Royals' Raul Ibanez gives teammates goosebumps

Bob Nightengale | USA TODAY Sports

Raul Ibanez, speaking so passionately about his time with the Kansas City Royals, suddenly produces a sensation on your arms.

You look down.

Goosebumps.

Ibanez lifts up his sleeve. They're all over his arms, too.

"See what I mean,'' Royals teammate Jarrod Dyson says. "He does that to us all of the time. I can't even tell you the impact he's made on me, and everyone in this clubhouse.

"I just know we wouldn't be in the position we are today without him.''

That position just happens to be in first place in the American League Central Division, with a 79-63 record.

It's a strange place for a team that hasn't been to the postseason since winning the World Series in 1985.

Yet, the Royals are convinced they belong, confident they will end the longest postseason drought in Major League Baseball.

Any lingering doubts were put to rest on the afternoon of July 22.

It was the day Ibanez, 42, called a players-only team meeting in the visiting weight room in Chicago.

"I just gave my honest observations,'' says Ibanez, who joined the team only three weeks earlier after being released by the Los Angeles Angels, "and told them about the potential and talent they had. The talent here is so incredible. They just need to believe that.

"So I told them that looking in from the outside, every team hated to play them. Everyone saw the talent they had. This was their opportunity. They were on the cusp of greatness.

"I just thought they needed a belief.''

Since that impassioned speech, the Royals have produced the best record in baseball - 31-13 - over that stretch.

It was the only players' meeting of the season.

The next one will be the mandatory meeting talking about dividing playoff shares.

"It's no coincidence it all started with Raul,'' Royals left fielder Alex Gordon says. "We were kind of in the dumps. We had just been swept coming out of the All-Star break. Things weren't looking good.

"We came out of that meeting feeling so much different about yourselves.''

Says ace James Shields: "We were on a downhill track. We needed to believe in ourselves again. He gave us that confidence we were missing. And it stayed.''

The Royals, eight games behind the Tigers entering July 22,, moved into first place on Aug. 11 and are one game up in the AL Central. They lost 9-5, Monday afternoon in the first game of the series to the Tigers, but their confidence hardly waned.

"Every game we lose now,'' Dyson says, "we feel like we gave it away. We may be a young team, but that's how confident we feel. That's how Raul has made us feel.

"We were on that slippery slope, but Raul now has everybody in here believing in each other, believing in their ability, and believing we can get it done.''

No, they're not talking playoffs.

They're talking much, much bigger.

"Can you imagine?'' Ibanez says, stopping to collect his thoughts.

"Can you imagine if things happened, and we were blessed enough to be part of a parade?

"Can you imagine what that would be like.''

Ibanez is just getting started.

"You're talking about changing the outlook of baseball for an entire generation of kids and fans in Kansas City,'' he says. "You're talking about creating a winning culture for that city and for that town.

"You've got people in that city who have grown up and have never experienced a postseason game in 29 years, and now to be a part of something like this?

"Wow.''

Ibanez, respected by his peers as anyone in the game, has accomplished just about everything during his 19-year career. He has more than 2,000 career hits and 300 homers. He's been an All-Star. He's been in 44 playoff games. He's been to the World Series.

Yet, in what likely will be the final year of his career, what a way to leave the game, almost going full-circle.

It was the Royals who resuscitated his career in 2001, after shuttling between the minors and majors for five seasons with the Seattle Mariners. The Royals gave him a shot, he became an everyday outfielder, and he flourished, averaging 21 homers and 97 RBI during the final two years of his three-year Royals' stint.

The Royals players, players like second baseman Omar Infante and closer Greg Holland will tell you, they want to win almost for Ibanez more than themselves. They know this will be the last time they'll all be together. Shields is a free agent, and the Royals aren't in the habit of signing $100 million checks. Butler is a free agent, too.

And Ibanez recognizes it's time to spend the summers with his wife and five kids, ranging from 13 to 1. He won't just stick around unless he can play a meaningful role.

This is why the entire family is with Ibanez in Kansas City. The kids are being home-schooled while going to their dad's home games. If this is it, he wants them to share the same memory, going out a winner.

"My life is not going to change one way or the other, but I want this for them,'' Ibanez says of his teammates. "I want them to know what it feels like. I want it for the city.

"This could be historic, and remembered forever in Kansas City.''

Yes, we're starting to imagine.​