It is with deep sadness, and with much hesitation that I announce today that I am quitting.I've given it a lot of thought, and while I'd love to continue, I simply cannot keep up the facade any longer.
For nearly 13 years I've held out hope. For nearly 13 years I've prayed and I've waited for something to change, but nothing has changed. Sure there was 2003, what a great year of hope, but it was false hope at best.
And so it is today, that I denounce my love for...
The Kansas City Royals.
I first started watching the Royals in 1995 when I moved to Olathe to attend Mid America College. It was while there that my college buddies and I would got to Kauffman Stadium and wait by the season ticket holder entrance and look for groups of 2-3 businessmen who might have an extra ticket to give to a poor college student. We must have watched dozens of games for free while I was at MNU.
One night it was during the 1996 season I believe, two of us were lucky enough to score front row tickets right behind the visitor's dugout for a game against the Yankees. We got the tickets from a guy who was watching the game with his son. Dude was freakin' awesome. Gave us tickets. Bought us hotdogs and beverages. Even picked up the tab on some nachos. But the highlight of the night was when a drunk fan 2 seats down from us tossed his beer onto Derek Jeter as he ran into the dugout. Jeter was hot. The fan got tossed. And we had a pretty sweet story to tell back at the dorm...that and we got on TV because of it.
In 1997, I got married and started work for Commerce Bank. The great thing about working for Commerce was that they had a ton of season tickets about 3-4 rows behind the 1st base dugout, and if you requested them early enough in the day, you could score 2-4 great seats for you and your friends for free. We must have went to between 15-20 games a year from 1997 - 2002.
Even though the teams stunk, I loved the ballpark. I loved Mike Sweeney, and Jermaine Dye, Carlos Beltran, and Johnny Damon. I loved the year of Paul Byrd, and the "Byrd's Nest". I even loved the kid who yelled, "Lem-o-naide...Lem-o-naide...Lem-o-naide...Wooooo!!!!" I loved baseball in Kansas City.
Then we moved to Illinois. Would my love for the Royals continue? I doubted it would. But then came Zack Greinke. I had to watch to see what happened with this young kid from Florida. Not long after Zack, Soria showed up in Kansas City, and we drafted a "sure thing" named Alex Gordon, and Billy Butler was looking like he might develop too. I held out hope. Hope that maybe Kansas City could develop a team worth watching. A team worth cheering for. A team worth raising your kids to love.
But alas. There is no storybook ending here. Sure Zack won the Cy Young last year. Awesome. But I can't get excited for him or the Royals anymore. All I can do is feel sorry for them.
It's all become far to painful to watch, and I watch for love of the game and for entertainment.
Problem is, being a Royals fan is killing my love for the game...and I'm concerned if they are not careful in Kansas City, they will kill the love of many more before they are through.
And so before I give up on baseball completely. I'm giving up on the Royals. I quit.
http://daleschaeffer.blogspot.com/2010/05/i-quit.html?showComment=1273762923633#c2785301796789041889'> 10:02
at least you were alive to see your team win the world series. Just remember it could always be worse....you could be a Cub fan like me :(
http://daleschaeffer.blogspot.com/2010/05/i-quit.html?showComment=1275405423394#c199411241966212578'> 10:17
I know I am coming in a couple weeks late here but I am sad to hear this. First, if I understand this correctly, you are a Tigers fan at heart. I applaud you for adopting the Royals and cheering them for 15 or so years. Second, I have also thought about dropping the Royals from my "teams I follow" list once I move to Florida.
All of this to say I don't believe there is anything "holding" you to the Royals and I understand why people would want to give up on them. However, I believe the best route for Royals fans is not to develop a new hope or drop the team but instead voice there protest, stop attending games, and begin to demand better accountability throughout the organization. Nothing will change until David Glass receives a fan base unwilling to pay for a poor, undeveloped product. I don't prefer the business model in much of what I do but I am beginning to see that in the baseball world sometimes you have to play (or in this case root) by their rules. So, in other words, don't quit on them just keep shouting really loud until someone hears you. Kansas City deserves good baseball.