Madson, Arbuckle win World Series title with Royals

NEW YORK --- As Kansas City Royals players sprayed each other with champagne and beer and news cameras documented the chaos of the celebration, Ryan Madson stood off to the side in the visitors clubhouse at Citi Field.

A smile never left Madson's face as he described the emotions attached to his second World Series title. The former Phillies closer, who before this season hadn't pitched in a major-league game since 2011, said the feeling was one of disbelief.

"This time last year I was sitting on the couch watching," he said shortly after 1 a.m. Monday after the Royals' clinched the title with a 7-2 win in 12 innings over the New York Mets. "Just to be a part of this team especially is pretty crazy."

Madson, 35, considered himself retired last year. He had undergone Tommy John surgery in 2012 after signing with the Cincinnati Reds and never truly recovered while spending the 2013 season with the Los Angeles Angels. He spent 2014 away from the game before deciding to attempt a comeback.

This season, after making the Royals out of spring training, Madson became a prominent part of a vaunted Kansas City bullpen. The 6-foot-6 righthander posted a 2.13 ERA over 63 1/3 regular-season innings. He struggled in the ALDS and ALCS but logged three scoreless one-inning appearances in the World Series.

"I'm thrilled for Ryno," said Mike Arbuckle, the former Phillies assistant general manager who for the last seven years has been a senior advisor to Royals GM Dayton Moore. "I've known Ryno since he was an 18-year-old kid coming into professional baseball when we drafted him (with the Phillies in 1998).

"To know that he's gone through what he has, basically had shut it down, looked like he might be done, I tip my cap to him. I'm thrilled for him."

It was, of course, a rewarding night for Arbuckle, too. The man responsible for drafting the core of the 2008 Phillies championship team had essentially started over when he joined the Royals, who before last year hadn't made the postseason since 1985.

Arbuckle left the Phillies for Kansas City in November 2008 after he was passed over for the team's general manager position, which went to Ruben Amaro Jr. In an interview with the Inquirer last year, Arbuckle called leaving the Phillies "professionally the hardest thing I ever had to do."

Early Monday morning, nearly seven years later, he celebrated his second World Series title, this one in Royals blue.

"It feels tremendous. This is obviously what we all work for," he said. "We kind of went through the same process here that we went through in Philly. It takes time. People get impatient. But the reality is you have to build a core of your own players who grow up together, learn to win together, and then once you have that core you can go out and add the pieces that you have to plug in.

"But without that core, it's awfully hard to win when it's just trying to go outside and sign so-called mercenaries. So the process here has been really similar."

Arbuckle lauded the make-up of the Royals players. They came from behind to win in eight of their 16 postseason games.

"They never quit," he said. "They never believed they were out of a game."