Lowly Royals sinking to record depths

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- As losses pile up and anguish deepens, the Kansas City Royals are learning to hate the word "pace."

Just eight weeks into the season, people are poking fun at the 11-35 Royals and calculating that they are on pace to eclipse the 1962 New York Mets as baseball's worst-ever team.

That bunch, with Casey Stengel bawling, "Can't anybody here play this game?" lost 120. The injury-riddled, talent-impoverished Royals, should they continue their bumbling ways, could easily do worse.

"That's something we don't ever think about," said catcher John Buck.

"It's something we never talk about."

Nevertheless, a blown 6-0 lead Thursday resulted in a 13-8 setback to Detroit and stretched Kansas City's losing streak to 13 straight. The team then headed for the road, where the Royals were 2-20 and on, well, pace to set even more standards for futility.

The Royals started that 10-game trip Friday in Yankee Stadium with a 7-6 win that came only after a rain delay of 1 hour, 48 minutes. In their previous 14 games at Yankee Stadium, the Royals had been 0-14.

Only the 1988 Orioles, '32 Red Sox and '04 Senators had a worse record (9-36) after 45 games than the Royals, who have already seen an outfielder play a fly ball off his cheekbone and a catcher charged with a passed ball on a pitchout.

The Royals knew, too, that even though an unexpected victory in Yankee Stadium would end the losing skid, it would not change the long-term picture of an operation that has become a national laughingstock.

It's an especially humbling experience for someone like Doug Mientkiewicz, who signed a free agent contract this year and could not be blamed for wondering where he landed. Just 19 months ago, the veteran first baseman was making the last putout for Boston in the World Series.

Now the danger looms that he could forever be linked with the worst major league team that ever put bat to ball -- or at least flailed wildly at one.

"It comes to a point when you've got to look yourself in the mirror and say, 'This is unacceptable,"' Mientkiewicz said recently. "You're not supposed to be a sideshow."

The team has been as unlucky as it has been unskilled. The season had hardly begun before the disabled list captured the team's closer, leadoff batter, best run-producer and most promising starting pitcher.

Owner David Glass' penny-pinching reputation can't be blamed for all the troubles.

Glass shelled out $9.5 million this year for free agent starters Joe Mays, Mark Redman and Scott Elarton. But the collective result at the end of Kansas City's 0-7 home stand Sunday was an 0-13 record and 6.50 ERA.

Predictably, dissension is beginning to show. Elarton last week called out some of his unnamed teammates, accusing them of not caring whether they won or lost.

Manager Buddy Bell the next day said he agreed.

But the day after that, embattled general manager Allard Baird stood within earshot of his manager and took issue with Bell's comments.

"If there were any players on this team who didn't care, we would get them out of here immediately," he said. "They do care."

Actually, Baird is the one likely on the way out. On May 5, an exasperated Glass vowed that "significant changes" were on the way.

"I'm not willing for us to sit and wait to see if it gets better," he declared.

From the day he said that through consecutive loss No. 13, the Royals had gone 3-15. The firing of the hitting coach has been the most significant change.

"It's just a vicious cycle," said Elarton. "And we're stuck in it."