Instead, it should serve as a healthy reminder of just how clueless the men atop the organization still are.
Look, this is typical Royals. If you're in your mid-20s or younger, decisions like these are all you've come to expect from this franchise — other than the losing. Because, it's not like this is the first time the Royals have made a change that absolutely no one thought was a good idea other than the Royals.
This team has been a running joke for the better part of two decades for a reason — they've earned it. Batting out of order to start a game, running out of money in the middle of a draft, hiring a manager who thinks showering fully-clothed will help inspire his ballclub ... these are your amateur Royals, embarrassing themselves and our city like they're paid to do it.
Oh, wait.
White, a Royals Hall of Famer whose statue sits just outside the stadium gates, says a St. Louis television executive met him at a Plaza bar last week to break the news. Shank, whose been referred to by most involved as "one of the best in the business", says his experience was similar.
Both are convinced they were let go because the Royals felt they've been "too negative" when talking about the team to other clubs. And both have been on a media-rampage slamming the punchline-franchise ever since.But what the Royals, and in particular, the Glass family failed to understand (and judging by their silence, still don't) is that it just doesn't matter.
If you were to write a book on what a professional franchise should avoid prior to the most-anticipated season in a quarter-century, surely firing the second-most recognizable name in franchise-history because of some harmless, no-bullshit small-talk would be included in the writing.
This is why the Royals are the Royals. They're thin-skinned. They're oblivious.
After 25 years of irrelevance, the fanbase is absolutely ecstatic about the coming season. Finally, the expectation will reasonably be postseason-contention. The summer of 2012 promises to be a fun one.
But with this, the club has somehow headlined a so-far productive offseason with a ridiculously unneeded sour note.
Only the Royals could dictate such a self-destructive change of tone. Same old story.
Now White is telling everyone he's "done with the Royals" and Shank will be job-searching this holiday season.
It's sickening. And the cluelessness off the field has to at least make you wonder about the decision-making on it. Can the same brain-trust that okayed this decision really be capable of turning the team into a winner?
If the Royals are winning in July, the wounds created here may begin to heal. If not, it'll just be more fuel added to the fire.
Just remember to aim your shots at the Glass family. It's their ousting that would be justified.
I will respectfully disagree with you on this one.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I LOVE Frank White-- I still get chills thinking of his defensive prowness, and I fondly recall watching the 85 series and seeing him hit that bomb into the Cardinals bullpen to nab the Royals their first win in the Series, Game 3, in StL.
Frank White is a gentleman, he is a fine color-commentator, and he is a proud part of a franchise that has not had a lot of success in many years.
But, business is business.
I don't like the move, and the way it was conducted was a grand public relations flub by Royals management. But, Eli, it is THEIR ASS on this--- As you say, if they cannot field a competitive team, it WILL be remembered as the first strike in what was thought to be an exciting season.
Frank White can be the better man and attend all festivities, celebrate the fan's love of him, and assist the franchise (which still adores him, regardless of corporate bigwigs)with the 2012 All Star Celebration, the 2012 campaign.
Business is business, and we may not be completely in-the-know as to how White was conducting his affairs. This may well be egg-on-face that the Royals are allowing to occur so long as it ultimately blows past, so long as the team makes fans forget the hurt of losing one of our own.