A Ruthian record for the Royals
It’s been tough being a Kansas City Royals fan, I am not going to lie.
The 2014-15 seasons were special, obviously. But if you were to jump on the bandwagon at say age 12, just in time to watch them lose three straight ALCS to the hated (ever since) New York Yankees, that’s a suboptimal start.
Then when they finally beat the Yankees in 1980, they lost the World Series to the Phillies; and when they finally won a World Series in 1985, they missed the playoffs the next 28 years.
Fast forward past the 2015 Series victory and a rebuild that has been going on since 2018.
Things are not ideal. The Royals playing six rookies and being 15-15 over the last month is exciting but they’re also 35-53 overall and one of those rookies, catcher MJ Melendez, has not taken the Covid-19 vaccine.
Wish it was just MJ, but it isn’t. The Major League categories in which the Royals rank last — earned run average, saves, walks allowed, hits allowed, wild pitches, pitching strikeouts — just grew by one. It was announced Wednesday that 10 Royals will miss Kansas City’s four-game series in Toronto for being unvaccinated.
I don’t see anyone catching them. The most players lost at the border before Wednesday was four. The Royals, trade prospects Whit Merrifield, Andrew Benintendi and Michael A. Taylor among them, saw that number and went Ruthian.
What to do? Root for the Tigers, Guardians, Angels and Cubs to go all Roger Maris when they have their trips to Toronto? Rage at a leadership that, in the worlds of GM Dayton Moore, “promotes and encourages individual choices,” while — Moore is a devout Christian, if that matters — mandates minor leaguers attend an anti-smut seminar?
As somebody vaccinated and (double) boosted, I don’t get it. Merrifield spoke at length about, “a long thought process,” and, “if I happen to get on a team that has a chance to go play in Canada in the postseason, maybe that changes.”
What he means is, “Since this current batch of Royals has less than one tenth of one percent chance of making the playoffs, I’m not thinking about it at all.”
OK. If you’re a fan of a team that has had its share of weird — letting Ken Harvey collide with several players while playing first base, two hooligans in Chicago jumping their first base coach, paying Neifi Perez 4 million in 2002 dollars — you learn to expect more weird.
In a few hours I have already progressed from anger to depression, then back-tracked to the bargaining phase. Helping me is Royals Twitter.
Rany Jazayerli has been hilariously roasting KC most of the season. “For all the vaccine skeptics,” he tweeted, “congratulations on your new flag bearer; a baseball team that has three winning seasons in 16 years under their current front office.”
“Callin’ the Royals the Omaha Shot-Chasers this weekend,” wrote Kent Swanson.
Acceptance will arrive along with Nick Pratto, just up from Omaha, getting at-bats in Toronto. They’ll play four games that much of the organization had little interest in winning, add Merrifield (extra time off to heal a damaged toe) and Taylor (sore shoulder after throwing two innings in a blowout loss) and Benindtendi, and maybe they’ll bring some prospects at the trade deadline.
Which, given Dayton Moore’s track record, is no guarantee of success. But he’ll give them a shot, in one sense of the word.
Now let me check on my NL team: How are the Pirates looking?
Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 406-758-4463, or fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com.