So here's one thing to take from Sam Mellinger's 2,500-word piece on the Kansas City Royals on Sunday: David Glass won't say he's sorry for being one of the worst owners in professional sports.
He's not the worst of the worst now, a distinction that Mellinger makes. Since 2006, the year he convinced Dayton Moore to take the general manager's job, Glass has made an effort to not operate the team as if it were a Wal-Mart in Cooter Junction, Arkansas. Before then? Mellinger describes scouts who were denied cell phones because Glass was too cheap to pay for the minutes.
Glass bought the Royals in 2000, after serving as the team's chairman of the board after the death of Ewing Kauffman. The Royals were a Major League Baseball team in name only during the first six seasons of Glass family ownership. The organization skimped on everything, including the stuff that mattered, like player development. A franchise that nickels-and-dimes practice equipment and signing bonuses ends up with the immortal Scott Elarton as its starting pitcher on Opening Day. (It happened in 2006, a year the Royals went 62-100.)
Things are looking up, of course. The prospects in the Royals' system are the envy of every team in the league.
With sunlight peeking over the horizon, Glass is in a good place to begin to make amends with the fanbase. But the owner and Dan Glass, his son and the team's president, refuse to admit that they maybe, sorta ran the organization into the ground. Neither would meaningfully address the "limitations" (Mellinger's polite word) that kept the franchise from being competitive. David Glass even tried to suggest that he had given it his "best shot," which should make Royals fans barf into their Neifi Pérez replicas.
Mellinger's feature performs a valuable (if aggravating) service. In addition to pointing a light into the House of Glass, it corrects a piece of misinformation that has appeared previously in The Kansas City Star. Royals beat writer Bob Dutton has stated that Glass cannot profit from selling the team. Here's what he wrote last August:
Terms of Glass' purchase from the estate of Ewing Kauffman do not permit him to make a profit from the sale of the team. Should he sell the team, any profit beyond its purchase price is to be distributed to charitable organizations in the Kansas City area.
The organization does not like to discuss it -- I know because I've asked -- but the charity clause has expired. I've heard Soren Petro make this point on his show on WHB 810, and now Mellinger confirms it with two sources. Glass says he isn't sure about the stipulation, which seems absurd. In any case, the owner says, "We have no interest in not owning the team, and it doesn't really matter."
It does matter, because a team owner who will make money on the back end -- and there's always a back end -- can afford to lose money or break even every once in a while.
The Royals are poised to become a contender. Will Glass take on the salary of a player who pushes the team over the top, even if it dunks the balance sheet in the red for a season or two? Or will his inner Wal-Mart store manager re-emerge?
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Well said and funny as hell. I hope Dan Glass dies a very slow and painful death to be honest with you.
Dear David / Dan Glass,
FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!
Sincerely,
Every single Royals fan on the planet
p.s.
Please call Mark Cuban and sell him the team.....he actually cares about the franchises he purchases
This is the only reason why I cannot support the Royals. The business and economics of baseball/professional sports is quite unorthodox than traditional business. David Glass is a relic who has a business penchent of those who grew up Pre-WWII...
Glass is bad news - he will never resign any prospect who develops into a star. The KC area is subsidizing his milking of the team for every dime.
It would be great if he did sell the team, but no one could come up with the cash last time, and probably worse now.
Best to close this sad representation of what was once a great organization.
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