New Years' Resolutions

It doesn’t matter that we all saw this coming, it still hurts. I take that back. It doesn’t hurt me, it infuriates me that the Mitchell Report has confirmed our worst suspicions about the pervasive drug culture in professional baseball.

I’ve been a baseball fan since I was a kid. I was an enthusiastic Royals season-ticket holder for many years. Then came the baseball strike in 1994. That just about ruined professional baseball for me. Whatever respect I had left for the game after that is pretty much gone now.

This latest development shines a bright light on a mind-set pervasive among owners of major league sports teams, and that is complacency towards fans that borders on con-tempt. If baseball’s team owners had an ounce of respect for the game, and the fans who cherish it and support it with their hard-earned dollars, they would have long ago tossed out the overpaid, self-indulgent, substance-abusing, game-abusing, fan-abusing bums identified in the Mitchell Report.  

Unfortunately, for us in KC, the owners of our hometown major league sports franchises exhibit similar symptoms of fan contempt. They have, over the course of two decades, squandered much of the loyalty and good will of their fans with their astonishing lack of commitment and imagination.

Call me an armchair quarterback, if you will, but sitting in this editor and publisher’s chair has given me a deeper understanding of the role major league sports teams can play in a city’s vitality. Denver is a perfect case in point.

I was in Denver last weekend where I witnessed one of the worst humiliating performances by any Kansas City team ever. To say that the Chiefs lost to the Broncos would be wrong, because it implies there was actually a game. It was no game. It was an embarrassment. When in Denver I took a good look around and observed, as I have on other recent visits, that it really has a lot going on. It is a vital, thriving, city. But, other than mountains, what’s Denver got that we don’t?

Successful sports teams, that’s what. Four of ‘em. All of them good. The Broncos are almost always favored to earn a playoff spot, and usually they do. And their two Super Bowl victories (1998 and 1999) happened with-in living memory. The relatively new Colorado Rockies franchise made it to the World Series this year. The NHL Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001. And the NBA Denver Nuggets currently sit comfortably atop their division with the third best record in the league.

Do successful professional sports teams equate to a successful city? Not entirely. Can successful sports teams invigorate a city and give it a collective sense of identity? Absolutely.

So, why don’t we have four respectable major sports franchises? Well, first of all, because we only have two teams. Although, I seem to recall a promise made about two years ago by Tim Leiweke, of the Anschutz Entertainment Group, when he said he’d land either an NBA or NHL team in Sprint Center within the year. Frankly, Tim, it’s just as well that your promise is unfulfilled. Kansas City seems to have its own version of the Curse of the Gambino. The two teams we do have are, indeed, in dire need.

Since this is the time of year for resolutions, I’m going to suggest two I hope are received in the constructive spirit in which they are offered.

1. That the Hunt family and Carl Peterson will act with the same spirit and loyalty exhibited by Chiefs’ fans and make the tough decisions necessary to put a winning team back on the field.

2. That David Glass will, in the spirit of the season, sell the Royals to a Kansas Citian or coalition who care and are committed to winning. Glass was Ewing Kauffman’s quasi designated successor. Kansas Citian’s should be grateful that he stepped up and kept the team in town. But, having stepped up, it’s now time for him to step aside. The Royals’ losing ways are an emotional drain on the spirit of our great city. The team, and the city, need an owner with a fire in his belly to win. I would hope that George Brett and his tenacity to win would be among a new ownership group.

Finally, a question: Why on earth would the Royals pay a player—Jose Guillen, who’s been suspended from MLB for drug abuse and is among those named on the Mitchell Report—$12 million a year? I know what I’d do.

This months letter may be a bit harsh for the December Philanthropy edition, but I love this city too much to not voice these concerns.

Joe Sweeney

Editor-In-Chief & Publisher

JSweeney@IngramsOnLine.com