From Sam Mellinger’s blog today:
Maybe my memory’s just short, and the 12-game losing streak is fading, but to me, because of the way they’ve lost these games, the stranglehold they now have on last place (again), the injury to Hochevar, the anemia of the offense, the struggles of Banny, this is about as bad as it’s been all season.
It was admirable of Sam to try to see the other side of the shitty way it feels to be a Royals fan right now. But he does go on to concede that the last two weeks have felt a lot more miserable than that 12-gamer back in May, and he’s correct. Sometimes I joke that “I hate being a Royals fan.” Tonight when I expressed this feeling to a friend… I meant it.
<---Yeah, David, I feel the exact same way.
It sucks to lose on all days that end in ‘Y’. It sucks to be described everywhere as ‘hapless.’ It sucks to have people suggest that the Royals be relegated to a less-than-major league, EPL style. It sucks to have to deal with a disabled list a mile long.
What sucks the most for me right now is knowing that Omaha has no one to offer the hurting parent club. Normally I’d offer a Carlos Rosa or even a Dusty Hughes, but they’re both nursing injuries and far from normal form. I’d love to propose a Shane Costa to ease the burden of David DeJesus and Mitch Maier being DL’ed, but he’s done for the season and has been for quite a while. We’ve been limping through the last week or so with Single-A mediocrity Brett Bigler in the outfield, so we have nothing to spare. And I’d be beyond thrilled if I could give KC a middle infielder to fill the Mark Grudzielanek-shaped void and a 3rd baseman to take Alex Gordon’s place, but we’ve got this guy playing most days, so no help there either. (An Omaha season-ticket holder who is brutally honest about everything described Labandeira as someone who should be playing in Little League right now. Ouch. But true. Ouchtrue. Trouch?)
The kind of losing in which the Royals have entrenched themselves is impossible to escape: Injured starters and no rested relievers to take over their innings, along with the losses of bats like DeJesus and Gordon, and the epic depletion of the AAA team… it’s the recipe for the most miserable August and September on record. I’ll still watch, but I have zero expectations. Having those for this year has only hurt, and I’ve given this shitty team enough of my heart. I think that, for my own emotional health, I should check out for the season. I can’t keep up this level of investment, because I don’t want my roommate to come home from classes and find me curled in the fetal position on the floor, draped in a rumpled powder blue jersey and frantically muttering something about new blue tradition. If I’m going to lead a normal life, I have to try to detach myself somehow from this team. But I’ll probably fail at that, because failing is what the Royals do.
/rant
Labels: baseball, mildly inappropriate, Omaha Royals, roster moves, Royals
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August 24, 2008 at 9:03 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I know we got the win today and all, but I really have to question why Mark Teahan has been at third base the last couple of games. ESPECIALLY, when Estaban German is in the outfield. I know German isn’t the surest handed third baseman there is, but its been almost 2 years since Mark has played there, and German is playing in a position that he looks lost in. Why does Trey Hillman make me question every single move?