My mouth should be sore from getting dragged from Twins Lake of Doom to the Royals Boat of Not-So-Much.
I've been a Twins fan all my life but this year, I considered trading my blue and red for light blue. The Twins lost some of my favorite players (Kubel, Cuddyer). The Twins stars (Mauer and Morneau) were big question marks after last year. The Royals were going to be better. The Twins, worse. The Royals would not win the division but they would be contenders. The Royals would win more games than they would lose. And most importantly, the Royals would be juiced by the fact that the All-Star Game is in Kansas City this summer.
In the off-season, all the talk was of how this year's team would be better than the ones before. Much. Better. Yes, there were concerns about pitching. Significant concerns. But the big bats of Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer and Melky Cabrerra...oops, he's gone. Okay, Butler, Gordon, Hosmer and...uh...
Whatever.
I just finished watching the Royals lose their ELEVENTH STRAIGHT GAME. At home. In a row.
I am generally an optimistic person. I look for the bright side. I try to find the silver lining.
It's really, really hard to look forward to seeing the Royals go on the road against the Indians, Twins and Tigers followed by games here against the Yankees and Red Sox.
How did this happen? What is wrong with this team? I honestly have no idea.
I can, however, imagine how Ned Yost feels. Sometimes being the coach of a professional team sucks. Bad.
Being a news director involves lots of skills. Some I am good at. Some not. One skill is coaching. That's not something I'm especially good at. I have to work at it and I fail more often than not. I'm not very patient.
It is difficult to lose day after day after day. The only way out of the abyss is to win. And when you can't remember what that feels like or when it's been a long time since it happened, losing gets easier and easier. Winning gets harder. Harder. And harder.
Continuous negative thinking equals insanity. So the Royals have to battle the negativity/insanity and that's not easy. Especially when the "Our Time" spots are still running rampant on sports radio.
One expert says it's a mind game. Here's some of his advice:
When the team loses:
PRAISE individuals who have played well despite the team losing.
PRAISE particular occasions in games when a player has done something good.
PRAISE players who have tried to continue playing well despite being a lot of goals behind.
PRAISE the individuals who try and encourage the rest of the team to step up a gear even though they are losing.
The other thing to talk to your players about is that they have the ability to put everything right the next week. To think about how they played in this match and what they need to do to put it right in the next match.
Finally explain what went wrong in the game and how with hard work in training they can put it right.
Something to work on. Go Royals!
