At 21-29 and sitting in last place in the American League Central division, its turning into yet another ugly season for the Kansas City Royals. Things weren’t always that way though, as the Royals were tied for first in the division on May 1st. Now after losing 8 in a row, and 12 of their last 13 games, they find themselves languishing at the bottom.
When looking at the Royals, they have gotten some decent pitching performances, but their anemic offence is the main reason behind their poor record to date. The Royals are third worst in the American League in runs scored, and last in homeruns.
Questioned about the issues this week, hitting coach Jack Maloof said that it didn’t matter if the Royals were last in the league in Home Runs, and that he even expected the team to finish there. Not exactly inspiring words from one of the guys tasked to fix the problem. Or at least it used to be his task to fix the problem. Maloof was relieved of his duties as hitting coach on Thursday and re-assigned to the Royals minor league system where he will work as a hitting coach.
In order to replace Maloof the Royals have turned to their past and hired the greatest hitter the team has ever had, in Kansas City legend George Brett. Brett’s long career includes a laundry list of accomplishments, and made him an easy choice for the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first year of his eligibility in 1999 garnering 98.2% of the vote. Brett is:
- World Series Champion 1985
- Three Time Al Batting Champion (1976, 1980, 1990); the only player to win a batting title in three different deades.
- AL MVP (1980)
- ALCS MVP (1985)
- 13× All-Star (1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988)
- Gold Glove Award (1985)
- 3× Silver Slugger Award (1980, 1985, 1988)
- Lou Gehrig Memorial Award (1986)
- Hutch Award (1980)
- Kansas City Royals #5 retired
Brett will now be given the unenviable task of turning around the Royals hitters and saving their season. The question is will he be able to, or will working with the Royals current lineup be too tough a task, even for a Kansas City Legend.
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