Baseball season has ended, and the *checks notes* Texas Rangers are World Series Champions. It seems like millennia since the Kansas City Royals not only made it to two straight World Series, but won in 2015. The whole world has flipped upside down in that time, and now the Royals are, once again, in the cellar of Major League Baseball.
Gone are names like Hosmer and Moustakas. Only Salvador Perez remains from those championship years – replaced by names like Witt and… uh… wait. I’ve got it right here. Um.. Okay, there’s Bobby Witt Jr., and Salvador Perez and… um… Samad Taylor? Is that a real person?
Times are lean for your Boys in Blue. Not only do they have one of the worst products on the major league field, they also have next to nothing ready to go in the pipeline. Since John Sherman became owner and J.J. Picollo became general manager, the farm system has ranked dead last in prospects and hope around the franchise is bleak.
“Well, other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” you might ask. Ownership has seemed locked into the “small market” mentality while other markets have flipped over and gone worst to first in just a couple of years. See: Rangers, Texas. Their new general manager is also from the Royals championship seasons. Chris Young. And, as a special assistant, the Royals former GM, Dayton Moore, is manning the ship with a big payroll in Texas.
But the Royals are here to tell you that hope is on the horizon. They’ve been telling you that for over 12 months now. A new downtown-ish stadium is being planned to replace what is, arguably, the most beautiful baseball stadium in the Major Leagues. Okay, okay, I get it. It’s also the fourth oldest stadium behind Fenway, Wrigley, and Dodgers Stadium.
So let’s get moving, right? The Royals lease with the Truman Sports Complex expires in less than 10 years and now is the time to start planning and moving dirt. But where? We’re down to two sites. The “East Village” (seriously, has anyone ever called it the East Village?) and North Kansas City are the final locations.
But news of the new stadium has been trickling out like a ground ball trickles through Royals shortstop *checks notes* Matt Duffy’s legs. The Royals are affording every courtesy to Jackson County to keep the Royals there, but former second baseman and current Jackson County Commissioner Frank White isn’t having it. He wants to rebuild the entire contract with the Royals, while the Royals want to swing for the fences now. White, of the former, former championship years for KC, also has a number of axes to grind against the club so it seems no agreement is imminent.
North Kansas City is left waiting like a dog on one of those late night commercials with Sarah McLachlan playing in the background. Looking for a master that will never come. Maybe if you send a dollar a day to them…
In the meantime, another season is in the books, and we are another season closer to the lease expiring. Royals, it’s your move. It’s time for your crappy team to crap or get off the pot.
(Crap, will the Royals ever come up with a non-crappy plan for a crappy team? Get all the news and commentary on this crap from Chris Kamler on X, where he is known as @TheFakeNed)