Kansas City is about to party like it is 1985.
For the first time since the middle of the Ronald Reagan presidency, the Kansas City Royals are in the Major League Baseball play-offs.
Their 3-1 win over the Chicago White Sox on Friday, combined with the Detroit Tigers losing to the Minnesota Twins, assured them of at least a wild card.
Their rise was aided by a 19-10 record in August, part of a second-half surge that lifted them into the play-off places. Their 88-73 mark as of yesterday was the best since they went 92-70 in 1989.
Part of what makes Kansas City’s achievement so remarkable is that so many people struggle to explain how they did it.
It certainly was not thanks to a powerhouse offence – they rank just ninth in the American League in runs scored, and their run difference of 25 is the second-lowest among the play-off teams. Only their neighbours, the St Louis Cardinals (15), are more anaemic.
As of yesterday, the Royals did not have a single batter with 20 home runs or 80 runs batted in. Alex Gordon led them with 19 homers and 74 RBI. The Royals are set to become the first American League team in 20 years to fail to hit 100 homers in a season.
Their success appears more to be built on the age-old combination of pitching and defence.
Kansas City’s biggest skill, in fact, may be getting opponents to hit balls towards their best defenders.
Royals pitchers rank sixth in the majors in fly-ball percentage yet still manage to keep the ball in the park – aided, in part, by Kauffman Stadium’s generous dimensions.
Backing up those pitchers is one of baseball’s best defensive outfields. Gordon is considered one of the top corner outfielders in the game, with Lorenzo Cain, Jarrod Dyson and Norichika Aoki also notable assets in centre and right field.
According to StatCorner, the Royals outfield is 53.2 runs better than average this season, an absolutely essential component for a team who play so many close games.
The front office has been just as crucial. General manager Dayton Moore has cultivated Kansas City’s farm system and made key trades to fill holes at starting pitcher (James Shields), set-up man (Wade Davis), shortstop (Alcides Escobar) and others.
For Royals fans, though, how the team reached the play-offs is secondary to the fact they did it. There were only 26 teams in the majors the last time Kansas City made the post-season and at least a dozen of their current regular starters had not been born.
Kansas City may not be a great team, but they are most definitely a team – one who specialise in chemistry, belief and all those other overused sports cliches.
They are also in the play-offs, something to which two-thirds of the league can only aspire.
pfreelend@thenational.ae
Follow our sports coverage on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE
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Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
