Tip of the cap to the Royals, wag of the finger to Royals Review.
When the Royals hit 10-22 I called out the Moore/Bell team for fielding yet another edition of a horrible product and the local media for once again failing to hold the Royals accountable. While I won't suggest that the Royals will play .600 or even .500 baseball the rest of the season, they did go 6-4 on the Chicago-Oakland-Colorado expedition, and are 7-6 since "Buddy, You're Doing a Heckuva Job" ran on May 7th. The borderline acceptable play many expected throughout the offseason may finally be emerging from another "Waste Land" like April.
In the last week the Royals are hitting .277/.350/.407 as a team, good for a middle of the pack .757 OPS which ranks 8th in the AL. Over that same span, the pitching staff posted a 3.59 ERA, all leading to a +9 run differential in the last six games (34 scored to 25 allowed). I don't really know how a team can actually have a functioning offense whilst only slugging .407, but the Royals found a way to make it work.
Tonight the Royals face the Indians at home, where the Royals are a pathetic 7-14. As the season turns, one thing to track throughout the summer are the attendance numbers at the K; the Royals are currently 13th in the AL in total attendance. What that means is probably very little at this point, but considering the relatively good weather KC has enjoyed compared to places like Chicago, New York, Boston and Cleveland, well, its fairly weak. Will a healthy-sized crowd greet the Royals tonight? Only time will tell. (Unable to answer cliched rhetorical question without using a second cliche. I apologize.
Our truest hopes and dreams -- those desires so powerful we cannot truly even admit to them the ownership of our thoughts -- are shouldered by Odalis Perez (2-4, 5.29 ERA), a delightful young man who has longed for this opportunity for years. Perez will be countered with Fausto Carmona (5-1, 2.55 ERA). He was a crazy doctor with a thing for that hottie Gretchen back in the minor leagues, right?
From Iowa to Cleveland, RR as a microcosm of the classic movement of American history and all its dreams... or something like that.
The Cleveland-KC matchup is weighted with tremendous irony for me because I write to you tonight from Cleveland, the site of my Summer of Whatever-2007. In the past two weeks I've spent nights in four states, three Rust Beltian and one much further south, so it'll be nice to get resettled and back into a normal routine. Thanks to everyone who was patient with the site during the past few weeks and who continued posting tremendous content in the diaries.
And no, I don't know who Mark Teahen is or why Buck is still batting 8th.