KC Royals: Kyle Farnsworth Now Gets Sacks Instead Of Strikeouts

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Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

Does anyone remember former KC Royals reliever Kyle Farnsworth? In a “can you believe what he’s doing now” turn of events, the 39-year-old former Kansas City Royals flamethrower has taken up sacking semi-pro football passers instead of hurling baseballs.

What’s more, Kyle Farnsworth is pretty good at it. The 6’4″ 240-pound defensive end Farnsworth has 11 sacks in 10 games to go with 41 tackles for the Orlando Phantoms, a Florida Football Alliance semi-pro team.

Maybe, Kyle Farnsworth was playing in the wrong half of the Truman Sports Complex. Maybe, he should have been in Arrowhead Stadium all along.

For those of you who have consigned the past into a black hole of bad memories, or who weren’t paying attention at all, Kyle Farnsworth pitched for the KC Royals in 2009 and 2010. His beginning in Kansas City was less than auspicious: on opening day in 2009, Farnsworth blew a 2-1 8th inning lead by giving up a 3-run home run at U.S. Cellular Field.

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Pundits blasted then manager Trey Hillman for bringing Kyle Farnsworth into a high-leverage situation when the reliever had earned a reputation for folding under late-inning pressure as a New York Yankee.

KC Royals super-blogger Rany Jazayerli wrote about 2,000 words detailing just how stupid it was to for Trey Hillman to rely on Kyle Farnsworth as his primary set-up man. [I really recommend clicking on this link, its a window into the recent past when all Royals bloggers had to write about was stupid decisions]

Near the end of his rant, Jazayerli writes a plea that should stand as a memorial for the dark ages Kansas City Royals:

"I’m tired of getting trash-talking text messages from friends who root for the White Sox. I’m tired of losing games that should have been won, wasting performances that should have been celebrated, and starting the season with that pit in my stomach that says, “here we go again,” and it’s still Opening Day. Most of all, I’m tired of watching the Royals shoot themselves in the foot. God knows we have enough of an uphill climb if we want to contend. We can’t control the size of our payroll or the size of our market, but dammit, we can control the quality of our decisions. We can’t outspend our opponents, but is it too much to ask that we outsmart them? Or at least that we don’t outdumb them?"

In 2009, general manager Dayton Moore’s “Process” felt like a bad joke. It seemed like the KC Royals were doomed to NEVER be good again. Five-and-a-half years after Jazayerli wrote the above words, the Kansas City Royals lost game seven of the World Series.

And you know what, having a reliever that you gave a two-year $9 million deal decide he was better at sacking quarterbacks is just the kind of craziness that you expected from the KC Royals in those days.

Next: Kyle Farnsworth's Kansas City Royals Career

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