Hope springs eternal.  In the chest of all long suffering fans beats an optimistic heart, one that yearns for his or her team to succeed and looks forward to the day when they can celebrate the same championship they’ve watched others enjoy for years.  Occasionally, there will be substance behind the hope and evidence that this year could be different, this could be the year we finally break through.

As you know, this season was “Our Time” and many of us believed 2012 would mark a turning point toward respectability.  Many of the talented young players we’ve watched growing up in the best farm system in baseball were finally arriving in the major leagues and Dayton Moore’s plan was coming together.  If you’ll admit it, I bet you were thinking the Royals would play well this year.  Few of us believed they were playoff bound in 2012, but almost all of us were confident other teams would not be looking past KC this season.

Then something happened.  I’m not sure if any of us know exactly what happened, but something happened.  The Royals play in a weak division which allowed them to remain competitive with a mediocre record and this motivated us to hold onto hope.  But now, only the most die-hard fan still believes the Royals have a shot at the playoffs.  Oh yes, we all still root for them and cheer them on and sit on the edge of our seats shouting for another victory…  but we’ve become realists and we know we won’t be watching the boys in blue this October.  Again.

When did this happen?  When exactly did the Royals 2012 season go off the rails?  If could have been at any one of many twists and turns in the road, and each of us might point toward a different event that caused it.  Here are a few candidates for the prime pothole that caused the Royals train to jump the track:

Pick a Date:  Injuries – There have been so many devastating injuries that have impacted the Royals that I can’t select one date.  At the major league level, the Royals lost Salvador Perez and Lorenzo Cain for approximately the first half of the season.  Danny Duffy, Felipe Paulino, and Joakim Soria have undergone Tommy John surgery.  Yuniesky Betancourt and Chris Getz have been on-again and off-again with various injuries.  Other Royals have likely played hurt because the team couldn’t afford to lose another player.  Is it possible that one of these injuries could have cut the cord on the Royals’ season?

March 26:  Part of the excitement about 2012 surrounded the youth movement in KC.   The decision to leave Johnny Giavotella in Omaha and play a platoon of Yuniesky Betancourt and Chris Getz probably wasn’t the key factor that derailed the Royals season, but I would say it was a telling sign of things to come and questionable decisions that would be made by the Royals brass.

Jonathan Broxton's April 11 meltdown is one of the candidates when looking for the reason the Royals season has gone off the rails. (Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE)

April 11:  Broxton’s first meltdown, and it was a classic.  Two walks, two hit-by-pitches, two runs scored, Broxton’s first blown save of the year, and the A’s didn’t even need a hit.  This was the first real splash of cold water I experienced following an off-season and Spring filled with hope and expectation.

April 14:  Chris Perez’s Twitter rant and victory over the Royals following an onfield melee.  I believe Perez’s tweet somehow motivated the Indians and demotivated the Royals.  This was just the 3^rd loss in the 12 consecutive loss streak and we all discovered the Royals were apparently a fragile team.  I work with an Indian fan and wow is it annoying when he defends Chris Perez, aka one of the biggest jerks in professional sports.  Here’s what Perez said on Twitter on April 14:

@chrisperez54 Huge team win tonight; time for a sweep to tell the Royals it’s not “Our Time”, it’s#TribeTime. P.S. You hit us, we hit you. Period.

April 24:  The 12^th loss of the 12 game losing streak occurred on April 24.  Many fans will point to this streak and complain that the Royals season ended almost before it began.  I have a difficult time arguing against this rather valid point, but still, the Royals fought back to within 4 games by the halfway mark, so I don’t think the streak completely derailed the season, but it certainly threw a gigantic roadblock in the way.

Eric Hosmer's season long slump is another reason the Royals season has gone off the rails. (Credit: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE)

May 16:  Hosmer was under the Mendoza line almost by the time the first week of the season ended.  But most of us thought it was just a rough patch and he would pull out of it by mid-April.  Then we thought he’d be ok by early May, and then we thought for sure by the end of May he’d be swinging the bat well.  We were wrong.  On May 16 in a 4-3 loss to the Orioles, Hosmer walked to the plate 7 times and came away with zero hits, ending the game with a .174 average.  Yost took him out of the lineup the next two days.  By this time, we all knew Hosmer’s slump had become more than just a run of bad luck, and more importantly Ned Yost knew it too.  If any of your players goes through a prolonged slump, it negatively affects the team.  But if the team’s presumed star goes through a slump that so far has lasted for more than half the season, it’s extremely difficult for the team to overcome and could be a cause for that team’s playoff hopes to go off the rails.

June 30:  The Royals had climbed to within 4 games of .500 and were starting to open some eyes across the league.  Then without warning… THUD.  The worst team in baseball, the Minnesota Twins, took both games of a doubleheader from the Royals, and the team hasn’t sniffed .500 ever since.

July 2:  Robinson Cano omits Billy Butler from the home run derby.  I realize that this decision by the liar Cano has nothing to do with the Royals on-field performance, but it says everything about the respect we have across the league – none.  And occasionally, lack of respect can affect your psyche, which impacts your performance, etc., etc.

Which incident do you say was the cause of the Royals season to derail, or do you point to a different event, or a combination of events?  I suppose there are still many games to play during the long baseball season, and as they say, “it’s not over ‘till it’s over.”  But no matter what happens, I know “the Royals will get ‘em next year!”

Everything went great, unless your name was Justin Verlander or Matt Harrison.

The Melkman Delivered. Photo Credit: H. Darr Beiser-USA TODAY Sports via US PRESSWIRE

The National League used two big innings to roll over the AL 8-0, including a five run first inning off of Verlander that included a bases loaded triple by Pablo Sandoval. Harrison started the fourth inning and got two quick outs, but Rafael Furcal hit a soft liner down the right field line that Jose Bautista wasn’t positioned well enough to get to quickly enough and a Matt Holliday single brought in another run. Then Melky Cabrera put a ball into the left field bullpen (for old time’s sake) and made it 8-0.

The AL had some opportunities. In the bottom of the fifth, David Ortiz and Mike Napoli had consecutive one-out singles and Asdrubal walked to load the bases after a ground out by Curtis Granderson, but Ian Kinsler flew out to left field.

The next inning, Mike Trout singled to lead off against R.A. Dickey and promptly stole second base. Mark Trumbo struck out but Paul Konerko was hit by a pitch to put two on for Miguel Cabrera with Billy Butler stepping into the on deck circle. Cabrera grounded into a double play to end the rally, though and the AL left more runners on.

The AL never threatened again.

Melky Cabrera won the MVP by going 2-3 with two runs scored and two driven in and the game’s only homer. Of course, this was his first game in Kauffman Stadium since being traded away to the Giants last winter. It stings just a bit to see him win the MVP Award, but fans were generally appreciative of his All-Star season to this point.

Billy. Photo Credit: H. Darr Beiser-USA TODAY Sports via US PRESSWIRE

Billy Butler got the loudest support as Kansas City’s only All-Star player in the game. Royals fans really embraced him, giving a loud ovation and the look on his face was one of appreciation and humility. Chipper Jones, in his only appearance in Kansas City and last All-Star Game, didn’t even get as loud a response from the crowd.

Butler has always been a reluctant vocal leader despite being the most productive hitter on the team over the last few years. When Robinson Cano stepped to the plate, he was met with some leftover boos from Monday’s Home Run Derby, but also with chants of “Bil-ly But-ler”. Butler’s first steps into the on deck circle in the sixth met with an eruption of cheers.

Fans lived and died with each pitch, and in both of his at bats, Butler got to two strikes and fouled a pitch off. The relief felt by the crowd was palpable. Those kind of moments of fandom don’t come along often.

As a game, it really wasn’t much of a contest. Even though MLB says “it counts”, the game is still an exhibition and you’re still looking for moments. Maybe tonight won’t be like Bo Jackson‘s homer in Anaheim or Cal Ripken‘s homer in his last All-Star Game, but for Kansas City, the thought of about 40,000 people rising together to cheer Billy Butler will be a memorable moment.

July 10, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; American League infielder Robinson Cano (right) of the New York Yankees shakes hands with Billy Butler (left) of the Kansas City Royals before the 2012 MLB All Star Game at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken/USA TODAY Sports via US PRESSWIRE

Trenni Kusnierek hinted at it in her very good article earlier today, but I’d like to expand on it a little bit. We all know now that at the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game Robinson Cano was booed by Royals fans for reneging on his word to put a Royal on the Home Run Derby team. Predictably, the media and fans around the country called Royals fans classless and rude while never understanding the extent of the story—most thought the booing came from Billy Butler’s absence rather than Cano’s lie.

It was nice to see some more well informed journalists point out the national media and fans’ error in blame by making a case that it is more treacherous to be dishonest than to vocalize your displeasure with that dishonesty. But I’d like to point out why the sense of outrage took place, and it’s something that Royals fans are all too familiar with.

Kusnierek points out in her article that if the situation were different perception would be different. If a Royals player had done the same thing to a Philadelphia or New York player in Philidelphia or New York, those fans would have destroyed that Royals player, and the national media wouldn’t have said a word about it. The message the national media and fans were really sending to the Royals faithful with their backlash is “know your place.”

It’s perfectly fine for Phillies fans to be passionate for their team. It’s a crime for the Royals faithful to do the same. Why? Because we’re suppose to be the doormats. Doormats do not speak out about being walked out. They do not protest their role as a cleaner of the feet of the social elite. They do their jobs quietly.

At its essence, this is a conflict about the power structure of Major League Baseball, one that seems to hold the major markets up and the small markets in a position to serve them dutifully. A small part of me wants Kansas City fans to be seen as the bad guys in this drama. It says we no longer accept the role of irrelevant in the baseball culture. To me, those boos voiced the frustration of a culture that continually validates inequity. To me, those Royals fans stand as revolutionaries in a rebellion against all the systemic injustices that helped create 27 years of misery.

One of the standard bearers of this system is dishonesty. Major League Baseball has enacted policies and practices that run contrary to the pronounced goal of an equal playing field and a spirit of honest competition. When Cano voiced his desire to put Butler in the Home Run Derby, he was doing something that felt like a genuine gesture of good will. Going back on that statement amounted to a slap in the face from the rich kid whose dad paid his way through Harvard to the kid working nights to put himself through a state school.

I read people questioning, Did Cano deserve to be booed? My question is what would it say about the Royals nation had they remained silent, suppliant? I’m not sure if Cano is a good dude or not. He may be; he may not be. There’s really no way I can know that.. Everyone in the media seems to think he is because he smiles a lot. I’d smile a lot too if I was a millionaire playing baseball for a living. But he does stand as a representative of the New York Yankees who represent all the worst qualities of Major League Baseball. To simply let him lie to the Royals fan base with no consequences would have been to simply accept a place as a second-class organization meant to serve the interests of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. To that I say, boo away, boo more often, and take the frustration even further.

There are a number of factors in play here:

1) Billy Butler is having a career year while leading the team with 16 homers. He’s displaying the power that fans have expected to see from him for years now (even if they sometimes confuse homers as the only means of having power from time to time).

2) Kansas City fans have taken to Billy Butler. His unofficial nickname (recognized by ESPN, Baseball-Reference and even video games) is “Country Breakfast” and originated on Twitter on a fateful July night last year.

3) Robinson Cano said on two occasions that he’d take a player from Kansas City, the host. Twice. Then he didn’t.

4) Royals fans have always been less than accommodating to Yankees and their fans. Not in an antagonizing way, so much, but in the kind of way that has roots in the rivalry from the late-70s and has also been influenced by the widening gap in payrolls in baseball. New York is the biggest market of big markets. Kansas City is the complete opposite.

Had Cano said nothing about taking a Royal, there wouldn’t be nearly as much vitriol in his direction. Some may have been upset, some may have booed anyway. But there wouldn’t be nearly as many without Cano’s earlier declarations.

In the end, it’s not a very big deal. It’s an exhibition spun off of another exhibition. Nobody has incentives in their contract for the Home Run Derby. It’s fun to watch and impressive to see the massive shots and it would have been nice to see Billy Butler taking some hacks, but ultimately, it’s not the end of the world.

It still stings though. The Royals had multiple players who could have been All-Stars – maybe they weren’t all slam dunk options, but they had the chance. Instead, Butler was the lone representative and worthy of being in the Derby as well.

It’s not even about Mark Trumbo or Prince Fielder or Jose Bautista being selected over Butler. ESPN tried to make that the narrative, but nobody’s saying that that trio shouldn’t be involved. KC fans weren’t upset that any of that group was selected, just that they were selected after Cano said he was going to choose a Royal.

We’re a passionate bunch in Kansas City and in those small moments when we have some kind of spotlight on us (the 2003 mirage, Zack Greinke‘s Cy Young season in 2009, All-Star Weekend), we put all of our chips in the middle of the table. We’re all in. There aren’t as many of us as the mid-80s, but the folks who are still around care. And when we’re spurned, we’re not going to be thrilled about it. I told Ricky Keeler of FanSided’s Yankees site Yanks Go Yard that it’s like “being everyone’s doormat for two decades, then getting snubbed in [our] house.”

Does it really matter? Is Cano going to lose sleep over being booed? Is Butler going to be scarred for being looked over? Doubtful in all cases, but the level of confusion about why fans were booing shouldn’t be confusing at all.

But even in Kauffman Stadium, he’ll just be a spectator in the Home Run Derby on Monday night.

Captain Robinson Cano selected Mark Trumbo of the Angels, Jose Bautista of the Blue Jays and Fielder of the Tigers to join him on the field. It’s hard to argue too hard against any of those choices. Bautista has been a home run machine over the last few years, Trumbo was runner up in the Rookie of the Year vote last season and tied with Mike Moustakas in 2010 for the minor league lead in homers. Fielder has been an MVP candidate multiple times and in a full season, his low mark for homers is 28. Butler’s career high is 21.

That doesn’t stop Butler from being qualified and it doesn’t stop fans from being upset with Cano’s selections. Butler’s numbers justify a spot in the competition. Cano said last month that he would pick a Royal to be in the competition and after Butler was named as a reserve on the AL team it was expected that he’d take part in the derby in front of the hometown crowd.

I wouldn’t blame anyone for booing Cano during such an exhibition.

In the end it may not matter at all. Cano could have been pushed by Major League Baseball to go with someone else as a means of marketing the HR Derby. Maybe it was just lip service to answer a question in the diplomatic way. Would Cano say “no, I’m not taking a Royal”? Doubtful.

Some (like Sam Mellinger) had expressed concern that the different approach to a home run derby would mess with Butler’s swing for the rest of the year. Bobby Abreu entered the 2005 Home Run Derby with 18 homers and won. He only hit 6 the rest of the way and some suggested that he wasn’t making the good contact he was earlier in the year and blamed the derby. I’m not sure if that’s a big concern, because it didn’t give Cano problems last year or most other past winners. Abreu turned 31 years old in 2005 – his slow second half could just as easily be attributed to age. The Derby ended up as a nice excuse, though.

At any rate, Butler will be sitting in the grass at Kauffman Stadium a week from tonight, watching four other American League sluggers deposit baseballs in the fountains and the outfield concourse and threaten the Royals Hall of Fame in left field. He’ll start out on the bench on Tuesday and wait for a shot to get into the game.

Ron Washington should do everything he can to get Butler into the game. All-Star managers aren’t obligated to get every player in to the game, though they typically try. In the case of the hometown selection, it’s a good idea to try to get him in for an at bat and probably two. Royals fans are used to seeing their team overlooked. It’s flyover country, the team hasn’t been a winner very often and in some years, the good players just haven’t been that good. The last time the Royals had two all-stars was 2003. Nearly a decade of expecting just one player to represent Kansas City.

This year, it’s different. Butler is hitting well. He’s recognized as one of the best young hitters in baseball. He’ll get his chance to soak in the applause of the locals.

It just won’t be during the derby.

#CountryBreakfast cleans up at the plate. Photo Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

That noise has diminished a bit in 2012, though. Butler is hitting homers now, and he’s surely headed for a career year in that department. He’s doing this while not changing his approach too much, though he’s striking out more (15.2% vs. 13.7% over his career) and walking less (7.9% vs. 8.8% for his career), but it’s not a drastic change. His overall line sits at .297/.365/.516.

He has 16 homers after one today, his third highest career total but only five off of his career high of 21. Last year, he hit 19 homers. There have been mentions online that Robinson Cano, captain of the American League’s Home Run Derby team might want to choose a Royal and that could easily be Butler. He’s tied for 11th in the AL in homers along with Miguel Cabrera, Trevor Plouffe and Josh Willingham. He’s hit more than Prince Fielder, Mark Teixeira, Paul Konerko and Albert Pujols.

He’s on the way to a great power year.

That got me thinking about past Royals hitters and homers. The franchise is often an easy target since Steve Balboni‘s team record of 36 homers in 1985 is the lowest of all current franchises. The park has a lot to do with that, but there have also been years where Mike Macfarlane, Mark Teahen or John Buck led the team in homers. Butler’s 16 would have been enough to lead the 1969 and 1971 Royals and would have tied him for the 2010 team lead. It’s only July 1.

I dug up a list of Royals players with more homers than Butler at their all-star break. While it’s a nice walk down memory lane, it also demonstrates Butler’s performance this year as one of the best in team history. Notably, Jermaine Dye‘s 2000 was the last time a hitter was voted onto the All-Star team when he launched 22 homers in the first half. Bo Jackson also started in 1989 (famously) after hitting more than 20 homers before the Midsummer Classic.

Interesting note: Balboni at the all-star break in 1985 had just 14 homers. He finished the year with his notorious 36. Gary Gaetti, the closest to catching Balboni, had 17 at the break but had only played in 62 games. He finished with 35.

Butler has a week before the all-star break and has a chance to put himself in the top five of this list.

How close will he get to Balboni? He’s been a good hitter later into the year in the past, so we might be seeing signs of the start of something great. He may just be getting started.

*Through Saturday June 30.

Kings of Kauffman is a proud member of the Baseball Blogger’s Alliance – a website founded to foster community among baseball blogs.  One of the activities we do every year is formally announce an All-Star lineup, compiled from votes by all blogs within the BBA.

This is that ballot for Kings of Kauffman.  Instead of a full roster, top to bottom, we’ll submit a starting American League lineup as our vote.  My rationale behind the choices wasn’t based much on deep regression models and variable ratios or other big mathematical figures.

I just looked at who’s been the best at each position:

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The BBA Press Release follows below. Read on to find out the selections:
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Sure a little bit of the luster has come off with interleague play showcasing National League teams to American League fans and vice versa, but when else do you get such a collection of major league baseball talent in one place for one game?  Only the second week in July (unless you’re Jon Miller and Joe Morgan and it’s a Red Sox/Yankees Sunday night game on ESPN).

Tom, Wally and myself cast our ballots for our 2010 All-Star starting lineups, choosing those who we thought were most deserving of starting the All-Star Game.  So without further adieu…

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