Kevin's Royals Blog

I'm going to post my review of Mark Teahen's AFL season on Monday, with why Zack Greinke should be named the American League's Rookie of the Year coming later in the week.

On a side note, I caught a sneak preview of Johnny Depp's latest film, Finding Neverland. It wasn't Depp's finest work (Pirates of the Caribbean is something he'll never be able to top), but he definitely did a fine job in this one, too. The movie premieres just in time for the holiday season.

I have some Royals-related news to discuss, but I’m going to put that off for tomorrow’s entry. There’s some talk that Mark Teahen’s Arizona Fall League performance might have improved his odds of being the opening day third baseman, which could sway Allard Baird’s decision to sign (or not sign) a guy like Russell Branyan or a less-expensive Joe Randa as a stopgap solution. I have some thoughts on that, but today, Steve Stone
resigning his color commentary duties for the Chicago Cubs struck me on at least a couple of levels.

If any of you don’t know why Stone probably resigned, here’s a little bit of background information: Throughout his tenure as an analyst, Stone has been known to tick Cubs players and coaches off with some regularity because of his blunt and opinionated commentary. Basically, Stone’s never been afraid to call out his former team on the air when they play terrible baseball. A few Cubs took exception to this – Kent Mercker reportedly called the broadcast booth to voice his complaint – and fired their shots right back at Stone. Things boiled over when Stone, clearly upset with the Cubs’ collapse in the National League Wild Card race, made the following post-game comment on WGN Radio on September 30:

"You want the truth? You can't handle the truth. Let me tell you something, guys, the truth of this situation is(this is) an extremely talented bunch of guys who want to look at all directions except where they should really look and kind of make excuses for what happened.

"This team should have won the Wild Card by six, seven games. No doubt about it. They have the talent to do that."

Those remarks earned Stone a meeting with Dusty Baker and GM Jim Hendry, although the nature of the conversation that took place in the meeting will probably never be known. Reports indicated, however, that Baker and Hendry took Stone’s comments personally, and wanted to tell him how they felt. Everything seemed to be fine: Stone, Baker, and Hendry all claimed that their differences had been worked out, and WGN even picked up the 2005 option on Stone’s contract.

But here we are eight weeks later, and Stone’s decided that he wants to pursue other opportunities. I don’t think this was your classic resign-or-be-fired tool that’s used by so many professional and college sports teams, but it’s pretty clear that Stone felt some sort of pressure to get out because of the controversy he caused. It’s really sad that in today’s society, having a differing opinion to an extreme degree is something that’s frowned upon. In the case of the 2004 Chicago Cubs, Stoney was right: The Cubs players and coaches had no one else but themselves to blame for missing out on the playoffs. Judging from the reactions of guys like Kent Mercker, their players knew they weren’t doing their jobs, and just didn’t like hearing about it from an announcer.

The other side of this is that Stone’s now free to see what jobs are out there in baseball. I’d be thrilled to have him in the Royals’ broadcast booth or, in an even better world, on the field, perhaps as the bench coach. The man knows his baseball, and would probably make a fine bench coach. Whether he ends up on TV or in a dugout somewhere, I know he’ll continue to be one of the finest and most intelligent people in the game today. Now if we could just stop being so damn picky …

People are always looking for the next great thing or what’s now in fashion. Next Tuesday, millions and millions of Americans will go to the polls, and millions will be looking to put a new man in charge at the White House. Similarly, Americans have been looking for a new team to call our own following the collapse of the Dallas Cowboys. On Wednesday night at about 11:00 p.m. Central time, a new Team America emerged, albeit one that isn’t operated by strings and electronics in a movie studio. In a way, however, it seems that the Boston Red Sox might as well have been, because stories like this just don’t present themselves in real life.

But it did happen in real life, and it’s for that reason all of us – whether we pledge our allegiance to the Sox, Yankees, Royals, Cardinals, or otherwise – should consider ourselves lucky that we were a part of this unlikeliest of events. The Sox winning the World Series has always been more than just a thing BoSox Nation has hoped and longed for for year after year; over time, it’s become an institution. The Curse kept the Sox chic, and was what the entire franchise – some might say the New England region – essentially used as its claim to fame. Boston’s front office certainly kept the team very competitive over the past decade bringing its fans to Fenway Park, but there can’t be any question that The Curse made the club interesting, especially to the national audience.

And until Dave Ortiz & Co. began living their impossible dream last week by ambushing the Yankees, the cloud of inevitable failure that hung over the franchise was the team’s main resource for staying relevant in the national spotlight. After Keith Foulke underhanded to Doug Mientkiewicz for the last out of the Series, however, the franchise (and this team especially) became forever relevant in American culture, or at least until their success cycle comes back around and the club has consecutive losing seasons.

Much of the credit for that has to be given to Boston’s 30-year-old wunderkind GM Theo Epstein who, in the true spirit of sabermetrics, made a very bold trade on July 31 when he shipped Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs. Boston ended up with Orlando Cabrera and Mientkiewicz, both of whom were defensive upgrades. At the post-trade press conference, Epstein said that his team was better equipped to go to and win the World Series, and he was proven right by his players.

But as much credit as Theo deserves for putting together a group of 25 guys who won the World Series in convincing fashion, he deserves even more credit for finding players who baseball fans all over can relate to. Aside from players such as Johnny Damon and Pedro Martinez who are premiere physical talents, most of the people on this roster are rough around the edges to say the least. And in terms of baseball skills, most of them are quite limited in what they can do. In other words, previous organizations chose to focus on what the Kevin Millars, Mark Bellhorns, and Dave Robertses of the world couldn’t do at a championship-caliber level, rather than what they could do. Fans can relate to players like that because they seem like ordinary guys who just play baseball because they want to. That’s opposed to watching amazing talents like Carlos Beltran float around center field, playing like they were born to play baseball. The 2004 Red Sox are baseball’s Oakland Raiders, its long-haired renegade team.

Sadly, more than a few members of this team are free agents, with Martinez and game four winner Derek Lowe among the headlining names. I don’t claim to know how many championships this group could win together if the roster stayed intact, but that isn’t the point. The ’04 Red Sox were a team of everyday dudes who, if kept mostly intact, will win the hearts of all those who just love good stories about good guys winning when it’s all said and done.

They are America’s Team.

The Cardinals and Red Sox took Monday to travel, and because I didn’t find the Broncos getting walloped by the Bengals on Monday Night Football to be all that interesting, I’m not going to write about sports this morning. But who was the ratings genius who scheduled The Fighting Rudis to be on primetime television anyway? Something tells me John Madden had one too many turkey legs/candy bars/Steve Lyons cliches to eat before the scheduling process began.

As is par for the course for me, I found time last night to see who Jay Leno had as guests on The Tonight Show. When I changed the channel to good ol’ KY3, I saw Robin Williams sitting on what I like to call the "My Interview is Over" couch, right next to the "My Interview is Now" chair, which was being filled by some old dude whose main hobby is making chicken noises. However, one definitely wouldn’t know that Williams wasn’t still talking directly to Leno about a movie or DVD release, because he kept on keepin’ on with his usual insanity. You know, things like playing off The Chicken Man’s talents by pretending to hunt a crow with an invisible twelve-gauge. Part of me found that to be inconsiderate, but any man whose claim to fame is crowing and cock-a-doodle-dooing (although he also does a mean Mister Ed impersonation) needs to be happy about three things and ignore any inconsideracies: (That isn’t a word. Yet.)

1) That he’s on the Tonight Show
2) That he probably shouldn’t be
3) That he’s sitting next to Robin Williams, Comic Genius


Whether the man felt he’d been slighted by Williams I don’t know – and I’m fairly certain he didn’t – but if he did, he’s in the wrong. All I know is that the standards for being a guest on late night TV have been lowered to unbelievable depths. I think next week, Subway guy "I'm Still Really Obese" Jared should be on Letterman. Book it.

Middle of the night and it's getting so hard to breathe
You can't sleep, can't think, can't hardly dream
Do you fear what the world wants you to be?
Open your eyes and just see what the world is
Open your mind and you're free

Why does my mind wander so much? Why do my desires change all the time? And by "all the time," I mean every single fucking day.

As I’m being soothed by the melodic tunes of Ryan Cabrera, I wrap up a weekend that’s been as revealing as it’s been fun and filled with my own freedom. The ‘rents spent Friday and Saturday night in Branson before returning home at about 3 p.m. yesterday. Their being absent from the house for that 48-hour period gave me a chance to re-think my current situation in life – a situation I’ve placed myself into – and come to a realization. That realization? I’m not happy.

The interesting thing is that for the past year-and-a-half, I thought I was happy. Every day, I’d wake up, get dressed, go to my daily activities, come home, and crash. Ya know, in a Rather, Rinse, Repeat kind of fashion. I’ve become content with that life, and it took me until this weekend to realize I’m not happy with it. I think my false sense of happiness came from the total absence of stress in that life.

I chose that life out of fear of the unknown. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been more afraid of living up to my potential than anything else. I know that sounds strange, a person not wanting to live up to his potential, but it’s me, and it’s always been me. I’ve also been afraid to be what the world wants me to be. As a result, I’ve gone to the safe and unusual life every day, not living life to its fullest.

As I sit here now, I know that’s about as unhealthy as it gets. Why have I been acting twice my age instead of simply acting my age? How could I have been so afraid of living up to my potential and possibly failing? Hell, everyone fails, and I shouldn’t be any different. Now, I WANT to fail. It might’ve taken me longer than 99 percent of my high school graduating class, but I’m ready to live like I should be living. That means taking chances, some dares, and perhaps jumping into some high-risk, high-reward situations. Where that'll happen I don't know, but it's going to happen. I won't have it any other way.

So bring it on, life. This time, I’m coming to the fight with fire in my eyes.

And what are you hiding from?
Is it safe there inside your walls?
'Cause your chance is bound to come
If you're strong enough to live at all
We'll find what we need in our lives
We'll find we need in our lives
Open your eyes and just see what the world is
Open your mind and you're free

-Ryan Cabrera, "Illusions"

It’s been a rough week for the city of Chicago. In the aftermath of the Cubs’ chokejob down the stretch that cost Dusty "Toothpick" Baker a playoff berth and the White Sox’s typical underachieving season, Terrell Owens made the Chicago Bears cry a little…by doing sit-ups in the end zone.

The Bears’ players didn’t literally cry, of course, but reported whining and reported crying are all the same to me. As I’m sure all five of my loyal readers are aware, Owens, after scoring his sixth touchdown of the season, put the football between his knees, lied down, and did six sit-ups in the end zone. Reportedly, some of the Bears’ players were upset that Owens wasn’t flagged for a 15-yard excessive celebration penalty, and I can understand their beef to an extent. The celebration appeared to be pre-meditated, and because NFL rules prohibit such conduct on the field, the referees probably should’ve marched the ball back to Philly’s 15 yard line on the ensuing kickoff.

My issue with this has less to do with the Bears being upset than it does with the Excessive Celebration rule being instituted in the first place. A line has to be drawn to prevent taunting, but everything Owens has done – The Sharpie Incident, The Pon Pom Shake, and now The Sit-up Controversy – I see nothing wrong with. The guy’s just having fun, and because those celebrations aren’t showing anybody or any team up, Owens shouldn’t be penalized or fined for his actions. However, I’m sure the No Fun League will once again try to muzzle one of the players it should be marketing.

That’s not to say there isn’t hope. If baseball can FREE ERUBIEL DURAZO!, then football can FREE TERRELL OWENS!. Just Do It, Paul Tagliabue.

And if the Cubs fire Baker, I have a managerial replacement lined up:



She may not know anything about baseball, but I guarantee you this: Under Britney's leadership, the Cubs would never choke again.

The Chiefs picked up a much-needed first win of the season on Monday night against the Baltimore Ravens. KC's defenders shut down Jamal Lewis by swarming to the football, Trent Green had his best game of the season, and, as usual, #31 found the end zone:

Call me picky after an important 27-24 victory, but I can’t help but get annoyed when athletes are given awards they don’t deserve, no matter how insignificant the award may be. Chiefs’ running back Priest Holmes was named the AFC’s Offensive Player of the Week for Week 4 of the NFL season, even though he probably shouldn’t have been.

Just as outs are a baseball team’s currency, plays (and to a simpler extent drives) are the currency of a football team. Once they’re used up and all the time is off the clock, a team cannot score any more points. Although the number of plays a football team has to use during a game is never a definite number as outs are in baseball, it still serves NFL head coaches and players well to try to make the most out of the plays they know they do have.

Although other factors – not fumbling the football being one – play a role, what matters most when determining a player’s (in this case, a running back) value to his offense in a single game isn’t the number of yards the back gains, but rather who made the most of his opportunities. And although Holmes certainly wasn’t bad on Monday Night Football (125 yards on the ground), he simply wasn’t so impressive that he was the best offensive player last week. A 125-yard game is nice, but it isn’t as nice when the team had to use up 33 plays to gain those yards. Rudi Johnson, LaDanian Tomlinson, and Tiki Barber all put Holmes’ performance to shame. I think Holmes won the award because A) He’s Priest Holmes and B) People still think touchdowns scored (Holmes scored two) gauge who the best players are.

In the baseball world that’s filled with Baseball Prospectuses and Moneyballs, it’s more than a little bit easy to forget what baseball really is in its purest form. It isn’t The Beane Way vs. The LaMar Way. It has nothing to do with Player A having a significantly higher OPS than Player B, and it certainly can’t be about parity. Perhaps I’m just looking for an excuse to make myself feel better, but when a guy’s favorite team has a 58-104 season, all the talk about matchups, the numbers, and what those mean don’t seem to matter anymore.

None of that is to say I wouldn’t do almost anything to have a playoff-bound Royals team to cheer for starting on Tuesday, but in a way, having nothing riding on Sunday’s White Sox/Royals game made the game experience so much more enjoyable for me. Because I attended yesterday’s game with nothing but an open mind and a good friend, my outlook on baseball has been forever changed. The game isn’t about numbers, or how it’s time for Joe Randa and the Royals to go their separate ways. It’s about what I saw while begging for autographs at the players’ parking area: Major Leaguers signing their name for anyone and everyone who wants an autograph. Randa’s two young sons playing catch in the parking lot, just the way Dad does when he throws the ball around the horn to celebrate a strikeout. Fathers bringing their sons and daughters to their first baseball game on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

If I haven’t made myself clear, baseball is about family, good friends and some solid conversation, with a dash of good ballpark eatin’ (and hopefully a win!) thrown in for good measure. With those things in mind, here are ten things I’m thankful for from the most nightmarish season I’ve ever experienced:

10) Denny Matthews, whose voice on the radio will always be a welcome sound.
9) Carlos Beltran, who handled his touchy situation with class and dignity. Go get ‘em in the playoffs, Carlos!
8) Allard Baird, for continuing to show that he’s capable of building The Next Good Royals Team.
7) Chuy, the coolest Lemonade Guy in baseball.
6) Two great road trips to the ballpark. Thanks a lot Joe, good buddy. Zack’s the real deal, eh? We’ll do it again next year.
5) Kauffman Stadium, for being as beautiful as ever.
4) John Buck, for foreshadowing his future Captainship of the Royals.
3) Zack Greinke. You give Royals fans a reason to believe in a better tomorrow.
2) Joe Randa, who served the Royals well for eight seasons, and did so in a professional way.
1) The Kansas City Royals, who made 58 days of my life in the past six months just that much better.

Coming soon: Greinke v Crosby. Who should be voted the league’s top rookie?

Like many of you, baseball’s July 31 trading deadline serves as an early Christmas for me. And with the deadline comes trade rumors, which only adds to the anticipation (and to the number of hours I stay glued to the internet/TV/phone searching for the latest). Hearing so-and-so might end up here for Player A and Player B is every bit as cool as knowing the gorgeous Keira Knightley, which I very unfortunately do not.

However, the truth of the matter is that baseball fans get all worked up over nothing most of the time, because most of these trade rumors are baseless and without any substance. That tends to be the nature of rumors, be they baseball-related or otherwise. Juicy bits of information often get blown way out of proportion thanks to peoples’ nature to embellish what they’ve heard. How do bogus baseball rumors start? I found an example in a "Royals Notebook" story in the Friday edition of the Kansas City Star:

Count the Royals among the interested parties if the Angels choose to part with suspended outfielder Jose Guillen in the off-season.

Club officials can't comment on the matter because Guillen remains under contract. But manager Tony Peña is well-acquainted with Guillen, a fellow Dominican, and the Royals have a gaping need to add a corner outfielder with a power bat. [ . . . ]

[ . . . ] Guillen was batting .294 with 27 homers and a career-high 104 RBIs in 148 games at the time of his suspension.

The Royals rank last among all 30 teams in production from their corner outfielders. Their left fielders, entering Thursday's game, were hitting a combined .216 with 13 homers and 58 RBIs. The club's right fielders were hitting .232 with 20 homers and 81 RBIs.

That’s all there is. The story (which is written by a very good journalist, Bob Dutton) relies on three things to try to express the Royals’ supposed "interest" in Jose Guillen:

1) Tony Pena’s relationship with Guillen
2) The Royals’ need for a power-hitting corner outfielder
3) Club officials being "[unable to] comment" due to tampering restrictions

Nowhere in the story is there any direct proof that the Royals are actually interested in pursuing a trade for this player. Conveniently, club officials "can’t comment on the matter" because Guillen’s still property of The Fighting Ecksteins. This is a fine job of mixing-and-matching players to teams; New Jersey Nets point guard Jason Kidd will probably be going to every team in the NBA in need of a point guard this season.

Ultimately, all Dutton’s done here is speculate on a possible scenario. That’s fine, because in a way, Guillen fits with what the Royals need to do to improve this winter. (He also doesn’t fit, given the organization’s stress on player character). What Bob Dutton thinks, however, doesn’t have anything to do with what Allard Baird’s plans are if he’s soured on Abraham Nunez as an everyday player.

I’m sure that in the next few days, hundreds of messages will be posted on message boards (The Royals want to trade for Jose Guillen!), hundreds of conversations will be started (Hey man, did you hear the Royals are going after that surly Angels outfielder?), and a controlled level of chaos will ensue thanks to Dutton’s clever wording. In the end, there’s probably nothing to this. It’s every bit as likely that the Royals actually aren’t interested in Guillen’s services