Mellinger Minutes: Sporting’s moment, the Royals are lost, and the ultimate KC day
Something really cool happened in Kansas City sports the other day. Maybe you missed it. The Royals have sucked up a lot of energy with their losing, and the Chiefs are always a topic. But this week has already been won by Sporting Kansas City.
Seating capacity at Children’s Mercy Park is still limited to about 6,500 — just like the Royals, they’re hopeful of getting back to full capacity at some point this summer — but at moments during Sunday night’s game, it sounded full to a national television audience.
Sporting is developing this weird habit where it gets down early, then comes back late, and that’s what happened here — down 1-0 from the 8th minute to the 82nd, with Ilie Sanchez’s header equalizing and then Gadi Kinda scoring the winner in the 90th minute.
It was a wild game, with Sporting playing most of the second half up a man after an Austin FC red card. Sporting missed chances before and after going up a man, and you got the feeling they’d break through, but the clock keeps moving. The buildup just makes the noise louder at the end.
It was a great game, and more than enough to stand on its own.
But there was also the subplot — Matt Besler’s return to Kansas City after Peter Vermes put him out of contract after last season.
As it happened, Graham Zusi passed Besler for the club record in appearances Sunday night — he’s now ranked third all-time in MLS with one club, so this record could last a while — and the two swapped jerseys after the match.
Besler later came out wearing a Sporting jersey with his No. 5 on it, but THANK YOU where the name goes. He gave it, along with a letter, to the Cauldron, and what’s better than this?
So, look.
I don’t know what this does for Sporting going forward. Gianluca Busio needs to continue this path toward stardom, and Sporting needs to finish better and clean up a few things defensively. They figure to be in the Western Conference race, but the difference between sneaking in and giving yourself a real chance to advance can be small.
My sense is positive, but the truth will be in the ways this team continues to develop and evolve and change over the next few months. I know is that this is a group with interesting pieces and a creative coach.
But the point here is that Sporting just gave us one of the best moments of Kansas City sports this year. We have more coming, too, especially as stadium capacities grow back toward full.
This week’s reading recommendation is Barry Svrluga’s Tom Boswell appreciation, and the eating recommendation is the crab cake at Cafe Provence.
Thanks to everyone who’s listened to our Mellinger Minutes For Your Ears podcast, and here is a big warm invitation to start if you haven’t already. We’re out from behind the paywall and free on Apple or Spotify or Stitcher or wherever you get your shows.
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This might turn into a theme this week, but in broad strokes the Royals are what we’ve talked about.
We’ve done this a few times. We’ve talked about how they’d face a losing streak, and that some good fortune would likely flip at some point. The race was to play better before run differential caught up to them. They lost that race. The White Sox appear undeterred by their injuries, or Tony LaRussa.
It’s also true that the Royals are just one game under .500, and Danny Duffy remains the only player outperforming a reasonable expectation. Adalberto Mondesi’s return will make a real difference.
The disappointing part has been to see the team’s response. This is a group that always had small margins, and that always had to win the moments. I don’t have doubts about the willingness to work, or about how much this group cares, but four runs in the last four games is atrocious.
Right or wrong, coincidence or not, these are eight straight losses to division opponents. The Indians and White Sox have very little reason to take the Royals seriously as contenders. That’s on the Royals.
It shouldn’t be this bad. The Royals have strong men in that clubhouse, from Carlos Santana to Whit Merrifield to Hunter Dozier and Sal Perez and on and on.
I’m not talking about a Team Meeting™ here, because those are — gawd I love this term — eyewash.
I’m talking about a collective belief. A resiliency. The mental strength to ride through this storm and see the sunshine on the other side — and quickly.
That’s who this group has been saying it is. They talk about a roster full of winners, and expecting to win, and all of these things. It makes sense, and there’s some real stuff in there, but now is when that’s all supposed to show up.
The season isn’t lost. But they simply cannot have another week like that. The response has to come now.
Hard not to think that, right?
That group was 18-11 on May 7, and then lost six straight, 11 of 14, 20 of 25, and by the time it was over 97 games in all. They hit a 105-loss pace after May 17.
That 2009 team was basically 2003 + Zack Greinke. He deservedly won the Cy Young that year, but the most convincing argument was that he was contractually prohibited from pitching against the Royals.
That was a rotten team. Their shortstops hit .222/.251/.219, which stinks, and their DHs hit .209/.281/.374 which, relatively speaking, might be worse. Brian Bannister was their second best starting pitcher, and he had a 4.73 ERA with 98 strikeouts in 154 innings.
The 2021 Royals are an objectively better collection of baseball players. They will not lose 97 games. I might regret saying that.
And, yes, I would like to relive the first time I saw the Black Keys. It was 2010, I think, at Grinders. Perfect summer night. The first time the woman who is now my wife came to stay with me.
That was a nice break from talking about the Royals.
/takes deep breath, dives back in/ …
That’s the other comp that comes to mind, and it’s a bit more optimistic. That 2013 team was good. Really good. It was hard to see sometimes because of the Royals’ then-recent history, and the 2012 Our Time disaster, but that was the championship core a year early — Lorenzo Cain, Sal Perez, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Wade Davis, Alex Gordon and Greg Holland were all between 23 and 29 years old.
They were 17-10 on May 5, and then lost 19 of their next 23. Their playoff chances were essentially wrecked at that point. George Brett came on as hitting coach on May 30, and they won 13 of their next 18 but that was mostly serendipity. The hitting numbers were mostly the same with him; the pitching improved.
“I’m telling people I’m actually the pitching coach,” Brett joked.
He was not the pitching coach, obviously, but the truth is he wasn’t really the hitting coach either. He was hired more as a sort of swag coach, to help convince that group of its own talents.
This group, at this moment, could use an injection of confidence. Maybe a day off and then the Tigers is what they need, but I also thought a team as good as this group thinks it is would have responded better to the White Sox coming into town.
You’re asking about staff shakeup, and that’s always a possibility. Hitting coach Terry Bradshaw and pitching coach Cal Eldred were each in their positions before Matheny was in his. Matheny has also talked — and managed — with a palpable sense of urgency.
But Matheny has also talked about building a sort of community, about pulling together, so a move two months into his first full season would be a bit of an eyebrow raiser.
I also think stuff like that is — and GAWD you know I love this term — eyewash. Players either perform or they don’t, and I get that a fresh voice can be effective but I can’t imagine believing that’s the answer.
/clears throat/
one MIIIIILLLLLLyun percent.
This goes back to our theme — we’ve been talking about all this stuff.
The climb is higher than it was back then, when it was basically the top-heavy Tigers. From 2013 to 2015, no AL Central team other than the Royals won more than 93 games. The Tigers won the division in 2014 with 89 wins. The Twins finished second in 2015 at 83-79.
The White Sox have some jaw-dropping talent, the Indians always have pitching, and I still think the Twins are better than they’ve been.
So the bar is higher. There is no doubt.
But that is neither new nor an excuse.
I don’t know that any of us who’ve followed the Royals over the years are shocked by this, but seeing it written down is something else:
Now, look, let’s also keep some perspective. The White Sox, Indians and Twins each qualified for last year’s playoffs in a shortened 60-game season and each had losing streaks of at least six games.
The A’s and Rays were the only teams in an eight-team American League playoff field without a losing streak of at least six games and, again, that was (basically) one third of a season.
So these losing streaks are not rare, and they’re not even the mark of a bad team.
One of the differences between good seasons and lost seasons, though, is limiting the vomit. In the most recent full season, the Astros were the only playoff team with a losing streak of at least seven games.
Baseball people talk about this all the time. Whit Merrifield says the goal is simply to stretch out the heaters, and cut the slumps. The Royals are being challenged right now, and they’re responding like a limp fish.
First, let’s make a point about Bobby Witt Jr. He has just four hits (all of them singles) in 20 at bats at Class AA Northwest Arkansas. He will be a great player someday, don’t get this twisted, but his prospect ranking* and the Royals’ momentary consideration of putting him on the opening day roster has clouded the fact that he’s 20 years old and this is the first time he’s hit above rookie ball**.
* No. 7 on MLB Pipeline.
** One other thing to remember about Witt Jr. When he’s called up (and it’s when, not if) it won’t be immediate. Part of MLB’s Covid protocols requires players to pass tests with the Class AAA team. So Witt Jr. will either need to play for Omaha or — if he’s called up directly from Northwest Arkansas — spend a day or two flying to Class AAA and clearing protocols there.
You’re not going to like this answer, but for me there isn’t a move the front office can make to fix the current problems. I know you’re sick of hearing about this, but Mondesi’s return — he’s maybe two weeks out? — will help. But Lorenzo Cain is not walking through that door.
This is obviously easier said than done but the turnaround has to come from the players. Someone needs to hit a homer, make a play, shut down a lineup, whatever … and then his teammates need get on board.
There is no team meeting that’s going to fix this, nothing the pitching coach can do with the bullpen or the hitting coach can do with someone’s swing or the manager can do with the lineup. The players either do it or they don’t.
It would make for a better column if I had a solution for you, but if you read that better column somewhere else you should know that it’s b.s. The players got themselves in this, and they need to be the ones to get themselves out.
Whatever it’s worth, I still believe this can be a good team.
But they’re right there at the precipice. Teams can lose eight in a row and salvage their season. They don’t often lose 10 or 12 or whatever and still have good seasons.
The Bucs should get the Thursday opener, and it should be a home game, and if you’re looking at their opponents the best game would probably be the Bills*. You could make an argument for the league putting the Cowboys there, but the Bills are the best combination of star power and accomplishment for that spot.
* Though, goodness gracious I would sign off on Bucs at Patriots kicking things off on Thursday night. Give me all the petty!
I bring that up because the Bills are also the Chiefs’ most marquee opponent, or at least the marquee opponent that doesn’t currently have a Hall of Fame quarterback trying to passive-aggressive his way out of town. So if the NFL wants to feature the Bucs and Chiefs in the premier primetime games on opening week, it probably needs to decide which team gets the Bills.
If it’s Bucs-Bills on Thursday, you could roll the dice on Aaron Rodgers and go Chiefs-Packers, or be a little safer and go Chiefs-Browns on Sunday. But I wonder if the better play could be Chiefs-Chargers at SoFi. That stadium looks great on TV, and putting it in that slot would guarantee a live atmosphere. Better to get the Chargers early, before their training facility is struck by lightning or something. The Chiefs play in Baltimore again, and that’ll be an interesting game, but I’m not sure how easy that would be to sell as a major mile marker.
This isn’t to that level, but I’m curious if the NFL has fun with the fact that the Jaguars play the Jets and 49ers, who also play the Bears. The hype of those rookie quarterbacks will make itself.
The same way free agency isn’t quite the same in the NFL as the NBA, I wouldn’t expect the transfer portal to have the same impact in college football as college basketball.
These are just different sports, different paths, different cultures. A basketball team in need of a stretch-4 can plug-and-play a transfer in a different way than a football team can do when it needs third down back.
But I think it’s naive to not believe the portal will take on a bigger scale in football.
Coaches will freak out, for sure. There is a 100 percent certainty of this. They crave stability and probably overstate how much better or even different their ways of player development are compared to most rivals.
But you asked about fans, and I’m not sure it would have much of a negative impact. You would assume most stars wouldn’t transfer, and there’s so much turnover with who contributes year-to-year anyway that fans are used to learning new names.
But, mostly, I’m including this question as another chance to make a point I’ve made before and will continue to make:
I don’t like the transfer trend either, but the power dynamics are so out of reason that I cannot imagine advocating for transfer limits without fundamental changes in other areas of college sports.
Because coaches are constantly navigating their own version of the transfer portal, and they’ve been eligible immediately for years.
I’d like to see a system that rewards players for staying in school, and for not transferring. Give them cash bonuses tied to academic progress and their draft prospects.
Right now, all that’s done is whining. That’s what coaches do when asked about the portal. They whine. The suits in Indianapolis know it’s not great for their product, but they’re not doing anything about it.
There are reasons that change would be hard, but all of the challenges are self-inflicted by decades of justifying an unfair system with plainly b.s. logic.
Well, first, I like your optimism that $100 would buy a decent seat to watch the professional team of my choice, but you’re the boss here, your rules, so I’m happy to go with it.
I hope you don’t think I’m going against the spirit of the question, but my answer is a soccer game in England, and I’m torn between seeing Arsenal (the team I follow), Chelsea (the team with Christian Pulisic), or something more historic like a home match for Aston Villa or Nottingham Forest.
Feels like if you could get some passionate fan to take pity on you and go to the pub before, walk to the grounds, sing in the stands, and do whatever the heck after it would be a day you would absolutely never ever never forget.
But I’d also love to watch a baseball game at the Tokyo Dome.
So I’m a bit torn here.
Mannnn …
Let’s do breakfast outside at Classic Cup*, then a walk through the Nelson, then lunch at the Gates on Cleaver**, then a tour at the Negro Leagues Museum before a beer somewhere in the Crossroads*** and then dinner at Kauffman Stadium.
- There’s a lot of choices here, but I feel like the Plaza needs to be included, and the Classic Cup was my mom’s favorite place in town.
** I’ve found this one to be the most consistent, and I know it’s the newest of the Gates, but they have a lot of history on display there.
*** Torn Label’s new space if you’re making me pick one.
Do you think we could do all that in a day? I feel like that’s doable? Then a beer at Hi-Dive on the way home?
Feels like you’d have at least a feel for Kansas City after that.
Let me tell you something, Kyle. There are people in this world who will try to Grill Shame you about the gas, and there are people in this world who will tell you that a pellet grill isn’t really grilling, and there are people in this world who will talk to you for hours — seriously, they won’t shut up — about their methods and their rubs and this one YouTube video you really have to watch to know what real grilling is all about and I just want you to know something.
Those people suck.
I happen to love this stuff, even if I know how stupid it is for me to spend all this time on ribs when I’m like 3 minutes from two of the best places for ribs on this entire planet. I happen to love talking about this stuff, too, but at least try to remember that other people have normal priorities and that me telling you about a cook I had this weekend is sort of like you telling me how your fantasy baseball team is doing.
What I’m trying to tell you is to think about you. Be honest with yourself. Think about what you want out of this, and how much time you want to spend.
I have a Kamado Joe, and I absolutely love it, but I’m not sure I could’ve pulled the trigger on the purchase without a HUGE markdown on it at the local hardware store.
It — and the Big Green Egg is basically the same thing, from what I understand — is great because you can do anything on it. I’ve kept it between 200 and 250 for 15-hour brisket cooks, and got it up to 850 the other night for steak. It’s big enough for a big ol’ plate of paella, which is great for lots of reasons including how much easier it makes the cleanup.
But controlling the temperature takes some time and trial and error. I’m a weirdo and actually enjoy that part. I figure if I want it perfect and easy I’ll just go to Joe’s, so the point for me is to have the versatility and sort of enjoy the journey, if that makes sense. I’m not sure I know anyone who has a pellet grill and doesn’t love it. So there’s that.
I’ve had gas, I’ve had the regular Weber charcoal guy, and I’ve had the trash barrel style smoker. They have their quirks and their cons and their plusses. You just have to figure out what you want out of it.
I’d bottom line it like this: if you think this is something you’ll want to put a lot of time into and get into, I’d go with a charcoal smoker or something like the Joe or Egg. If you want something that’s simpler, and easier to operate, go with a pellet.
But honestly, if you’re happy with the ease of the regular gas grill, that’s cool too.
If you decide to dive in, let me know. I’d be happy to share a few things.
Boz is a legend, and was a legend before I covered my first high school game here.
I don’t know Boz. I think we’ve met a time or two, but he was one those writers I felt starstruck around. Same thing happened to me with Bob Ryan and Sally Jenkins and I’m sure a few others.
Weirdest thing. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way about an athlete — at least not in a very long time — but if I sat next to Sally in a press box tomorrow I’d be sweating through my shirt in 10 minutes and probably incapable of typing coherent sentences together and I HEARD THAT JOKE YOU JUST MADE AND I DO NOT APPRECIATE IT.
You know, I didn’t do this on purpose, but Boz, Sally and Bob Ryan have something crucial in common. They are each absurdly smart but also obsessed with learning more. They are each able to be critical, but still retain the joy that gets us all into sports in the first place. Those are hard things to balance, and my guess is they get progressively harder with age.
Boz is one of the best baseball writers we’ve ever had. He sees things with a freshness, but also as a point in history. He writes with an infectious energy. Reading him can feel like watching a game with a smarter and funny friend.
I wish I had a Boz story for you. Since I don’t, I went back and forth about whether to include this question.
But I’m including it here to say that Boz is one of those writers a lot of us want to be like when we grow up. Cheers to a legend.
This week, I’m particularly grateful to have been born to an incredible mom and to be married to another.