Monday, July 26, 2010

Royals look like same old chumps to George Steinbrenner's decomposing eyes

Posted by David Martin on Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 8:00 AM

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Death visited Steinbrenner before the Royals in 2010.
​The Royals appeared at Yankee Stadium over the weekend. Who had Kansas City losing three out of four to the best team in baseball? What, everybody? OK, put down your hands.

With Zack Greinke unavailable for the series, the Royals looked as defenseless as an underling who screwed up in the presence of George Steinbrenner, the Yankees' larger-than-life owner. New York outscored the Royals 33-16 during the four-game mismatch of payroll and acumen. Steinbrenner may be dead, but players who wear his pinstripes know the routine: Show the Royals how far they have to come, then twirl a starlet.

The series was uglier than the final scores. On Thursday night, David DeJesus tore a ligament in his thumb in a crash with the wall in center field. The incident ended his season and removed any possibilty that Royals G.M. Dayton Moore might trade him for tasty prospects before the July 31 deadline.

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Mr. and Mrs. K remind fans of the good times.

Prior to the game, someone who knows DeJesus suggested that a ticket out of Kansas City would not be the worst thing in the world. "It's certainly nice to have a few teams interested in you," Fred Hill, who coached DeJesus at Rutgers, told the Star-Ledger before the collison. Bumb digited and under team control for another year, DeJesus will have to wait to join a club that's not perenially a seller at the trading deadline.

The other disappointment was the failure of Alex Rodriguez to hit home run No. 600 against Blake Wood or somebody. Now, baseball fans will continue to be bothered by the insecure, insincere third basemen's pursuit of 'roids-tainted history. The Plog sports desk was rooting A-Rod to hit a solo shot late in Friday night's game, his team down 7-4, or some other boring scenario. Alas, the ESPN crawl remains on alert for the milestone that the inflated biceps of Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa robbed of all meaning.



Bosses at rest: Steinbrenner's death gave Royals fans the opportunity to reflect on the Cosell-age NY-KC rivalry. The Royals lost to the Yankees in three league championship series before finally vanquishing their pinstriped nemesis in 1980.



Steinbrenner was laid to rest in Florida. His foil in the Central Time Zone, Royals founder Ewing Kauffman, is buried in a public garden east of the Country Club Plaza. The Plog action sports team paid a visit to the Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden on Sunday. We were walking around, looking at hydrangea, when -- boom! -- gravesite.

It should not have been a startling experience, given the name of the facility. Still it was. RIP, Mr. K.

Next up: Minnesota, Baltimore.

Image via the Pitch Flickr pool: Kansas Explorer 3128

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