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Game 42 Open Thread: May 19, 2006

By lboros


carpenter redman
3-2, 1.98 0-3, 6.03

so how does it feel to be a royals fan these days? my compadre Will over at Royals Review summed it up here, after watching his team blow a 3-run lead in the 9th innings to the orioles last weekend:

It's not easy being the worst team in baseball. Not easy on the fans, not easy on the players, not easy on the janitors at Glass Headquarters. Its also not literally easy. Being the worst is like being the best, only inverted, you've gotta fail in the expected ways, but also in the unexpected ones. You've gotta lose games that normal teams win, you've gotta have small innings where a normal team has a big one, and you've gotta allow silly 4 run meltdowns when even a bad team shuts the door and calls it a series.
ouch. this is a franchise, let's not forget, that not too terribly long ago had a run of 11 years (1975-1985) in which they never finished lower than second. seven division titles in that stretch, two pennants, and a world series title -- not quite what the braves have done these last 15 years, but awfully darn close. (john schuerholz, let's not forget, was the royals' gm before moving down to atlanta.) you have to wonder now if they could win a division title in the international league.

that's not meant to be a taunt; on the contrary, it pains me to see the disrepair that franchise has fallen into. i used to root for them heartily back in the '70s, when they (and not the cardinals) were postseason perennials. that didn't change after 1985; `twasn't the royals' fault, nor their fans'.

even if it were, they still wouldn't deserve this.

cardnilly's got a full series preview. here's a quick report on the kansas city dis-cards: reggie sanders is posting encarnacion-like numbers -- .226 / .245 / .415, with 4 homers and 16 rbi. he's got 3 walks and 29 strikeouts. kerry robinson is hitting .274 . . . .with a .286 on-base pct. he has 1 walk in 65 plate appearances. grudzielanek is hitting .319 / .359 / .415, which is pretty good -- indeed, nearly as good as the .333 / .423 / .447 aggregate line his replacements have compiled.

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