As alluded to in Will's maganimous open thread post, the Royals got some love on ESPN's Baseball Tonight. If you could call it love.

They mostly played up Banny's amazing start. However, they also got several Royals slights in. They mispronounced Soria's name "Joke-im" (he's been in the league a lot longer the Joba, but everybody corrected their pronunciation of his name!). How long has he been closing for us? They also made sure the story of the Royals winning two straight story didn't interfere with the BIG Pedro story. The Royals theft of Bannister is just a subplot with it's own chapter in the story of "What's Wrong With the Mets/Red Sox/Yankees Today."

However, leave it to a former Cardinal to coin this one:  "Trey Hillman has these guys believing that they can win." Vina translated: "The Royals are playing way above their heads, and, by the way, they are losers." Now I have no problem with making note of Hillman's personable, positive managing style. But you can say "Trey Hillman's Royals are buying in to his philosophy," or, "Trey Hillman positive approach is reverberating throughout the clubhouse." But the negative assumption that somehow the Royals will inevitably collapse pervades the mainstream media - and predjudices their coverage - so I don't blame Vina as much as ESPN itself. Vina is just a hack, a jock in a suit.

Hack of the minute, Fernando Vina.

All in all, it was nice for the Royals to get 4:23 of fame, and I'm sure we'll get more tonight (three in a row!)! It will take some work - but the media will come around to loving the Royals as much as we do (but I'll settle for them just being fair).

Without further ado, judge for yourself what they had to say.

shill(shĭl) n. - One who poses as a satisfied customer or an enthusiastic gambler to dupe bystanders into participating in a swindle.

shill·ing v. - To act as a shill.

As was mentioned at the end of the "Baseball Begins Wednesday" diary, our first spring training games is slated to be Webcast on Gameday Audio at MLB.com (run by MLB Advanced Media [MLBAM])

On Friday, our spring training game against the Padres is scheduled to appear in Live Video (I assume anchored by the Padres TV broadcast team). According to the site itself - no blackout restrictions will apply to the game (finally).

For those of you that already have MLB.TV or Gameday Audio, the above serves as a reminder. For those of you who don't, it might serve as a call to action.

For as little as $15, you can grab a yearly subscription to Gameday Audio (great if you're on dial-up) or you can get 1 month of Spring Training MLB.TV and watch and listen to all the games being broadcast. Of course, you could go all in (perhaps with a few friends) and purchase the yearly MLB.TV premium for $120 and guarantee a seat to every game in the majors, with the exception of Los Royales in season if you're within their broadcast territory(blackout restrictions...). </shilling>

There are drawbacks to the service (can't easily watch on your television, broadcast lag, crazy blackout restrictions [good luck Iowa]) - so I don't want you to pad David Glass's pocket book if you don't see value in it.

If you can't tell - I just can't wait for 2:05 CT today.

Have a good day Royals fans!

From the KC Star (buried news):

Royals pitcher Brandon Duckworth was designated for assignment on Wednesday, the corresponding roster move to make room for Brett Tomko.

Duckworth has 10 days to decide but likely will accept the assignment, as choosing free agency would mean walking away from the $600,000 guaranteed major-league contract he signed in December. He will be invited to big-league spring training.

Duckworth, who turned 32 on Wednesday, was 3-5 with a 4.63 ERA in 26 appearances and 46 2/3 innings last year.

The full schedule is out and the Royals have announced price increases on tickets next year, averaging a total 15% increase from last year (KC Star).

We'll go positive, then negative. The Royals schedule looks pretty fair upon first glance. We play 80 games against opponents over .500 in 2007 and 82 under. However, we play every team that made their league's championship series.  With the exception of a brief 3 game Oakland stint in late July (in the middle of two home stands), we play our entire west coast road trip schedule in April and in 8 days.

We don't play the White Sox till June, which I find interesting. May will be a hard month with only one scheduled day off on May 15, splitting two sets of 17 games. We only play LAA five times, the fewest of any AL team. Outside of our division opponents(which we play 18 times), we play Oakland 10 times, the Yankees 9, Seattle 9, and Boston, Baltimore, Texas, and Tampa Bay 8 times. Returning the favor from earlier in June, we'll get St. Louis for a rollicking, stadium packing, and ticket price raising weekend at home in late June.

Which brings us to the negative - ticket prices are going up. I remarked to a friend recently that the Royals are getting better, which I like, but it will mean a more expensive trip to the ballpark, which is definitely negative. However, being drawn to free market economics, I can totally understand why this is being done, and it will probably not effect my behavior. I wouldn't be surprised if the Royals saw a bump in attendance this year regardless of the price. On the whole, it is still the cheapest ticket in town for a professional sporting event (Should I include Wizards soccer? No chance).

Loyal2 will want to know that her Outfield Plaza tickets will go up to $17 this year (from $14), and Dick Cheney will want to know that his tinted-window club box seat will go up to $33. Last year the Royals had 4 premium dates (if I remember correctly) that they charged $7 more than regular price for tickets (Opening Day, Cardinals series). Following the growing trend in baseball, the Royals will have 10 premium dates this year (Yankees, BoSox, and Cardinals) charging $7 extra for the lower bowl and club sections, and $5 for the upper deck. Kevin Uhlich, VP of business operations says that the increases should generate $3 million in additional revenue.

In related news, Uhlich announced that because of the Royals' penchant for perking-up prices, Dodge Buck Night would now become Chrysler Two Buck night, generating an additional $1 million in cold hot dog and dixie cup pepsi revenue. </parody>

The graphic below is pilfered from the KC Star.

I don't know how useful some of this information will be for some of you, but I had it so I thought I'd post it for some of you to enjoy (it's a long off season!).

I enjoyed listening to the post-presser interview with Kietz on 810 WHB and I was just about to upload it (recorded it so I could listen after work)when I found it linked on WHB's site... so here is the Hillman post-presser interview: Link

Unfortunately, I did not get audio of NYRoyal's call to Kietz or I would have posted it.

For those that missed the press conference entirely, here is the Royals site video: Link

I found both interesting and ultimately encouraging... the "stats" comments were great.

And finally OT: Can I suggest a new feature on the site, how 'bout a NYRoyal / Billex Gordler point/counterpoint every week on a new topic? I do enjoy the banter, it's sort of like PTI for RR. It could only get better if jmoney42 was back in the fray. Wait a sec, maybe not.

Since I'm a relatively new Royals fan (est. 2004), I can't comment on his World Series run with the Royals. However, we hear about Shuerholz all the time in relationship to GMDM.

On Talking Chop, Royals Review's second cousin once removed, the following was posted:

I thought Cox would retire before him.  Whats Wren look like I don't know that much about him.  Wish we could get Dayton Moore.

That speaks volumes.

The Kansas City Royals have announced that Panera Bread ended their partnership with the ballclub effective immediately. They will no longer be honoring the Baker's Dozen promotion when the Royals get 13 hits at home.

IMHO - What a bunch of snobs!!! They can come in, garner big publicity (we don't know the extent of their deal, but imagine free commercials on RSTN and RRN, plus stadium advertising) and then cut and run because they don't like the clientele the Royals are delivering.

Friday, April 20, the Royals crossed the 13 hit threshold with an announced attendance of 31,813 (the infamous walk-up crowd game). Someone at Panera didn't do the math - that's 413,569 bagels. They reportedly gave out around 100,000. A friend went to try and redeem them, and there was a line outside of the building. I imagine there are many stories like mine.

Anyway, just thought you'd like to know ... oh ... and the old name of Panera Bread.... St. Louis Bread Company.

Continue reading this post »

Just got off the phone with the nice but concise Royals phone operator. Here are some particulars that I thought might be of interest:

Opening Day, April 2, 2007 Your Kansas City Royals vs. the Boston Red Sox

9:00 AM - Parking lot opens
11:00 AM - 810 WHB starts broadcasting from the K
12:00 PM - Live reports from all local news stations
1:00 PM  - Gates open to the K, get a free magnet calendar, the first 20,000 get a free Rally Bandana
1:18 PM- Alex Gordon crushes his first homerun in Major League BP at the K (just kidding, it'll be his 10th)
1:42 PM - Half the people in the stadium have the bandana wrapped around their heads like a do-rag

And now in all seriousness

2:27 PM - Official opening ceremonies start to include:
Recognition of Denny Matthews as 2007 Ford C. Frick Award Winner (HOF induction)
Clark Hunt and Warren O'Neil throw out first pitches in memory of Lamar Hunt and Buck O'Neil
Grudzielanek receives his Gold Glove
REO Speedwagon performs the National Anthem along with a B-2 flyover
3:10 PM - First Pitch
3:12 PM - Meche strikes out Julio Lugo to open the season with his soon-to-be famous curveball

So what are you doing Opening Day?