Rany is banned by the Royals (NOW WITH UPDATE)

One has to wonder, on the heels of the Ibanez fiasco, how much traction this story is going to gain in the MSM as yet another blogger with wild accusations getting his comeuppance - even if Rany is more respected than about 90% of the writers in America.

Not that I disagree with any of that but I can easily see how the story itself could elicit a few snide remarks based on its method of communication (i.e. in blog form) when it gets picked up in the media.

I’m not going to tell anyone how to be or now to be a fan. I guess it’s sort of like being a citizen of a country—every country has its flaws. Can you still be patriotic and acknowledge those flaws? I say yes.

If you’re on Twitter, make sure and use #ranyban.

The level of arrogance/stupidity of Royals ownership is only matched its assessment of player talent:
Joe Posnanski “Kansas City Star”- The Royals and Dayton Moore do like Jeff Francoeur. “The guy’s one of the greatest competitors I’ve ever been around,” Moore says.
As late as last week , the rumor mill of bloggers and MSM have reported the Royals “scouting” Francoeur (although no one expects anything to happen if a trade is tied to Guillen’s contract.)

I am very much on Rany’s side on this one, acknowledge the Royals are acting very poorly, and are an incompetently run organization.

But how an organization treats its media personnel is pretty far down on my priorities on whether or not I am a baseball fan. The Royals could ban all media from saying anything bad about the team and I’ll probably still be a fan. I feel bad for you if your association with your favorite team is so tenuous that it can be jeopardized by how it treats the media.

Now the crappy player on the other hand…yea, that tests me very much.

Max:  it’s not how they treat a member of the media as such. I don’t care if Rany has a press pass or not and no one else really should either.

But it’s not about that. It’s about how negatively they respond to criticism which, in turn, strongly suggests how they go about making important decisions.  Reading his thing and pulling his ticket is evidence of a defensive culture that can’t deal with negativity in a constructive way.  News flash: there’s a lot of negativity re: the Royals right now.  In what other crappy ways are they responding to it?

If a player was signed by the alpha-male scout, is anyone comfortable suggesting he be waived, or is there a culture in the organization that criticism can’t be tolerated?  If Dayton Moore is about to step on his dick and trade for someone who isn’t worth a damn, do his underlings fear speaking up about it?  If the budget for 2010 fails to adequately provide for Latin American player development, does someone midway down the totem pole feel free to point this out?  If the answer to any of these questions is “no” you have a sick organization, and if you have a sick organization, they are never going to be able to deliver to you—the fan—what you want: a winning team.

You can say that those are far-fetched examples, but front offices are smaller than you think, and the same people who decided to pull Rany’s ticket are the same ones who make the important decisions too.

I get what you’re saying Craig, but I couldn’t give a rats ass how they respond to criticism. The Yanks in the late 70s handled the media and criticism worse than any team in baseball but I doubt their fans cared much so long as they were winning Championships.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate how the team handled this, I hate the direction they are going in, and I hate the general dis-organization of the franchise. But I think that was a rather cheap shot to suggest that no thinking person would be a Royals fan. Besides, fandom has very little to do with logic and reasoning (otherwise there would be NO Royals and Pirates fans anymore). Its about allegiance, and as much as I hate the way the Royals handled this, it doesn’t come close to making me abandon my team.

That doesn’t make the situation much better. It certainly wouldn’t speak well for an organization that would ban Rany without knowing who he is. I’m from southern California, and the biggest Royal fans I’ve known are Bill James, Joe Posnanski, Rob Neyer, and Rany Jazayerli. They know it too.

This is the an organization circling the drain, lashing out at all their invisible enemies.

“Which raises the question: In light of this, why on Earth would anyone with a brain continue to be a Royals fan?*”

Oh, you are so banned, Craig…

Royals employees will no longer be allowed to read ShysterBall. Or date anyone named Craig.