By Seth Herrold
It has been pretty fun to be a Kansas City sports fan over the last month or so. Keep in mind neither the Kansas City Chiefs nor the Kansas City Royals have won an actual regular season game in that time frame, but it’s still been exciting over the last month if you are a fan of one or both of Kansas City’s major sports franchises.
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For the first time in a long time the Royals actually have something to back up the spring training hope that comes every year. The Royals are rolling in the Cactus League in Arizona and as I type this story they are 14-2 in 16 games and have a tie with Texas from a charity game that opened the season. Alex Gordon is hitting .516, Mike Moustakas is hitting .455 and Billy Butler is batting .351. That is fun to follow.
Sure, spring training doesn’t count for anything, really, and it’s not the best gauge for seeing how a team will be in the upcoming season. The Los Angeles Angels – with a lineup that will house Mike Trout, Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols, among others – are just 3-11 in spring training. But for all the work the Royals did in the off-season, this sizzling start can only be viewed in a positive light.
Across the parking lot, order has been restored at Arrowhead Stadium… at least on paper. But, like the Royals, what the Chiefs have done in the off-season can only be viewed positively. Fresh off what many called the worst season in the history of the organization, the Chiefs cleaned house: new coach, new general manager, new attitude. Some doubted the Andy Reid hire, but he wasted no time going to work. The Chiefs locked up long term arguably two of the best players on the team in Dwayne Bowe and Dustin Colquitt. The previous regime made doing that seem nearly impossible and alienated some key players in doing so.
Reid was far from done with those signings. He upgraded the quarterbacks from Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn to Alex Smith and Chase Daniel, a monumental replacement to what was far and away the weakest position on the field last year for Kansas City. He also signed some new targets for those quarterbacks to throw to and upgraded some key defensive positions. The Chiefs with the new players and returning talent suddenly look drastically better and this is all before the Chiefs get to select number one overall in the draft. An offensive lineman would be where I put my money and adding the best overall collegiate offensive lineman would shore up that unit quite a bit and help both the running game, which was pretty solid a year ago, and the new-look passing game.
Like the Royals, the Chiefs’ moves have done nothing as far as wins on the field, but you have to feel that same positive feeling about what they have done under Reid. I like the moves the Chiefs have made and I liked the moves the Royals made in their off-season. Apparently David Glass and the Hunt family finally got tired of being laughed at around their respective leagues. Both entities are spending more money than they have in the past and they are spending the money on better payers than they have in the past. Don’t believe me? There was a time when everyone thought it was a big deal that Glass was spending big bucks to bring in Gil Meche. Now he is spending big bucks on James Shields. There is a difference there.
Whether or not these teams succeed in actual meaningful games remains to be seen. I have high hopes that they both will do just that, though. If it’s this much fun when your teams are trying hard and appear destined for good things, just think how fun it will be when they are actually winning.