Tuesday Tidbits: Do Not Criticize George Brett's Royals

If you haven't already heard, George Brett has grown tired of the criticisms of the 2009 club, and particularly, the decisions made my Manager Trey Hillman. Jump ahead for more details.


Now, I'm at work right now, and my wonderful employers have disabled sound from the speakers of all of our work computers, so I can't play this bit for my co-workers, but you, splendid readers that you are, may partake immediately.



From what I heard this morning on the TalkRadios, Brett commented to the media that he's tired of the criticisms. He then, however, appeared on air this morning and said that, at one point, skipper Whitey Herzog said that a good manager will win you five extra games in any given season, a bad one will lose you five, the difference, he iterated, being a 10-game swing. He admitted that that statement is something that has always stuck with him.

A number of Royals fans (Editor's Note: In a surprising twist this morning, TLR jumped on this bandwagon.), have claimed that Hillman has already, one quarter of the season through, cost Kansas City two contests via his allegedly unsavvy bullpen decision-making. These decisions, of course, largely involve Kyle Farnsworth, and blown-save opportunities you could hang on the corners of his pointy-framed spectacles.

My take, oft-dismissed as it seems to be, is that General Manager Dayton Moore went out and got this guy. The Glass family is paying him, and so you have to find ways to use him; he's on your active roster, like it or not. Now, because the guy hangs meatballs in the air that many Little Leaguers could jack out of the K, doesn't, in my opinion, mean that Hillman cost us the game. It would appear that, more generally speaking, George Brett agrees.

Personally, as much as I don't like the "performances" Farnsworth turned in on those outings, or the recent six-game slide, I'd rather focus on taking, at minimum, two out of three against the Tribe, who's in town tonight. Add to that that an allegedly back-in-form Cliff Lee takes the hill for Cleveland, while Brian Bannister and his recently ailing shoulder get the nod for KC. Last month in this same matchup, Banny logged the victory, while Lee, I believe, got a no-decision, which, in the course of things 2009 Royals, is improvement, when you consider that Lee had a previous career record of 5-0 with an under-three E.R.A. What's more, is that the Royals will face two other division opponents before the month is out.

Still cautiously optimistic, I'm not all that bent out of shape by a 20-18 record, one game out of first in the Central.
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Advice & Consent

As we all count down the days until George Bush fucking leaves Tuesday's Inauguration, I keep stumbling across the same two questions. One, can I take the day off? And two, how come every single big appointment made by a president is grilled by a Congressional committee, yet an NFL team can hire coaches and not hire GMs without any oversight whatsoever?

As to the first, I'm pretty sure the answer is no. I took a half-day when we voted in Colorado's caucus in February, I ditched for nearly a week to attend the convention in Denver, and I was absent on both Election Day and the day before. I'm certain that if I play hooky over this election one more time I'll be joining the ranks of the unemployed.

But then I read this and wondered if I found my loophole. Either that or my caucasianality is once again a handicap to my social advancement.

Oh well, there's always my second idea--hauling Pat Bowlen before an elected council of Bronco fans and forcing him to testify under oath as to why the Denver Broncos are stuck in the mud...

Hold up there, mister, I can hear you saying. It's his team, can't he run it the way he sees fit? To which I say of course, up until the moment he asked me, the Colorado taxpayer, to buy his team a new house. At that point it became our team, and I demand more say in its assembly than the right to buy a ticket and a sweatshirt and yell.

I say any team that demands public financing for its facilities has to allow its fans to vote for a board of directors. This board gets to subpoena team employees and demand explanations for boneheaded moves. And every time a big hire is made, the board has to sign off on it.

In the U.S. Constitution, it's spelled out like this:

[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

If you don't like it, buy your own God damned stadium.
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