Cleveland 6, Kansas City 0
Royal Record: 5-18

Kansas City 9, Cleveland 1
Royal Record: 6-18

Kansas City 6, Cleveland 5
Royal Record: 7-18

Nothing like a two-game winning streak to quiet the chattering masses of Royals fans – seemed to be a noticeable drop-off in posts on the message boards and weblogs in general. count me among those – not really much to say about the weekend, I don't think. always nice to see them win, even if I only caught parts of two games. I listened on Saturday as I drove to my game, catching Harvey's grand slam and Marrero's follow-up shot. great moments, of course, though it's moments like these that hover in people's minds a little too long when it comes to arguing Royals-related points. not that I'm one of the types that's absolutely convinced harvey can or can't succeed, or that marrero was a giant waste of money – they're just nice moments in a long production of a season. that's about all I have to say right now. I don't have any kind of point to prove about the relative worth of either of them. I'd just like to see them succeed, that's all.

I listened Sunday as lima had a no-hitter through 5 innings, then left to take a bike ride through the local neighborhoods with the 'lil lady. yep, right after the 5th. I figured, sure, I'd be all over the place if I had missed lima throwing a no-hitter – and he is pretty much one of the only two pitchers (anderson being the other) who would possibly be allowed to pitch a full nine innings given how limiting the royals are with the other guys – but, you know, what are the chances of that? all I ended up doing is saving myself from watching the five-run 5th. I came back to see burgos close it out, and while I'm never going to complain about a 1-2-3 inning, it's obvious there will be nights he'll walk guys just like all the other royals relievers we've grown fond of. not much more than that.

* * * * * *

Official JBABL stats: Game 2

Them 15, Us 5 (stopped after 6 innings due to score)

Team Record: 0-2

Offense

Blow, Joe: 0-3 (K, pop out, ground out)

Season:
Avg.: .000
OBP: .286
Slg.: .000
OPS: .286
RBI: 1

I hate odd stat lines like that at the beginning of the season. My hitting was pretty bad Saturday. I got rang up on a borderline outside pitch on my first at-bat (I'm learning that umpires in this league are very generous when pitches come somewhere around the plate). the second time I swung at a low, outside pitch and *almost* dropped it into right field, and the third time I just barely hit a roller about halfway between third and the pitcher's mound.

I'm afraid next game I'm gonna have to play like a real asshole. yep, I'm just going up there hacking. no one knows the difference anyway, and at least if they see me swinging they'll think I'm up there trying to hit a home run every time just like everyone else. I mean, I'll still be selective, but at least for the next game, there's no more taking close pitches early in the at-bat and trying to work the count. I'm up there swinging away from pitch 1. I mean, when I'm not swinging and missing, I can ground out with the best of them – exactly like the rest of the team!

I'm really, really disappointed with how this team is turning out. apparently the flashes of "decent team" I saw in the preseason games were a great illusion. Once this team gets into the regular season, I don't know, they just panic. they can't make pitches or plays worth anything. no wonder they've been so horrible the last couple years before now.

At least I've been absolutely solid in the field so far: no errors, a couple nice catches on hard-hit smashes on Saturday, and not a single base-runner has attempted to take an extra base on a ball hit to me in any game this year. part of that is because I'm in left field, but I play every ball exactly how it's supposed to be played and come up ready to throw.

Of course, in the midst of our thrashings, there always seems to be something that happens in each game you can file under "little things that really piss you off". this game it was a statement from one of the guys in the dugout, who felt it necessary to mention to everyone that, "we really suck at defense! our defense is terrible, we can't make any plays!" this right after the inning where I speared a couple line drives given up by our pitchers. it's like, hey guy, feel free to speak for yourself, but the outfield guys haven't missed a play yet, including two separate times where a runner should have been out at third and at home, but the infielder never bothered to catch the ball. and the runners were out by 3-4 steps each time, so it wasn't close. on a side note, the outfield in the last game consisted of me and two guys from completely different teams, who were filling in because we were short. we'll revert back to comical misplays and shockingly bad decisions next game when the regulars return.

well, another thing that got to me last game involved the guy I wrote about that had absolutely no idea how to play centerfield in game 1. he apparently felt the need to start positioning the outfielders from his perch at 2nd base a couple of innings into the game. I HATE that. I'm pretty sure that I know as much as anyone on the team on where guys should be playing, especially myself. he started motioning for all the outfielders to move in at one point, and when he got to me I just looked at him as he waved his glove towards his face. he did it again. I looked at him and took a trivial half step sideways. he gave up. it's like, dude, I saw you play centerfield, you have no clue how to play outfield at all. it reminded me of last year, when I almost got into what would have been a very regrettable scrap with this really trashy guy on my softball team that felt like he was god's gift to outfield management. which he attempted to enforce on every single play. non-stop. in the last game, I finally shouted to him, "why don't you worry about yourself?" naturally, Scummy wanted to fight me as soon as we got back to the dugout. luckily I didn't, or else I'd probably be covered in some kind of incurable skin lesions right now.

hopefully no one will come to blows this season. but, if there's a bright side, at least some of the guys on this team seem halfway clean..

Peacefully,
Joe Blow