Post by bearcat on Jun 7, 2006 22:48:51 GMT -5
This is an article I whipped up in about 30 minutes or so in a little downtime I had the other day...it's a bit of a rant, so bear with me.
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Ambiorix Burgos has just blown his umpteenth save of the year, and ruined a great first career start by Bobby Keppel in a 4-2 loss to the Texas Rangers. Yes, I'm talking about the Kansas City Royals. The now 14-43 Kansas City Royals.
Reminders of the 2003 season, when the Detroit Tigers were spiraling to a near-record setting season in total losses, are in the minds of Royals fans all over. They can't hit, they can't field, and the bullpen can't hold a lead to save their own lives.
It's gotten to the point where SportsCenter, Jay Leno, and David Letterman have used the Royals as the punchline to many jokes on national TV. Usually, they crack jokes about the local teams, like the Mets, Yanks, and the Dodgers, respectively.
Where does the fault lie? Everywhere. All the way from top management down to the assistant trainers for Class A ball. David Glass is a great business man, but has no clue how to run a baseball team. So he decided to run the team like Wal-Mart, and make as much money as possible.
Oops.
Allard Baird is one of the best baseball minds around, and was just hamstrung by Glass' stringent demands that he not spend over a certain amount, and a lot of trades that have been proposed by Baird - good ones - have been nixed by Glass because they would cost him too much money.
And then for Glass to say "Changes wiil happen soon", and then have Baird hang in limbo for a month is absurd. He finally was let go by the Royals on May 31st, and then, just then, there was a sign of intelligent life coming from Bentonville, Ark., Glass' home.
Finally.
After weeks of speculation and negotiation, Dayton Moore was hired as the Royals' next GM the very next day, but only if he had full control of all baseball operations. I'm still a little skeptical of that provision, but it's really a wait-and-see proposition.
But seriously, Moore offers the one thing that small-market, talent-deprived teams like the Royals desperately need: Hope. Hope that better days are ahead in the future. A brilliant baseball mind, Moore also should have a bevy of scouts coming over from Atlanta with him to KC.
The results won't be seen for a couple of years. But we can look at the Tigers of 2003, and look at them now, and say, we can do that.
We can hope, can't we?
-----
Ambiorix Burgos has just blown his umpteenth save of the year, and ruined a great first career start by Bobby Keppel in a 4-2 loss to the Texas Rangers. Yes, I'm talking about the Kansas City Royals. The now 14-43 Kansas City Royals.
Reminders of the 2003 season, when the Detroit Tigers were spiraling to a near-record setting season in total losses, are in the minds of Royals fans all over. They can't hit, they can't field, and the bullpen can't hold a lead to save their own lives.
It's gotten to the point where SportsCenter, Jay Leno, and David Letterman have used the Royals as the punchline to many jokes on national TV. Usually, they crack jokes about the local teams, like the Mets, Yanks, and the Dodgers, respectively.
Where does the fault lie? Everywhere. All the way from top management down to the assistant trainers for Class A ball. David Glass is a great business man, but has no clue how to run a baseball team. So he decided to run the team like Wal-Mart, and make as much money as possible.
Oops.
Allard Baird is one of the best baseball minds around, and was just hamstrung by Glass' stringent demands that he not spend over a certain amount, and a lot of trades that have been proposed by Baird - good ones - have been nixed by Glass because they would cost him too much money.
And then for Glass to say "Changes wiil happen soon", and then have Baird hang in limbo for a month is absurd. He finally was let go by the Royals on May 31st, and then, just then, there was a sign of intelligent life coming from Bentonville, Ark., Glass' home.
Finally.
After weeks of speculation and negotiation, Dayton Moore was hired as the Royals' next GM the very next day, but only if he had full control of all baseball operations. I'm still a little skeptical of that provision, but it's really a wait-and-see proposition.
But seriously, Moore offers the one thing that small-market, talent-deprived teams like the Royals desperately need: Hope. Hope that better days are ahead in the future. A brilliant baseball mind, Moore also should have a bevy of scouts coming over from Atlanta with him to KC.
The results won't be seen for a couple of years. But we can look at the Tigers of 2003, and look at them now, and say, we can do that.
We can hope, can't we?