Jorgensen: Royals give fans no hope
Kansas City's poor play makes baseball season intolerable
For most, the start of the baseball season is an exciting time. But for Royals fans, it only signals the start of a long season.
Wednesday, April 4th, 2007
For those of us from the Kansas City area, this is the most depressing time of the sports year. Welcome to baseball season.
Some of us aren’t as fortunate to have a team like the Cardinals to root for. Instead, Kansas City have been the laughingstock of Major League Baseball.
The Royals are bad. Really bad. They haven’t been division champions since 1985, the same year as their only World Series championship. If the Royals were better, my summers would be better.
The Royals year in and year out give fans no hope. The beginning of each season is very similar to the beginning of the movie “Major League,” with Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen and Wesley Snipes, where fans and Cleveland Indians’ board members are discussing exactly how bad their team will be this year.
One discussion between the board members about their roster from that movie perfectly summarizes the start of every Royals’ season.
“I’ve never heard of half of these guys and the ones I do know are out of their prime.”
“Most of these guys never had a prime.”
“This guy here is dead!”
I find it hard to get into baseball anymore, or any summer sport for that matter. I kind of watch the NBA, but generally only during the playoffs. I definitely don’t watch the NHL — Canada can have it.
“Cross him off then.”
I find it hard to get into baseball anymore, or any summer sport for that matter. I kind of watch the NBA, but generally only during the playoffs. I definitely don’t watch the NHL — Canada can have it. I watch the tennis and golf major tournaments but no more than those.
I’ve tried to get into NASCAR, but I can’t. It’s a “sport” built around action, yet every time there’s a wreck they throw the caution flag out. These are supposed to be the best drivers in the world, and this is supposed to be an intense sport.
All I need to make my long summer days better are the Royals contending for and earning a playoff spot, though that won’t happen. Hopefully this year they’ll take a step forward and put themselves in position for the next few seasons.
Rookie third baseman Alex Gordon is being compared to Royals legend George Brett, which should be a sign of hope. However, the Royals have a way of handling talented young players. They play them all season, he earns Rookie of the Year (or close to it), he slumps his second season, the Royals eventually trade him and he eventually plays in or wins the World Series. Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye and Carlos Beltran are some of those.
For now, I’ll accept the fact that this baseball season will be as rough as all the others. So, I’ll just have a sports-less summer and wait for football season to start again.
Jorgensen is a Baldwin City senior in journalism.
— Edited by Ryan Schneider
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