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Fansided

The Kansas City Royals have a superiority complex

By Josh Sippie

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The Kansas City Royals are new to the ‘success’ part of baseball. They have returned to relevance over the past couple years after being mired in obscurity for quite some time. As a result, the Blue Boys from Missouri think very highly of themselves. And why shouldn’t they? They lead the American League.

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That is all well and good, but while they have the best record in the Junior Circuit, they also have a serious problem with getting into brawls with other teams over sometimes silly matters. They had some spats with the Chicago White Sox earlier in the year because of Yordano Ventura and his need to jaw at opposing players when they do simple things.

As FoxSports put it, the Kansas City Royals are looking like jerks.

Ventura got into it again with everyone’s favorite player, Mike Trout, for Trout’s audacity to hit the ball back up the middle, which now qualifies as “Hitting at the Pitcher.”

Like I said, silly stuff.

The latest brawl came against the Toronto Blue Jays after a symphony of plunks and chin music filled all of Canada with an array of musical medleys.

The big question is, what has gotten the Kansas City Royals so ticked off?

Blue Jays’ knuckle baller R.A. Dickey sought to offer his opinion, via MLB.com:

"“I think they’re used to pushing people around. So when they come onto the playground and there’s a kid that’s bigger than they are for a day, I think it probably [ticks] them off. And I can’t blame ’em. That’s part of their swagger. That’s part of what makes them good, and they compete hard … You just can’t ever take a moment off against a playoff-caliber team, and they are a playoff-caliber team.”"

Dickey may be on to something here. The Royals are indeed new to being successful and as I mentioned, they probably have a very high opinion of themselves. So to feel threatened for the Kansas City Royals is like when a wild beast feels threatened – it raises some tempers and leads to some fights.

Brawls can be exciting, but that does not mean that as a team, you want to actively seek them. Fist fighting and baseball do not go hand in hand and yet the Royals often times appear more eager to send a message than win with dignity.

The Kansas City Royals need to realize that they have not won anything yet and until they do, this attitude is going to lead to more problems than it is worth. Being new to this kind of situation is permissible but the Astros are rather new to this kind of situation as well and they have created a locker-room nightclub to vent their personalities, not a diamond fight club.

A little sass and confidence never hurt anyone, but throwing fists at an opponent for no good reason did, and the Kansas City Royals really need an attitude check to get a hold on this superiority complex before it really starts getting annoying.

It does not help the team that Royals fans clearly have the same complex, as they were out in force to vote their entire team into the All-Star game, whether they deserved it or not. Needless to say that probably heightened the Royals’ superiority complex.

Again, passion is cool, and loving your team is nice. But you have to be sensible. Neither the Royals players nor their fans have shown too much sensibility this year.

Next: Joe Blanton Dished to Pittsburgh

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