The selfish Royals baseball players are America in a nutshell
When my 'personal decisions' screw up our team's efforts to win
Let’s talk baseball.
I know that’s probably not why you read me, and that’s absolutely fair. I’m a casual fan, at best, somebody who occasionally likes to sit on the front porch with the sound of the game on the radio, but who often forgets to pay attention to my team. Which is probably understandable since my team is the Royals.
In my defense: My first real baseball memory is becoming aware of George Brett during his run at .400 in the summer of 1980. I was 12 when the team won the World Series — finally — after a number of failed playoff runs. I pretended to be Bret Saberhagen in the backyard. The Royals became disastrous about the time I became an adult, and (with a couple of exceptions) have been mostly terrible ever since.
They’re in last place again this year.
Which is painful enough. But this is even worse:
KANSAS CITY -- The Royals will be without 10 regular players for their four-game series in Toronto beginning Thursday because they are not vaccinated against COVID-19, which is required before entering Canada.
Infielders Whit Merrifield and Hunter Dozier; outfielders Andrew Benintendi, Michael A. Taylor and Kyle Isbel; catchers MJ Melendez and Cam Gallagher; starting pitchers Brad Keller and Brady Singer; and reliever Dylan Coleman were placed on the restricted list, meaning they will lose pay and service time for four days, the club announced Wednesday. The Royals will also be without some coaches, although names were not revealed Wednesday.
And why isn’t a giant chunk of the team vaccinated?
“It was a personal decision, and I’m going to leave it at that,” Benintendi said.
Oh. Well then.
Except no, not well then. Benintendi’s personal decision is having collective consequences. Because he — and nine of his teammates — can’t play, the Royals probably will lose this weekend’s games. It’ll be a miracle if they grab a game. I’ll rethink my relationship to organized religion if they even manage a split.
And not to put too fine a point on it: The job of all these guys is to help the team win. They can’t even do it when they show up for work. How well can they do it when they choose to go absent?
Listen: I believe in personal freedom. I believe in individual liberty. And I strongly believe that people have the right to make some decisions I find reprehensible, without being penalized for it by the force of law.
But…
The Royals’ situation is really America in a nutshell, isn’t it?
My personal decisions are the holy and sacrosanct, to be worshipped and respected and defended even if doing so puts our collective enterprise at risk. If that means the team loses, or that a teammate gets sick, well, that’s not my problem is it?
We’ve seen this playout over the last two years, of course, with folks who refused to mask up or get vaccines — people whose insistence on their personal decisions amounted to blatant disregard of the well-being of their neighbors’ well-being. But it’s not just the pandemic. The “me” versus “we” is one of the biggest fault lines in American politics.
The “me” people are winning. We aren’t.
Odds and ends
Whatever the justification, Republicans have repeatedly sent the message that being a minimally decent person matters much less than being on their team. And the party’s voters have happily gone along. So Greitens’ Republican opponents probably aren’t really too concerned about his behavior. But they’re worried that Missouri voters will care in November, and that they’ll lose Blunt’s seat as a result. Putting a problematic man in office? Who cares? The real sin is giving Democrats an opportunity to win.