For Whom the Bell Era Begins

Eli Marrero is out (23-year-old OF Shane Costa is in). Ricky Henderson is still available when the team decides to dump Long, Brown, and co.

Lima and his Lucky Charms still need to follow....

Bell sounds like he won't take any crap from the Berroa's of the world...

Greinke gets a win for the first time since the 1994 strike....

...and Allard Baird still looks gravely ill.

Ohh....and the Royals beat the Yankees tonight, 5-3. Other than that and the whole managerial change, nothing really happened.

.....Don't forget to go see Booker T (WWE wrestler) throw out the first pitch at Friday's game. I hope the strike zone isn't fixed.


ATTENDANCE DECLINE

Don't look now, but the Royals attendance is WAAAAAAY down. Opening day drew the usual big crowd (41,788), but since then it's been miserable. Game 2 of the season drew a measly 10,577, and without the help of St. Louis fans making the trip up I-70, the Cardinals weekend series would have also been in the teens. Tonight's game verse the Yankees (mind you school is out), failed to crack 20,000. Ordinarily, the series brings out a significant number of closet Yankees fans from all areas of the metro. Not so tonight.

Sure, the hiring of Bell as the new manager isn't going to sell any tickets, but the next two games with the Yanks still will be a good gauge on where the average attendance will be for the rest of the pathetic season.

The "Neifi Effect"

Back in 2002, Neifi Perez refused to be reinserted into a late-season blowout.

It was seen then as the first dent in Tony Pena's tenure as Royals manager.

In the aftermath of his resignation, we learn that Pena felt pressure not to publicly or privately reprimand any fellow Dominican players.

SAAAAYY WHAAAAT?

We thought that by bringing in Pena we would have a manager that would help to improve these guys rather than shield them from criticism and responsibility for the team's failures.

It turns out Pena was more interested in keeping the folks back home happy with his pampering of their natives sons. Hence the reason why Berroa and other are allowed to stay on the field and play absent-mindedly, rather than sitting them for extended periods of time (or even sending them down or shipping them out all-together).

We are sure to learn more lurid details in the coming months that pertain to this divorce proceeding that Pena finds himself embroiled in. It will be interesting to see whether or not his preferential treatment of Latin players becomes the focus of his tenure once the Clintonesque civil hearing fades away.

ESPN's Baseball Crew Poops on the Royals

This evening's edition of ESPN Baseball Tonight featured John Kruk offering the pros and cons to coaching/playing in KC right now:

Pros: Great Fountains, Great Ribs.

Cons: THEY STINK, They're not Getting Any Better, and THEY STINK.

Harold Reynolds burst into laughter and had to be restrained by Peter Gammons (a huge George Brett fan, no less).

"Alternative Media" Spills Beans on Pena's Off the Field Problems

Sports Radio 810 WHB's Kevin Ketizman refused to call The Pitch by name today, instead referring to them as an 'alternative media outlet.'

The Pitch's web site already has a front page story on Tony Pena's civil court proceedings. It appears that "Together We Can!" Tony got caught with another man's wife. Now he's pulling Pena into his divorce proceedings to show that the Royals ex-manager was a key figure in the dissolution of his marriage.

According to the Royals web site, some of the players reaction to Pena's resignation is....puzzling to say the least. Zach Greinke (or "Wacko Zacko" as he is known in some circles) was walking the streets of Toronto in the wee hours of the morning (he says he didn't sleep until 4a.m.).

Greinke admits to getting the news from his girlfriend, meanwhile Royals OWNER David Glass heard about Pena's decision from the media. We knew Glass was removed from the team, but this is a bad sign. How many other owners in MLB wouldn't know of these kind of moves before they are leaked to the media?


It's Going to Take Six...

The Royals have yet to win a game at this point in the season when they fail to score 6 RUNS.

Pena Watch Come to an End.....Glass Watch Begins

Well, after Angel Berroa made yet another bone headed play during Tuesday night's game Tony Pena decided to resign.

I suppose decided against postponing the inevitable sometime in the past week.

This blog was never created as an all out indictment against Pena. Now, that he's gone (just another victim of the Glass ownership), the blog needs a new name. From this point on, it will become "Glass Watch."

There's really not much left to say. Pena is gone, and hopefully Berroa and some other players will be kicked out along with him. Of course Baird doesn't have the balls to do any such thing.

Besides Berroa, somethings got to give with the bullpen. Mike MacDougal, and maybe Jeremy Affeldt need to be moved while they still have some minimal amount of trade value.

Ticket Inflation at the K

What is the deal with this $5 extra charge on all tixx for the St. Louis Cardinals series next week? It's MLB's new poliyc of "priority ticket pricing." This allows the Royals and any team that wishes to excercise this clause and temporarily inflate seat prices from series to series.

Those magnificent Hy Vee View Level seats now become $15 a piece, which is almost as much as dugout seats were five years ago (during the 2000 season those seats behind the Royals dugout were $18 bucks).

How has the issue of ticket inflation at Kauffman stadium not been made a bigger issue in an era when the team is being subsidized by Major League Baseball in the amount of 40 to 50 million dollars a year?

Baseball Stats Site O' The Day

Want to know who's executed the most hidden ball tricks? Check out this site, retrosheet.org. I've never seen any other baseball encyclopedia track this ridiculous statistic. Who would have thought that Ozzie Guillen had fallen victim to this trick play more than any other recorded player in MLB history? Somehow, Guillen managed to get caught on this play TWICE in the same season, and a third time later in his career. Sounds like a predecessor to Berroa on the basepaths.

Glass's Wal-Mart Ways Means He's Still Making $$ While the Team Loses Games

Royals owner David Glass says he has lost $27 million since purchasing the Royals in 2000.

Forbes magazine disagrees.

Forbes reported that the Royals made a net profit last season of $3 million, a figure which Glass confirms. The magazine also says that the Royals made $6.5 million in 2003 and lost only $11.2 million in 2002. It also contends the club has generated a profit of $4.9 million since Glass became the owner.

9-4 Loss vs. Twins, April 27th

For whatever reason, Pena leaves Brian Anderson in as the 7th inning begins.

Anderson had given up four runs and gone over the 100 pitch count. Sure enough, Anderson allows the first two batters to reach base. They both come around to score and the contest is over.

The Royals corner outfielders looked awful, but no errors were awarded to anyone.

Hollywood Beginning to Take Notice

A joke in the new movie "Fever Pitch" has Jimmy Fallon's character (a Red Sox season ticket holder) using the Royals as a punch line.

Fallon threatens to withhold Yankees tickets from a friend and instead allot him his unwanted Royals tickets.

It'll be a cold day in....Leawood before Hollywood green lights a picture dedicated to baseball in Kansas City.

However........

Rumors surfaced in the mid-80's about an 'independent' film project that George Brett and Jamie Quirk were putting together (bu-dum-ching).

Randa's Doing Just Fine with Cincy

Take a look at Joe Randa's first month with the Reds. He's recorded his highest career on-base percentage.

Thank goodness we have a ferocious three headed monster (Truby - McEwing - Graffanino) patrolling third base.

Genius Allard. Pure Genius.

Jumbo-joke

Is their anyway to rid Kauffman Stadium of the annoying JumboTron? If their's one thing I'd love to see the Royals dump quicker than Tony Pena, it's Sony's noisy, oversized television.

This technological terror (-Darth Vader's words, not mine) has turned the ballpark into a loud, obnoxious Christian rock concert.

The T-Bones constructed their playing facility the old fashion way. You get baseball, rather than a bunch of commercials and MLB promotional videos, with a little game action sprinkled in between.

What's Up with Ken Harvey?

The Star's Jeffrey Flanagan had more good news regarding Ken Harvey this morning. The mystery continues as to why he's in Omaha, after being only a year removed from his All-Star appearance.

Soren Petro discussed his theory today: The Royals are attempting to save time on Harvey's service time, which gives them one more year on his contract before he can become a full-blown free agent.

Shirts for the Wal-Mart/Royals Lover in All of Us

The good folks over at Cafepress.com now have merchandise for the disgruntled Royals fan. The Royals Rollback shirts helps kill two birds by expressing your frustrations with the team and with David Glass and his business practices.


He threw the ball very well.....update

What would a recap of a Royals loss be without Tony reminding us that the starting pitcher...threw the ball very well.

After Sunday's crushing loss to the White Sox, in which Chicago completed the three game sweep, Pena offered up his usual take on what transpired during the contest:

"Denny threw the ball well for seven innings," Pena said.

If Barid doesn't pull the plug on the Pena show, then prepare to hear this phrase roughly 100 more times between now and October.

Pena's Record Ranks at the Bottom

Pena's four year tenure as Royals manager is earning him the distinction of being the least successful skipper.

He brought a 42% winning percentage into this season, and after yet another bad start his record his poised to fall under 40% by the All-Star break.

Even the usually unreilable, and tax-happy Kevin Keitzman has begun calling for Pena's head on his daily radio show.

Summary of Recent Draft Failure (Baird)

Rany Jazayerli, M.D., an author of Baseball Prospectus, put together this great piece in February 2002 on the Royals inability to develop draft picks.

Jazayerli points to such blunders as Baird's firing of scouting director, Terry Wetzel, just weeks after the 2000 draft and replacing him with Deric Ladnier. He goes through just about every Royals prospect from the late 90's that promptly disappeared after being drafted. The 1998 and 1999 drafts were especially painful, considering the Royals had a combined ten draft picks in the first two rounds. All ten picks were used on pitchers:

Jeff Austin -- Matt Burch -- Chris George -- Robbie Morrison -- Brian Sanches -- Wes Obermueller -- Jimmy Gobble -- Mike MacDougal -- Jay Gehrke -- Kyle Snyder.

Tonis No Longer a Prospect at Catcher

When you opened the KC Star during the 2000 and 2001 season, Mike Tonis was always at the top of a list dubbed "Royals Prospects to Watch." Players like Tonis and Gobble were penciled into the 2005 starting lineup as surefire, everyday contributors.

Gobble is struggling to get back to KC after a promising start in '03. Tonis has never gotten out of the minors, and now the 26-year-old is trying to make a near impossible conversion from catcher to pitcher.

Tonis was the Royals' second-round pick in 2000, and has played in only two games with the Royals since.