Jeremy Guthrie wears ‘These O’s Ain’t Royal’ T-shirt to press conference
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — They say that history is written by the victors. A similar philosophy also goes for what kind of T-shirt you can wear to a press conference when you’re one win a way from reaching the World Series.
After the Kansas City Royals won Game 3 of the American League Championship Series on Tuesday night, right-hander Jeremy Guthrie wore a shirt that read, “The’s O’s Ain’t Royal” to the postgame media gathering. Amazingly, nobody in the room asked him about the shirt. Usually, you don’t ask about shirts at press conferences, but this seemed to be an exception, because Guthrie’s clothing could be interpreted as (albeit mild) trash talk.
Guthrie spent his formative seasons pitching for the Orioles and — who knows? — maybe he was getting a dig in at the team that traded him to the Rockies.
Although, it is literally true: The Orioles aren’t the Royals —they’re the Orioles! And it’s not believed that any of Baltimore players are actual royalty, though Jonathan Schoop is a citizen of Curaçao and, thus, a royal subject of the king and queen of the Netherlands.
But that’s not what the shirt implies, does it? Fans noticed, too, particularly actor Josh Charles, a longtime O’s devotee. And Knox Overstreet from “Dead Poets Society” (and other things since 1989) was not happy:
The mounting losses for the Orioles, who haven’t won a World Series since 1983 — that’s even longer than the Royals, ya know? — are hurting Birdland right now. Guthrie tuned in to Twitter and read some of the blowback and issued this statement:
Guthrie’s apology seems sincere, though his shirt also seemed like a sure shot across the bow of the S.S. Showalter. Nobody could blame O’s fans (or players, if they happened to notice or were told) if they don’t buy it (or if they don’t care). Still, it took some Real J Guts to wear that shirt in that forum. After a fan on Twitter suggested Guthrie should just “own” the shirt, he tweeted this:
He’s got a dry wit. But is he also kidding on the square? Yeah, it’s a joke, but it’s also a dig. So many mind games!
The ALCS has gotten a little chippy, the tiniest bit, after Jarrod Dyson boasted that the Royals don’t think the series is going back to Baltimore for Games 6-7 and the Orioles don’t think it is, either. That was a little brash and presumptuous of him. Fun, though. Or obnoxious, depending on your point of view.
Dyson also thinks that O’s infielder Ryan Flaherty might have kneed him in the shoulder on a slide into third base — on Kevin Gausman’s pickoff attempt — in retaliation for Dyson’s quip. So it seems there’s some bad blood cells, if not whole blood, between these teams. And if the O’s mount a rally and the series does go back to Baltimore, well, we might see some real snarky T-shirts and more good shovin’.
Wil the Royals allow it to last long enough?
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David Brown is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter!
