Royals players really care about the game. Kansas City needs a ‘Major League’ moment | Opinion

Movie night?

I suggest that all real Royals fans watch the 1989 movie “Major League.” It should also be required watching for the team’s owners and front office.

The movie’s storyline: A rich debutante showgirl becomes owner of the Cleveland major league team. She doesn’t care about the team, the players or the fans. Most important, she does not care about the game itself. All she wants is to move the team out of Cleveland because she doesn’t like it. She hires bad players to drop attendance levels low enough to get out of her lease with the city.

The team gets wind of her plans and decides to win. The fan base responds and attendance soars. The players do it for themselves, for the fans and most of all for the game itself.

Granted, the Royals do not have a “Wild Thing” pitcher in their bullpen like in the movie, but it appears to me that they care about the game — whereas the owners seem to be looking at enhanced revenue for themselves, just like the showgirl.

So let’s have a movie-watching night and see what happens when the game is overshadowed by dollar signs.

- Paul Stephen Smith, Liberty

Words’ influence

There used to be a debate among hypnotists about whether a person could be induced to commit a crime with a hypnotic suggestion. The answer is yes, but only under certain conditions.

Trying to persuade a law-abiding citizen to do so through direct suggestion will not work. But what does work is to stoke fears about a target, convincing the subject that this person will harm the subject. Doing so can get the subject to take steps to protect himself and be primed to take action.

Similarly, Republican rhetoric about the threat of crime from Black and brown people, and the so-called “woke agenda,” can stir up someone like Andrew Lester, who is accused of shooting Northland teenager Ralph Yarl with no provocation. This propaganda can inflate someone’s anger and fears to the point that he feels threatened and arms himself. Lester was radicalized by the conservative media he consumed, his grandson says.

Research shows older people often overestimate their likelihood of becoming crime victims, although they are statistically the group least at risk. Offensive free speech for political gain can have dangerous consequences — something that Republicans unfortunately do not seem to get or ever take responsibility for.

- George Magakis Jr., Norristown, Pennsylvania

Masking reality

I hope the medical community is not paying attention to the “expert” politicians and cable news pundits who doubt the efficacy of masks. I prefer the surgeon operating on me to wear a mask, like professionals have for the past 130 years.

- Terry Putney, Prairie Village

Save the beauty

The elegant George Richards home overlooks Southmoreland Park. The City Council should preserve it as an important part of Kansas City’s history. (Aug. 25, 3A, “Mansion facing demolition should be saved, city leaders say”)

At the turn of the 1900s, the vision of the Southmoreland neighborhood was a mixture of stately homes, arts institutions and pastoral lawns and parks. Indeed, at the time Kansas City desperately wanted to become a first-class metropolis. In those days, we were still mostly a cattle town with mud streets. Southmoreland, its mansions and the park were all part of the City Beautiful movement.

Two of the biggest proponents of that cause lived right here — August Meyer and William Rockhill Nelson. Meyer’s home is now the iconic centerpiece of Kansas City Art Institute campus, Vanderslice Hall. Nelson’s home was gifted to make way for a top-ranked museum — now our beloved Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

George Richards’ home at 4526 Warwick was designed to add to the beauty started by Nelson and Meyer. That beauty and vision still exist today. The generations before us gave us a gift that is part of our identity as a beautiful city. We should preserve that for the generations to come.

Do not let this historic home be demolished for a high-rise building.

- Meg Reuter, Kansas City