Trust is Earned

"I just hope people trust that we're doing it the right way. That we're just as impatient as they are in terms of winning. I just hope that they trust it's being handled." –Buddy Bell

Buddy Bell is on to something. And I hope he knows by now that Kansas City hasn't been willing to trust this organization since Ewing Kauffman died because of the way the team has been handled. We've seen multiple changes in philosophies, we've seen relatively few draft choices turn into legitimate major league players—not stars, just players, and we've seen people like Tony Pena become our manager. Our trust level isn't high. But do we trust the latest tandem of Baird and Bell?

The jury is still out on Bell, but his unbelievably embarrassing failure to double-check the line up card the other night doesn't give us a lot of hope. Early on, we heard that Bell was a "baseball man." And it looks like he probably is. He certainly manages more conventionally than Tony Pena did, but I still can't get past the fact that he didn't even know who our players were when he took the position as our new manager. He was a bench coach for a team in our division. How is it possible that he didn't know who our players were? That doesn't sound like a guy who was all that well prepared. But that was the past. Let's see what he does for us in the future.

Regarding Baird—he's dug himself a pretty deep pit. Bad trades, his continuing to stick by Tony Pena when Pena was clearly not the man for the job, and his repeated change of philosophical directions make us wary of trusting him. Throw in the poor handling of players like Ken Harvey and Aaron Guiel, and it turns into something deeper than mistrust. Surely Baird's decision to hire Bell will be his last attempt to turn things around for the Royals to a level of respectability. I can't see the Glass family giving him any more shots.

Speaking of the Glass family, Royals fans don't exactly trust the Glass family either. How can a team owner know his fan base or the community when he lives so far away? How connected does he expect fans to feel to someone who rarely shows up in Kansas City?

So, do we trust current Royals management to turn the club around? I'd like to, but trust is earned. I'd guess that Baird and Bell have two years to earn our trust. I'm willing to give them that long, but they won't get my trust simply by asking for it.