Royals Rumblings - News for April 4, 2024
4/4/24
Let’s round up the reactions to Tuesday’s landslide election defeat for the Royals:
Less than week ago, even after agreeing to keep Oak Street open, Sherman acknowledged he didn’t know what that meant for a surrounding entertainment district that he said the team isn’t really calling an entertainment district anymore. We still don’t have those details. Even those inclined to be trusting — I’ve maintained this was more about strategical errors than bad faith — were left without a consistent message or reasoning to latch onto. And they faced a vocal opposition, rooted in community groups consistent in messaging for years. That’s another lesson. In the end, voters were asked to chew on mystery meat. And instead they spit it back where it came from and said, Try that again.
A carless experience to see a ballgame is fantastic. But the aesthetic pleasure of a downtown stadium comes at a cost: Live, work and play always results in displacement.
That’s why grassroots opposition to the stadium bill emerged, with Kansas City tenant groups activating dissent and raising concerns about the future of downtown. Team-led “listening sessions” were hard to compete with the urgency of natives seeing their once-affordable city slip away.
As so often happens, listening gave way to hardball. The Chiefs and Royals rolled out the stars – MVP and Royals minority investor Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, young star Bobby Witt Jr. and stalwart Salvador Perez – to implore voters: “We need you.”
Craig Brown at Into the Fountains:
In addition to a citizenry worn down and betrayed by their county leaders on previous tax issues, the Royals and Chiefs themselves played a massive part in this loss. You have a stadium that is regarded around the game as a jewel that the team’s owner wants to demolish. You have self-imposed deadlines that you miss not by days or weeks but by months. You have concrete cancer in one stadium but not the other. You have businesses that will be uprooted from a beloved arts district. You have an incredibly vague Community Benefits Agreement that was delivered late in the process. Here’s the big one: You have billionaires asking for $2 billion in tax money without presenting a coherent plan for what they are going to do with that money.
“Trust us,” they told the electorate of Jackson County.
“Get bent,” the electorate told them back.
That the sales-tax campaign outspent the opposition by as much as a 35-to-1 margin, and still got steamrollered at the polls, is remarkable, and there are plenty of theories as to why:
People hate giving tax money to billionaires. Sure, but that doesn’t stop them from approving ballot measures to do so 58% of the time. For some reason, the usual arguments — it’ll create jobs, you’ll risk losing the teams if you don’t approve this, etc. — didn’t work.
There were too many unknowns. Voters went to the polls with no idea how much more public money might be needed (reportedly $650 million or more just for the Royals) or what kind of guarantees there would be that the teams wouldn’t demand more money a few years down the road or lots of other things. But again, this is a common tactic, and other stadium subsidy referendums have passed despite similar unanswered questions.
As far as what’s happening on the field, Kevin O’Brien breaks down Alec Marsh’s strong start:
Marsh only gave up an average exit velocity of 87.5 MPH on the 18 balls in play he allowed. He also sported a whiff rate of 25% and a CSW of 32% overall, which shows that Marsh wasn’t just overpowering guys but doing an excellent job of “raiding the zone” (further evidenced by the 14 called strikes).
Marsh’s best pitch on Tuesday night proved to be his sweeper.
He generated a 63% whiff rate and a 50% CSW% on 18 pitches. When hitters put the ball in play on the sweeper (only twice), he only allowed an average exit velocity of 71.2 MPH. That’s a recipe for success in the long term, especially if Marsh wants to remain in the rotation.
Mookie Betts is on an absolute tear to start the season.
After a tumultuous past several seasons, Juan Soto is in position to hit free agency this offseason on a high note. ($)
The Pittsburgh Pirates have come out with possibly the most insane hot dog I have ever seen.
Bryon Buxton came very close to being run over by a sausage.
Arkansas holds tough at the top and Nebraska enters the rankings in this week’s college baseball Top 25.
Stars from both the PGA Tour and LIV agree that the current model is driving fans away and is not sustainable.
LSU star Angel Reese declared for the WNBA draft.
The recent downfall of Vice News was largely the result of gross mismanagement at the top.
Potential Tesla customers are increasingly turning away due to CEO Elon Musk’s conduct.
Your song of the day is Acid Rain by Chance the Rapper.