Thursday, July 13, 2006
Meet the Feebles, Part Two: The Kansas City Royals
Oh, Kansas City Royals. Glory days, how they've passed you by. The 1980s saw the Royals finish first or second in their division nearly every year, appear at two World Series (one of which they even won), and take home a number of batting titles due to the excellent George Brett. Also, in a move that seems quaint, they got rid of most of the players involved in a 1983 cocaine-buying scandal. They played well, and the management was led by a pharmaceutical kingpin turned philanthropist who stipulated in his will that the proceeds from the sale of his baseball team should go to charity. Now they're best known for two drunks attacking their third-base coach in Chicago a few years ago. So what the hell happened?
Much like in the rest of the Midwest, the trouble started when Wal-Mart came to town. In 1993, original owner Ewing Kauffman died and Wal-Mart executive David "You and I Might Define Children Differently, Dateline Sweatshop Investigators" Glass bought the team and began a policy of selling high-quality players for whatever they could get. Now, you can make your arguments here about small-market teams and the difficulty in them paying for stars and the perils of free agency, but still. Throughout the years, this team released Jermaine Dye, Johnny Damon, and Carlos Beltran. Because they didn't want to spend money. On a team owned by a guy who became a billionaire through Wal-Mart and seated all his children on his board. Yeah.
Since the Glass era began, things haven't gone so well. The Royals have only had three seasons in the last 13 in which they were over .500. They've had three seasons with more than 100 losses. Attendance has plummeted from an average around 2 million in the late '80s and early '90s to about 1.3 million or so, based on last year. Last year, they finished an astonishing 57.5 games out.
Now, to be fair, Kansas City is in a division with some very, very good baseball teams. Historically good baseball teams. So that does make their plight a little more sympathetic than, say, that of the Chicago Cubs. But still—of their three winning seasons since David Glass took over, one of them was 1994. Enough said.
Who's fault is it? Upper management, no doubt. You gotta pay a little to get some players, and you need to develop your farm system. And the management revoked credentials of two journalists for asking difficult, pointed questions about decisions made by Glass involving the front office. The front office responded to the firestorm of criticism by opening a blog. The first post? Defending the front office's decision to revoke the credentials.
Will they outdo the 1962 Mets? No. OK, fine, they had two losing streaks this year (11 and 13, respectively), but the Royals have been on what, for them, is a tear. They had a four-game winning streak right before the break and have improved to 31-56. They'll probably finish with 100-102 losses. Which will still be their fourth 100+ loss year in the past five, but hey, anything's better than 120 right? Right?
Push comes to shove, will they be in the basement? At this point, I'm inclined to say no. I'm picking Pittsburgh to be the biggest loser of them all. They've got David DeJesus back and Grudzielanek's a good, solid utility player. They have a new manager who seems to care (at least until he asks Glass for money, and then it's all over). Then again, this is the team that went on two separate 10+ losing streaks. So I guess anything is possible.
Much like in the rest of the Midwest, the trouble started when Wal-Mart came to town. In 1993, original owner Ewing Kauffman died and Wal-Mart executive David "You and I Might Define Children Differently, Dateline Sweatshop Investigators" Glass bought the team and began a policy of selling high-quality players for whatever they could get. Now, you can make your arguments here about small-market teams and the difficulty in them paying for stars and the perils of free agency, but still. Throughout the years, this team released Jermaine Dye, Johnny Damon, and Carlos Beltran. Because they didn't want to spend money. On a team owned by a guy who became a billionaire through Wal-Mart and seated all his children on his board. Yeah.
Since the Glass era began, things haven't gone so well. The Royals have only had three seasons in the last 13 in which they were over .500. They've had three seasons with more than 100 losses. Attendance has plummeted from an average around 2 million in the late '80s and early '90s to about 1.3 million or so, based on last year. Last year, they finished an astonishing 57.5 games out.
Now, to be fair, Kansas City is in a division with some very, very good baseball teams. Historically good baseball teams. So that does make their plight a little more sympathetic than, say, that of the Chicago Cubs. But still—of their three winning seasons since David Glass took over, one of them was 1994. Enough said.
Who's fault is it? Upper management, no doubt. You gotta pay a little to get some players, and you need to develop your farm system. And the management revoked credentials of two journalists for asking difficult, pointed questions about decisions made by Glass involving the front office. The front office responded to the firestorm of criticism by opening a blog. The first post? Defending the front office's decision to revoke the credentials.
Will they outdo the 1962 Mets? No. OK, fine, they had two losing streaks this year (11 and 13, respectively), but the Royals have been on what, for them, is a tear. They had a four-game winning streak right before the break and have improved to 31-56. They'll probably finish with 100-102 losses. Which will still be their fourth 100+ loss year in the past five, but hey, anything's better than 120 right? Right?
Push comes to shove, will they be in the basement? At this point, I'm inclined to say no. I'm picking Pittsburgh to be the biggest loser of them all. They've got David DeJesus back and Grudzielanek's a good, solid utility player. They have a new manager who seems to care (at least until he asks Glass for money, and then it's all over). Then again, this is the team that went on two separate 10+ losing streaks. So I guess anything is possible.
