling place of the Royals for decades. Like Prospero, the Royals were once powerful, reaching the World Series in 1980 and winning it in 1985. After years in the wilderness, they are returning to the big stage.
Can the Prosperian magic that has brought matters this far put the Royals back on the throne? Will they become the Miranda and Ferdinand of a brave new world? Giants, if not Caliban, stand in their way. Stay tuned.