Consequences of Glass-ball Realized

The KC media, for the most part, has bought into echoing word that the current edition of the Royals is a youth movement (thus, they are shielded from traditional criticism of a product or service in the marketplace).

Let’s call the operation at Kauffman Stadium for what it is:

A franchise that’s been in a persistent, vegetative state for the last 15 years.

Yes, the Royals have so many shared qualities with the now deceased Terri Schiavo that it should disturb baseball enthusiasts: it’s hard to know if you are communicating with them at all (Pena), their mobility has been taken away (Pickering, Stairs, Harvey), and even their strongest supporters from within must rely on faith to see their optimistic point of view (Sweeney).

Those who support the Royals desire to remain in this state, ask that support them in order to keep them around. They claim that their mere existence is better than an alternative of nothing at Kauffman Stadium. Whereas, others can tell that they failed to exist at some point after the late 80’s.

Can’t we just admit that there comes a time to let things go? Can we admit that there’s no possible way of saving something that was once deeply cared about in the community?

Baseball has been made obsolete in Kansas City through the ass-backward economic structure of MLB, coupled with a decade’s worth of bad player deals. The business philosophies of David Glass have accelerated the franchise’s physical demise in the last half-decade.

Glass has exploited Royals fans the same way he has knowingly exploited Wal-Mart workers.

The exploitation of commodities in the two categories makes sense when you consider the following:

In sports/entertainment, the players assume a position akin to the role of retail consumers at Wal-Mart. Glass squeezes the talent out of the players, before letting them move on to a higher bidder. At Wal-Mart, the community’s retail dollars are squeezed by draining smaller competitors of their financial stream. This allows Glass and Wal-Mart’s financial standing to improve and expand into another community.

Glass is already hard at work masterminding a plan to dump KC taxpayers with the bill for a brand new facility. It's hard to find media opposition to such schemes, but once in a while something like this sneaks in and disrupts such efforts. It's going to take many more op-ed pieces (such as this one that appeared in the Las Vegas Review Journal) and voices in the broadcast media in order for KC not to be stuck with another Sprint Center-esque arrangement.

Speaking of the Sprint Center, Russ Johnson has finally brought the issue of stadium subsidies to the forefront of his show. This morning he spoke at length of the Outlaws leaving KC after one year, and the reality of the area's size being too small to support a new professional team. Kudos to "Team Johnson" for backing up their talk with research that continues to show the irrationality behind the campaign that saddled us with the Sprint Center.

Lee's Summit, like Overland Park, is drunk with delusions of grandeur. Missouri's version of Johnson County is proposing a facility for a minor league baseball team to operate in. City officials say minor league baseball is exactly what the area needs.

Right.

Lee's Summit and minor league baseball go together like Donald Rumsfeld and an exit strategy.