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Just about a year ago, former Royals manager Tony Pena put his ear to the ground and clearly heard the bus coming. Kansas City was off to the worst start in the club’s history, what little talent the Royals possessed was just traded away, and both ownership and the local press starting looking around for someone to blame. Under the circumstances, Pena did what any reasonable man would do. He resigned. It was probably the wisest decision Pena has ever made. Although roundly thought to be impossible, this year’s Kansas City team is even worse. Buddy Bell, Pena’s successor at the helm of the Titanic, deserves better and should have caught the first stage out of Dodge at the end of the 2005 season. Instead, Bell hung on and was last seen going under the waves, being dragged to the bottom with this once proud franchise. |
How bad are things in Kansas City?
The Royals are a safe bet to break the modern major league record of 120 losses in a single season. That dubious honor belongs to the hapless ’62 Mets, a team that caused the normally jocular skipper Casey Stengel to ask,” Can’t anybody here play this game?”
Bell might well ask the same question.
As of last Saturday, the Royals had won only 16 games and were already 21 games out of first place in the American League Central. You know a team is in trouble when its leading homerun hitter has only seven dingers and it’s the middle of June. You know a team is in trouble when that hitter is the ancient Reggie Sanders, signed to a one-year contract. You know a team is in trouble when two of its top of the rotation starters have ERAs in double digits. You know a team is in trouble when the general manager gets whacked by the end of May and two reporters had their credentials to enter the Royals’ clubhouse revoked, simply because they had the audacity to ask what was wrong.
Put your ear to the ground Buddy Bell. That’s not a bus you hear. It’s a runaway train.
This situation is a shame. It really is.
Granted, small market teams like Kansas City have trouble competing against the likes of the Yankees and Red Sox, with payrolls the size of King Kong. Still, small market teams like Minnesota, Milwaukee and Cincinnati, for example, usually manage to field a team that is at least marginally competitive. Before last season, the Twins actually won the American League Central for three consecutive years. The only team in the division with a smaller payroll than Minnesota was, you guessed it, the Royals.
Cincinnati is on a roll this season, battling for first place in the National League Central. Yes, fans, it can be done. A small market team can compete. A small market team can at least put a product on the field that gives fans hope.
For whatever reason, Royals’ ownership seems either incapable or uninterested in doing so. Again, it’s a shame, especially considering how great this franchise used to be.
Kansas City landed an expansion franchise in 1969, after having lost the Athletics to Oakland two years earlier. The Royals built slowly through their farm system and, by 1976, had put together a team that made it to post-season action consistently. The Royals went to their first World Series in 1980, but ultimately lost to the Phillies.
Kansas City’s first World Series Championship came in 1985 when the Royals bested their cross-state rivals, the Cardinals, in a classic seven-game series.
The face of these great Royal teams was none other than George Brett, arguably the best pure hitter in baseball during his era. Brett had a picture-perfect swing and was a line drive hitter with power. In 1980, Brett hit .390 even though playing with a host of injuries that would have sidelined a less motivated player.
No player has come close to .390 since.
Brett played 21 seasons for the Royals and must be truly agonizing over the fate of the franchise for which he was so long the flagship.
Is there any hope for the Royals? Not this season, at any rate. Still, Kansas City fans can take solace from the fact that in 2003, the Detroit Tigers lost 119 games and were declared by many to be the second-worst team in baseball history. Detroit is now in first place in the AL Central.
However, there is a big difference between the renaissance in the Motor City and what is happening in Kansas City. Detroit’s ownership opened up the vaults and signed quality free agents to support its roster of rising young talent. Kansas City’s brass has consistently proven that they are unwilling to follow suit.
Just how bad will the Royals’ train wreck be? Is it possible they may even be worse next year?
Stay tuned.