What’s wrong with the Kansas City Royals? How much time do you have to list problems?

Kansas City Star
·4 min read

Royals’ woes

I don’t see how Sam McDowell can state that the post-2015 Royals were signalling they were “all-in on the present” after “key pieces departed.” (May 15, 1B, “Rebuild blues; The Royals were supposed to be better by now. So now what?”)

Indeed, there were key pieces that departed at that time — namely Ben Zobrist, Johnny Cueto, Greg Holland and Wade Davis. Zobrist went on to win the World Series MVP in 2016 for the Cubs. Two of the World Series MVPs in the last six years have been former Royals, as Jorge Soler won it in 2021.

There is much that has been wrong with the Royals for a long time.

- John Christiansen, Kansas City

Not winners

I am a retired journalist who wrote about baseball for several of the country’s largest newspapers. I was born and reared in Kansas City. My late mother attended Westport High School with Ewing Kauffman. My Royals roots run deep.

As fate would have it, I now live a few minutes from the Royals’ spring-training facility in Surprise, Arizona. For many years, I have been a Royals spring-training season ticket holder and have attended numerous Arizona Fall League games featuring blue-chippers from all 30 teams, as well as the Arizona Complex League for rookies from nearly all major league teams. I’ve also attended numerous Royals practices over the years.

The difference in what the Royals are doing on nearly every front compared with top-tier teams, as well as those that merely win more games than they lose, is disappointedly palpable. Poor drafting, inferior coaching, terrible decision-making about whom to call up to the big leagues, and when, is on full display.

It will take more than firing a hitting coach to right this ship. The problem begins at the very top, or expect more of the same for years to come.

- Greg Joseph, Sun City, Arizona

Court unbalanced

To protect our reproductive freedoms, we need to expand the Supreme Court.

The Judiciary Act of 2021 would add four seats to the Supreme Court, bringing the number of justices to 13. It would help restore balance to a court that then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has packed with right-wing extremists who are on the verge of dismantling abortion care in America.

Recent polling showed that not only do a majority of Americans believe that the Supreme Court should uphold the right to abortion care, but they also agree that we need to restore balance and support by adding judges to the Supreme Court.

I’m urging Congress to pass the Judiciary Act so we can create an institution that moves away from partisan politics and represents the good of all Americans.

- Lori May McDaniel, Kansas City

Let it go

It’s very discouraging to see a constant dribble of employee lawsuits over race, sex and any or all kinds of issues against our city and state governments. It’s become vogue to get a quick hit of cash settlements rather than just work for a living and accept and appreciate our work as a model for our kids to see us as model citizens trying to live a fine life and providing for our families. I’m also sure the lawyers behind these lawsuits are smiling all the way to the bank.

Settlements are easy money for all who pursue, and our city leaders don’t have the courage to say enough is enough and push back on this new trend of people looking for easy money because they can. Everyone has discouraging events or conflicts with some aspect of their work. Let’s try to accept that as humans muddling through life that it is never easy or perfect.

Life is hard. Just step up, face it and do the best you can and stop looking for someone to blame or to file a lawsuit against in search of easy money.

- Jim Wells, Overland Park

Is this the end?

How can a segment of the Republican Party feel a solidarity with Russian President Vladimir Putin? Perhaps like birds of a feather, white nationalists flock together. Ten people shot dead by a white supremacist who found it easy to get a gun.

It is extremely pathetic and painful to witness one of the world’s most noble experiments approach its dusk.

Let’s vote while it still might count.

- Robert A. Hendrickson, Kansas City

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