Daily Madden: AL Wildcard Game Was Exciting Despite A's Loss; Raider Team Needs Take Ownership
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)—In the postseason opener, the Kansas City Royals ran wild and outlasted the Athletics.
Salvador Perez singled home the winning run with two outs in the 12th inning, capping two late comebacks that gave Kansas City a 9-8 victory Tuesday night in the AL wild-card game.
"It was a great game last night though. Watching that, you get involved in it—winner go on, loser go home. There's really something special to that and when the A's have the lead, then they lose the lead and then you into extra innings—that was pretty doggone exciting," Madden said. "But I'll tell you one thing, as an old catcher, that was a catcher's nightmare when they steal seven bases. I know you can say, well, it's on the pitcher; but if you're a catcher, you always put it on yourself when that
happens."
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Daily Madden: AL Wildcard Game Was Exciting Despite A's Loss; Raider Team Needs Take Ownership
The coach said that the Royals are a fun team to watch and that they are hard to dislike.
"I'm rooting for the A's obviously, but I didn't dislike the Royals. Usually you root for one team and you dislike the other one and I was rooting for one team but I never did dislike the Royals," he said.
Meanwhile back in Oakland, the Raiders named Tony Sparano as their interim head coach on Tuesday replacing Dennis Allen.
"It's interesting that they fire the head coach like it was all his fault and, obviously, it wasn't his fault. And the players have to take some responsibility for that, he said.
As a former coach, Madden said it's always difficult to watch the firing of an NFL coach.
"When they win, they always want to take ownership. You know, 'this is our locker room, this is a players' team.' Well—okay—it's a players' team, then go show it. Accept some responsibility," he said.
Madden said he believes in improving pass protection and other fundamentals but also has another suggestion.
"Get the players to play hard for you and take ownership of the team," he said.
Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 and Monday and Friday mornings at 9:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.
