Kansas City Royals: KC Mayor on John Sherman: “He likes to win”

Potential new Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman received high praise from the city’s former Mayor. He would be a perfect fit going forward.

On Tuesday we learned that Kansas City Royals owner David Glass is in discussions to sell the team to a group led by Kansas City’s own, John Sherman. Currently serving the role as the vice-chairman of the Cleveland Indians, Sherman would have to divest himself from the Indians prior to purchasing the Royals.

Not long after the news broke, former Kansas City Mayor Sly James tweeted out a personal endorsement of Sherman in that the Royals would be getting “a hell of a guy”. Alec Lewis of The Athletic ($) recently published a Q&A article with the former Mayor.

The Q&A began with James’ initial reaction to the news and ventured into more in-depth questions. However, the last question and response are what every Kansas City Royals fan should and would want to hear:

"“If this sale occurs, (Glass) would be selling the team to a guy who is dedicated to baseball; who is a partial owner of a team already; who lives right here in Kansas City; and who loves the city….And he likes to win.”"

The difficult part of new ownership is the unknown. People like to believe that change will be for the better but the grass isn’t always greener. However, that last line from Sherman should have Royals fans on board with new ownership. Stated prior, I really like that Sherman is from the area so that alone should be reason enough for him to want to see the team win, after having just four winning seasons in 19 years under Glass.

The Royals did win the World Series in 2015 and made it there in 2014, but outside of those two seasons, it’s been pretty abysmal. My hope is that Sherman would want to erase the small market narrative with the Royals and make them a perennial competitor, or at the very least, not a complete embarrassment.

Being active in the free-agent market, making moves at the trade deadline, keeping the farm system stocked, and not pinching pennies or erasing payroll should all be Sherman’s MO. While nothing is final, it appears that David Glass’ days of being the owner of the Kansas City Royals are numbered, and probably for the better of this franchise long-term.