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

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Farnsworth pitched for KC Royals bullpens where his 97-mile-an-hour heat was unusual. Without a blizzard of five fireballing relievers like Ned Yost has today, then Kansas City Royals manager Trey Hillman kept giving Farnsworth set-up chances in front of closer Joakim Soria.

And, in 2009, Farnsworth usually disappointed. He finished the season with two blown saves and a 5.30 ERA. SI.com’s Tim Marchman said this about signing Kyle Farnsworth after the season:

They [the Royals] pay too much for terrible players like relief pitcher Kyle Farnsworth and shortstop Yunieski Betancourt and are then mystified when their team is terrible.

Kyle Farnsworth turned it around in 2010, starting the season as the garbage man but then becoming trusted to pitch in tighter games. He finished with a 2.62 ERA and seven holds out of nine save situations, before getting traded to Atlanta.

Of course, Farnsworth then went on to have the best season of his career in 2011 for Tampa Bay, where he became the closer and racked up 25 saves to go with a 2.18 ERA. Giving up on a guy just before he had a career year was pretty much par for the course in Kansas City five years ago.

Farnsworth then went on to pitch for three playoff teams in four seasons: Atlanta, Tampa Bay, and Pittsburgh. It felt like the Baseball Gods were laughing at Kansas City.

Kyle Farnsworth hung on in the major leagues into 2014, before retiring this winter. He earned a tidy $37.9 million over his 16-year career.

Then, for some reason, he decided to play semi-pro football at age 39.

Next: Kyle Farnsworth Decides To Play Football

Does this four-eyed geek look like a meat-eating football wanna be? Mandatory Credit: Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports

Orlando Phantoms coach Michael Torres told the story of Kyle Farnsworth joining his roster this way to the Detroit Free Press:

“I called him, just like I called everybody that registered, to find out if they’ve played football before, that kind of thing,” Torres said. “He acted like he was just some random guy out of the blue. So I told him about the tryout, and we went from there, and he definitely earned his spot.” “Our quarterback, Josh Rose, he used to play baseball, so he kind of knew the name, but he told me that he heard it and figured there was no way it was the same guy,” Torres said. “It was really only one of my coaches, Chris Barlow, myself, (offensive lineman) Steve (Cospito), one of my linebackers, Michael Boudreau, and that’s it.” “The dude is a great defensive end, and that’s the funny part,” Torres said. “He’s very rangy, he’s got some motor and he’s got the attitude. He comes to practice, he does his stuff, he’s very professional — and I expected that.

It’s surprising enough that a retired professional athlete didn’t get enough competition in 16 years of marjor-league baseball that he needed to scratch his football itch at age 39—especially a guy that risks breaking his neck when he already has $37 million.

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