Can't They Be Sent Down to AAA -- As a Team?

In case you missed it, the Kansas City Royals, the once-proud franchise of the 1980's, are 10-35 and playing .182 baseball, which has them on track to win 29/30 games this year.

Click here to read about how they blew a 6-0 lead and have lost 13 in a row.

In high school and college baseball and softball, they have the mercy rule, whereby your team wins the game quickly if they're up by 10 runs after a certain point in the game.

In English soccer, they have relegation, which means that if you finish in the bottom 3 in your league, you get relegated to the division below you, which, translated into American baseball parlance, means that you'd get sent to AAA if you had a bad Major League season.

What do we have for the Royals this season? Can we pass a rule permitting them to take greenies, steroids and HGH? Can we cede the entire nation of Cuba over to the Royals and let them sign the entire Cuban national team to help fill their ranks? Can we give them a visa to let them cut a deal with Fidel Castro? Can we give them 2 years exclusive rights to signing players from the Dominican Republic?

Or can we mercy rule their season? They're already 20 games out and it isn't even June 1. That's almost impossible to do, isn't it? Can we say that if they're out 30 by the All-Star break they can call it a season?

Hard times for a once-proud franchise. Remember the days of George Brett, who is a Hall of Famer and was one of the best hitters I have ever seen? Willie Wilson? John Mayberry? Dan Quisenberry? Dennis Leonard? Frank White, the one player who made his way to the big club from the baseball academy the owners started in Kansas City? Darrell Porter? John Wathan? Larry Gura? Mark Gubicza? Bret Saberhagen?

I can't imagine what it must be like to be a Royals' fan (actually, I rooted for the Philadelphia 76ers during the 1972-1973 season, when they finished 9-73, so I do really know -- it's just plum awful). Click here and here to get a taste of what they're saying.

It's not a pretty site.