Perhaps it’s unfair to compare the Kansas City Royals to the Los Angeles Dodgers, after all, the two teams aren’t even in the same league – literally and figuratively. Literally, the Royals are in the American League and the Dodgers the National League. Figuratively, the Royals had a 2014 opening day payroll of $ 92,185,521 and the Dodgers $229,335,934 – a difference of more than $137 million dollars. Out of the 30 MLB teams only the Milwaukee Brewers ranked lower than the Royals in MLB market size.

The Royals have a television rights deal with Fox Sports Kansas City (FSKC) that pays the club $20 million annually and will run for the next six years. The Dodgers on the other hand are guaranteed $8.5 billion (with a “b”) over the next 24 years from Time Warner Cable – that’s $1.5 million PER GAME. In other words, the Dodgers make more money in 14 games than the Royals make in an entire season.

But the differences between the Royals and Dodgers goes way beyond market size and television rights deals. Simply put, the Royals are two ALCS wins away from advancing to the 2014 World Series and are playing outstanding postseason baseball – something that the Dodgers flat out failed to do.

How is this possible? How is it that the best team in all of baseball with the highest payroll in all of baseball and a lineup that includes guys named Yasiel Puig, Adrian Gonzalez, Matt Kemp, Hanley Ramirez and Carl Crawford went four and out in the NLDS, yet a Royals team with a lineup of guys that most baseball fans have never heard of before beat a heavily-favored Oakland As team in the AL Wild Card game and then swept the even more heavily-favored Detroit Tigers in the ALDS and are taking a two-games to none lead in the ALCS back home to Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City?

In a word – heart.

There are no bubbles, bananas or Grizzly Adams-type beards in the Royals dugout, but there is an abundance of heart. (Photo credit – Tommy Gilligan)

Whereas the Dodgers often times scored runs early in games (sometimes many) thereby expecting to win, they more often than not appeared to simply quit playing after the fifth or sixth inning. In contrast, nearly every Royals win this postseason has come in the eighth or ninth innings and several times in extra innings; they simply do not quit playing. As a result, they have now won six consecutive games this postseason with every indication of continuing their incredible run.

Without question the one thing that stands out more than anything else with this Royals team is the incredible play of their three outfielders – left fielder Alex Gordon, right fielder Nori Aoki and most notably center fielder Lorenzo Cain. These three guys with their combined $12 million salary ($10 million of which belongs to Gordon) have virtually eliminated the outfield gaps and are making plays that are not only difficult but often times impossible. Now this ins’t to say that Crawford, Puig and Kemp with their combined $43 million salary don’t play their respective positions well, they most certainly do, but Gordon, Cain and Aoki are playing with the heart, hustle and enthusiasm of minor leaguers still trying to make it to The Show.

It seems that not a game goes by without Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain making a spectacular catch. (Photo credit – Patrick Smith)

And then there’s Royals third baseman Mike “Moose” Moustakas, the Royals 2007 first round (second overall) draft pick who, after struggling for six seasons in the minor leagues and has continued to struggle in his two seasons in the Bigs, has finally come into his own this postseason. In his 22 at-bats this postseason, Moustakas has seven hits (.318) – four of which are home runs. To put this into prospective, the entire Dodgers team and their $229 million payroll hit exact three home runs in their four postseason games against the Cardinals.

Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas hit 15 home runs in 457 regular season at-bats. He has hit four in 22 at-bats this postseason.
(Photo credit – Darr Beiser)

All of this leads to the most significant difference between the Royals and the Dodgers – while the small-market Royals appear to be headed to the 2014 World Series, the big-market Dodgers will be watching it on television.