Case in point: My photobloggrapher was recently trying to pick out her favorite Royal for this season. My favorite being Alex, she was trying to avoid him...and I fed her favorable information about several others, really not wanting to share him. Besides, everyone loves Alex, she should be more original. She tried...she failed.
It's just damn near impossible not to love the kid...Frank White loves him...George Brett loves him...the Kool Aid Drinker loves him...hell, Tony Muser may even love him (assuming he drinks Tequila). As a special tribute, an article I wrote back in 2005 when Alex was drafted...more of a letter than an article, but it still holds true:
Dear Alex
Growing up a Royals fan I’m sure you have a general idea about what I’m getting ready to tell you. We need you Alex, and we need you to be great. Kansas City can be a great baseball town again, hardly anyone disputes that. What Kansas City needs, however, is a reason to believe. Tony Pena came close for four months in 2003; crowds started getting bigger, season ticket sales increased, and then poof! Like most smoke and mirrors tricks, Pena’s didn’t last long and in 2004 the Royals found themselves at the lowest point in franchise history. But this isn’t just about disappointments on the field. From trading away superstar talents, to draft picks busting like piñatas on Cinco De Mayo, virtually everything that could go wrong for Royals fans in the last 10 years, has gone wrong. We really need you to be different….soon.
The anticipation surrounding your development will rival that of Zack Greinke’s. When you say in interviews that you were a George Brett fan, when you talk about being excited to play for the Royals, we want it to be real. There have been too many people talking over the last 10 years about getting out of Kansas City. There have been too many free agents and tradees that have come in with a less than excited attitude about playing for the Royals. We need your excitement for our egos. Nobody wants to believe that Kansas City is too small a market to succeed. No one wants to think about the players counting down the days to their free agency, or premature departure to “play for a winner”.
Most importantly, no one wants to think about Juan Lebron(1995), Dee Brown(1996), Dan Reichert(1997), Jeff Austin(1998), Mike Stodolka(2000), Colt Griffin(2001), or Roscoe Crosby(2001) anymore. With our current phenom Zack Greinke struggling to keep his ERA below five, it’s hard to get excited about any of our prospects….but you can change that, and you can start by signing soon. The last thing we need is to hear about our owner being cheap in negotiations, or our future star being stubborn and playing hard ball. If you’re really excited about coming to the Royals, take the $3 million we’re going to offer you and get to A ball this summer. By next spring you’ll be in AA or AAA and by this time next year there will be fans clamoring about when your first start will be.
You see, it’s no fun to play in Kansas City when the fans aren’t excited. You’ve heard that Missouri is the Show Me State? Well, judging strictly by the baseball fans, that phrase must have originated on the west side of the state. Kansas City doesn’t have to have a dominant team like they did in the late 70s and early 80s, but they need good players to get attached to, and at least a glimmer of hope that a division title may be within reach. By the time you get here prospects like David DeJesus, Mark Teahan, Billy Butler, and Greinke should have already laid the foundation for a youth movement that should reach it’s peak when you arrive.
But you’ll be the icing on the cake. Fans will drive down from Nebraska just to watch you play. Kansas City fans will instantly fall in love with your George Brett like swing. The last piece of the puzzle, you will be. The most important puzzle in Kansas City sports history. It may seem like I’m overstating it a bit, but if this youth movement fails and Royals fans are faced with 4-5 more years of last place finishes, and underachieving prospects baseball may die in Kansas City.
Your coach at Nebraska was quoted as saying that you had “it”. Well we’re going to find out, because having it is the only way that you could possibly make the kind of impact that the Royals need from you. Think George Brett, with the added obstacles of payroll disparity, an absentee owner, and 10 years of previous losing. Okay, now I am overstating it.
Finally, Alex, welcome to Kansas City. I’m sure you’ll have a news conference here when you sign, and they’ll probably even have you at a ballgame this summer. That’s probably when you’ll figure it out. Chances are the game you attend will at best have 20,000 fans, and they probably won’t have much to cheer about….until they introduce you. Chances are even better that when you here your name called the next sound you hear will be the loudest cheer you’ve heard all night. Get used to it, because if you’re what we all think you are it won’t be the last game where the cheers are the loudest for you.
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