On this week’s Joy of Baseball podcast, we talk with the incredible Lowell Ganz, co-writer of the best baseball movie ever made, A League of Their Own, along with a bunch of other amazing things. Lowell talks about his doomed love of the Mets, answers a bunch of questions about ALOTO (including the big question), tells us how he created Laverne and Shirley by accident, and takes on a challenge from Tom Hanks. So much fun.
Bob Boone died on Tuesday. He was 78. He was an All-Star player, a two-time big-league manager, and he worked in the Washington Nationals front office for more than 15 years. The Nationals give out an annual award, the Bob Boone Award, to the minor leaguer who “best demonstrates the professionalism, leadership, loyalty, passion, selflessness, durability, determination, and work ethic required to play the game the Washington Nationals way.”
When I arrived in Kansas City in October 1996 to write for The Kansas City Star, it quickly became clear to me that the least popular person in town was Bob Boone. He had just finished his second season as Royals manager. Those were both losing seasons, yes, but looking back, they were not terrible seasons. The Royals were almost .500 in his first year, and they went 76-86 in his second. Much, much worse was to come.
So, why the utter disdain? Part of it was this: in 1996, Kansas City fans still saw their team as elite. The 20 years leading up to Bob Boone were filled with glory, pennants, a World Series parade, and a whole lot of winning. From 1974 to 1994, the Royals won 1,740 games. Only the Yankees and Red Sox in the American League won more.
Boone’s back-to-back losing seasons were the first time that happened to the Royals since the team’s first two years in existence.
So, yes, Kansas City fans had little tolerance for failure then. Even so, the dislike for Bob Boone seemed to go way beyond a couple of losing seasons. There was an intensity to it that didn’t quite add up. Kansas City is a friendly town. People generally like people. I couldn’t quite understand why there was such impassioned loathing.
That is, until I asked him:
“They’ll like me if we win,” he said curtly.