KCTiger: An Apology

Earlier today I posted an article. In that said article I attempted to show how often we fans, and especially Royals fans, tend to react, perhaps overreact, to things our favorite team does. As Royals fans, we are generally not rewarded for our seemingly undying devotion to a team that has let us down every year since 1985.

I wasn't alive in 1985 or the preceding three years after it, but I still can feel the angst of an entire fan base who consistently wants something to cheer for. As Royals fans, we do cheer for our team in whatever manner "cheer" means to you. As someone who wasn't alive the last time this team made the playoffs I don't know what that feels like, and in reality I've only felt the thrill of being within a sniff of the hunt for the first time last year.

Sports are an obsession. Don't lie to yourself. Your on the internet right now, visiting a page about sports, talking to other sports fans about sports, and there's a good chance when you leave whatever chair you are sitting in right now you're going to think about sports. Sports are a  both a blessing and a curse.

As a Royals fan, sports have been essentially just a curse.

We want the best for our team, truly, but we have expectations, and in those expectations we generally allow for much deviation.

Being a sports fan is simple. You want your team to win. You want the other team to lose. As George Patton said

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other guy die for his.

I hate it when the Angels draft Mike Trout when basically every team, including the Angels initially, passed on him. I hate when Albert Pujols goes from a Kansas City kid to a St Louis legend.

I hate losing more than I even want to win.

You expect your team to win. You've probably stayed up late at night wondering who the Royals could trade for, what prospect you wish you suddenly come up and put up a 10 win season, or god forbid one pitching prospect doesn't have his arm fall off. That's your inalienable right as a sports fan; to dream.

Because we dream, we set expectations, and if we don't reach those expectations then we are let down, disappointed, slightly misanthropic, and skeptical of the future. Because we set expectations we have a path to the expectations, and when our team doesn't carry down that path we react. Sometimes we under react (why isn't this a word?), sometimes we overreact, but we always react in some way. Because we have a path, and if we deviate from it, we overreact.

Sports can make our blood boil, steam to pour from our ears, and our hands to pull out our hair.

Taking Aaron Crow instead of Mike Trout sucks.

Taking Christian Colon instead of Chris Sale sucks.

Taking Bubba Starling instead of Anthony Rendon sucks.

Drafting, generally, can suck.

We were spoiled once. I don't know how much I believe that, but we were once spoiled. We sat as struggling fans supporting a struggling club, but there was hope; historical hope.

Much has been made before about the once great Best Farm System in History, and it'll haunt Dayton Moore, David Glass, and the Royals for years. This was historical hope and while we weren't historically let down, we were deflated and the farm system was injured.

We want that hope again. Don't deny it.

You dreamed about Wil Myers trouting the bases, arm pumping like Kirk Gibson, pointing to you in the crowd as he hits the walk off home run in Game 7 of the World Series against the Cardinals.

You thought about Mike Moustakas setting the MLB home run record.

You've fantasized about Mike Montgomery, Chris Dwyer, John Lamb, and Danny Duffy being Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and some amalgamation of Denny Neagle and Kevin Millwood.

Because we've been historically built up in our minds, we perhaps had historical expectations.

Dayton Moore has done a very good job, perhaps a historically good job, of deflating our hopes, puncturing our cloud, and lowering our expectations, but we as sports fans want higher expectations and hate to "settle for less."

We want historical expectations.

I have no doubt Dayton Moore wants the best for the Royals. Perhaps the Wil Myers/James Shields trade made us think that Dayton only cared about the now and not the future. I think we as sports fans care more about the now than the future too, but the future can be more important than the now in certain circumstances.

Because we have expectations we overreact.

Dayton Moore has a history of letting us down. I don't think I can name another General Manager who's gone as long as he has with A) worse results that B) kept his job.

For better or for worse Dayton Moore is our General Manager. Unless you plan on purchasing the Royals, which I do not right now, then he's our General Manager for the foreseeable future and there's nothing you can do about it. Sports are cruel.

Because Dayton Moore has disappointed us we expect him to continue do so.

I think this is unfair. We should have expectations, but they should be realistic. We shouldn't expect every draftee to be Mike Trout, we shouldn't expect the Royals to win every game, but we still have various expectations and they differ between each person.

Earlier today I posted an article. I tried to convey a point, however unsuccessful, that we sometimes overreact to decision by Dayton Moore. In that post I used examples, in perhaps poor taste, of overreactions to the the Royals draft last year and in specifically the selection of Hunter Dozier.

Disclaimer; it's no secret that I really like Hunter Dozier. He's not my number one Royals prospect, or my number two, but he's between number three and four against Sean Manaea.

I don't think I'm wrong in liking Hunter Dozier more than the consensus. First, personal preference and opinion come to mind, but there's also beyond that. He's done very well at each level he's played at, the scouting reports on him have been good, and he's made several Top 100 list. All three of those circumstances are better than numerous players who were projected to go before Dozier was thought to go.

When Dozier was selected many thought it was a poor decision by Dayton Moore. To me, that's an overreaction. Any definitive judgement proposed just minutes after any draft in any sport is likely an overreaction unless it's something like the team deciding to "pass" on their pick or select a dead or retired player. This is something I am in fact confident Dayton Moore would never do.

Earlier today I posted an article and it didn't work the way I was expecting it to. My focus was more on entertainment than perhaps sensitivity or actual argumentative points describing my belief in our overreaction.

I want to apologize for that post, and I want to do it with no one forcing me to do it. I respect everyone here not named Kansas City Keith or the guy from the Rays SB Nation site who came over here to say that losing Wil Myers was basically no big deal and James Shields is a good pitcher. He is, but it isn't.

As a newly appointed writer I'm walking on an edge. Max gives us completely free rein to post anything within the sensible boundaries of SB Nation and doesn't push us to churn out content for the sake of page views, content, or comments.

I'd like to think that everything that is published is well thought, written, and executed. Every article by my co-writers has been awesome. That makes not only the writers look good, but the site, you all as readers of this fine website, and hopefully Royals fans.

Earlier today I posted an article that wasn't as well thought, written, or executed as I wanted it to be. I've taken down the article under my own volition and created this for my respect to you all.

I apologize if you found my previous article not well thought, not well written, and/or not well executed as well.

We as Royals fans deserve reward for our patience. We should also be upset with this organization and disappointed in past decision, but that doesn't mean we should be immediately disappointed in every future decision.

Some times we overreact because we are sports fans, and even worse because we are beaten, downtrodden, and aimlessly  wandering Royals fans.

Not all those who wander are lost...

I think we overreact to a lot of things, and specifically I think we did with the Dozier drafting, but perhaps Dayton made a good choice. Dozier is still in the lower minors, and we're years away from knowing what his MLB success will or won't be, but that doesn't mean right now it wasn't a good choice.

I thought this years draft was good. I personally gave it a B rating. I'm not alone in liking the draft as a lot of major pundits liked the selections as well, but that doesn't actually mean it was in fact a good draft. We can always react, but it's pertinent not to overreact. Dayton may or may not have busted this organization, but he didn't do it with one pick, and perhaps he strengthened it with one pick, but we're not at the point to decide that.

Baseball is cruel, and miserable, and Royals baseball is a deep dark cave. Occasionally you will see the light, but that's just another tunnel, and you've continued into darkness. You've gotten closer to the light, but you've also walked through tunnels that lead you astray or further away from the light, but that doesn't mean each tunnel is going to end in darkness or that we shouldn't stop walking towards the light. We've seen others successfully navigate the tunnel and we've heard their cheers as they stepped into the light, but we remain lost in some sort of strange never ending darkness. That doesn't mean we should stop looking for the light, and that each tunnel will lead us further from the light.

I don't know if we'll ever leave this cave, I don't know who will guide us out of this tunnel, but I've heard too many  others leave this cave and I'm tired, photophobic, and  my feet hurt. Even so I'll continue down each tunnel with tempered expectations and even though that tunnel may seem to lead me astray I know what's behind me and that isn't the answer because I've been there, so I need to continue down this tunnel for better or for worse...because I'm tired, photophobic, and my feet hurt, but I'm tired of wandering, I'm ready to no longer be afraid of the light, and my feet hurt from coming this far.