OK… So here’s the thing about the Royals right now.
On May 8th, at 6:45, with the Royals sitting at 18 and 11, and in first place by three games… and that day, on Facebook at least, I officially jumped on the Royals bandwagon. Meche and Greinke were starting the next two games, KC was playing very well, the division looked as weak as we all anticipated, and it even felt like they were better than their 18 and 11 record.
At that moment, I would argue, the city was more abuzz with Royals passion, enthusiasm, optimism, as any time in the last 20 years.
Every die hard Royal fan in the city was nearly drunk with giddiness. You couldn’t talk to a true blue Royal fan without them telling you how this year was different, and how Greinke was unlike anyone we had ever seen… and how we really could win this division.
Every semi-interested fan was acting as if they were die hards, and following every game, and excited to go out to the K for the next homestand.
Even the city’s professional pessimists, were begrudgingly coming around, and almost shamed into being excited about this team.
Even Me. I always tried to add my caveat that I just didn’t think this team had the horses to win 80 games, much less the division… but I would add that and then talk about how much fun it was to be a Royals fan—for really the first time of my life.
And you guys yelled at me if I talked about anything other than the Royals. Most of you didn’t even want Chiefs talk.
Think about what the city felt during that time. Think about the way the sports radio shows sounded during that time. Think about how long ago that seems.
That was precisely 35 days ago.
It has taken 35 days. 35 days for this season to all of a sudden feel like every other damn season.
35 days for the year that felt like it was finally happening—or at least starting to happen—to feel almost worse than any of the other recent years… because this included the almost cruel tease of real hope, and for a little bit, what felt like justified hope.
35 days for a team with one of the 6 best records in all of baseball, to have one of the 8 worst.
That can’t happen.
And when it does happen, difficult decisions have to be made.
And here’s the critical part. They’re not always fair. And you can never guarantee that the decision you make will be the right one, but you can do your best.
And for the 2009 Royals, that decision has to be firing Trey Hillman.
When the team was 18 and 11, it sure did feel like if someone else had been managing this team, they couldn’t have had a worse record, and they likely would have a better record if anyone else was managing them.
And when they immediately lost 20 of 25 after that, I don’t know if any manager could have done any better, but I know that no matter who was managing they couldn’t have been worse.
And, you know what, when it’s a critical year for your franchise, and you’re trying to get a fan base and a city to buy back in to your team, and your new stadium… well, when things go unspeakably bad, someone must be held accountable.
And I suppose you could blame this on Dayton Moore or the players… but blaming Dayton Moore is too scary for the long term and short term health of this team (and, by extension, it’s fans)… and you can’t fire the players… So the manager’s next on the list.
And if on top of all that… your manager seems just snake bitten. And defensive. And unproven, and what he has proven hasn’t been all that good. Well, then, fair or not, you fire him.
And, you know what, I think it is fair.
The Royals are a business. And it’s critical for the health of this business that this year not be wasted, on the field or off it.
And right now, just 35 days after this business stock was selling at a near all time high… it’s bottom has dropped out.
But you can salvage it. At least off the field you can. You fire Trey Hillman and offer the job to Frank White and the city is interested once again.
You fire Trey Hillman and maybe the clubhouse gets energized, maybe not. But we know it cannot hurt. And I don’t think there is a person out there that is worried that prematurely firing Trey Hillman is going to be what keeps the Royals out of the World Series.
This is not all Trey Hillman’s fault. Certainly.
And Trey Hillman certainly hasn’t been given all the right pieces. And dealing with injuries to two of his franchise players is something no one wants to deal with. and the transition from Japan to MLB is a really difficult one. And sure, you would like to give a guy more than a season and half.
But sports, like life, aren’t always fair. And George Brett said on these airwaves that a bad manager can only cost you about 5 games—I would argue that Trey Hillman has maybe put that theory to the test, but whatever, we’ll go with it. So if it’s true, 5 games total over a full season… then you know what, there’s minimal risk to installing Frank White as manager. But the upside is tremendous.****
I say this without trying to be unfair to Trey Hillman. I don’t think he’s done a good job, but I could be being too hard on him, I understand that. But, whether he’s technically doing a poor enough job to merit his firing is almost irrelevant.
The Royals need to fire Trey Hillman, whether it’s going to be “with” or “without” cause we can debate about, but it’s ultimately an irrelevant point. Sometimes a job just doesn’t work out, and this just isn’t working out for the Royals and Trey Hillman.
(A few other stories to get to today...
-Three stories that I already want to spend at least 2 minutes on…
Donaghy injured in prison—paint roller attack!—and denied treatment?!? (gambling in prison)…..
Urban Meyer saying he has good kids, despite 24 arrests… well, no, you don’t… (now some arrests are bullshit—maybe even this last one, the kid who resisted arrest ‘without violence’)… it’s very easy to fix—very easy. Hard Consequences….
Ryan Leaf is a wanted man… but what’s more interesting is how lucky he really is that the colts knew what they were doing…his great quote…)
