David Glass: Why We All Hate You
Photo by Eric Langhorst, used with permission
Last month, I was privledged enough to participate in “Blog Your Way to the K.” Ironically, I didn’t actually start my blog until this week. I assume I got in through some sort of clerical error.
Be that as it may, I got an opportunity to participate in an interview with Dayton Moore, General Manager of the Kansas City Royals. There were a lot of questions asked of Mr. Moore. He has a very commanding presence. It seems a cliche, but he commands a room. He is short, but all eyes in the room immediately to go him and there is no doubt that he is the man in charge.
I’ll have more to write on our interview with him at a later point. Today’s article is centered around a portion of the conversation we had. A transcript of the discussion (full discussion on MP3 is below) is posted below.
Eric Langhorst, Blogger: “Some Royals fans have the perception that the Glass family, since they’re not as visible, that they really don’t care and are absentee owners. What would be an answer to the fans that would question their….”
David Glass. Walks on Water
Dayton Moore: “Well, Dan lives here. Dan’s here, and Dave’s here quite a bit. They are exceptional people. Exceptional people. Dave Glass, and Sam Mellinger wrote an article, and it was very disappointing, they don’t use all that you give them. And what I said was, and I mean this, Dave Glass loves baseball and is passionate about baseball and knows the history of this game as much as any person I’ve ever met in my life. And one thing about, yes, you own a Major League Baseball team, you have a lot of money. And a lot of owners love the game, but they have huge egos. And a lot of the reasons they own the baseball team, and you’ve seen some of it blown up over the last three or four years in certain cities, it’s because their egos are huge. Our guy doesn’t have an ego. He loves the game. He’s very passionate about the game. I can tell you right now, whether you believe it or not, Baseball right now would be getting a lot of pressure to get out of Kansas City if it weren’t for Dave Glass’s relationship with Bud Selig. He’s one of the most successful men in the history of our country. He cares about people. He’s an exceptional leader. He’s been very supportive of everything we need to do.
Mike Swanson, Vice President, Media Relations for Royals: “I’ll interject here. The president of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Jeff Idolson was here last night and he thinks Dave Glass walks on water. He’s on the Hall of Fame committees in Cooperstown. The respect that he has in a room. And people who live here just don’t see it. Everything that [The Royals Front Office] has needed to do, they’ve been supportive of. It’s just amazing the grief they take, because it’s really unfounded.
Chris Kamler – At this point, I interjected Mike Swanson’s interjection with this question: “Don’t you think that story can be told? We used to look up right around here [referencing that we were physically standing very near the old Kauffman Suite] and see Mr. and Mrs. K waving to the crowd on some nights.”
Swanson: “He’s here, but that’s not his M.O.”
Okay, back to commentary here. The full interview is
Here’s my problem. Let’s assume that David Glass “walks on water” as Swanson suggests the industry believes he does.” Why, then, do we hate David Glass?
Is it simply a matter of PR?
The Kauffmans - Not Waving
By all accounts, Ewing Kauffman was just a tremendous tight-wad. I have been told a story that Mr. Kauffman used to have each employee at Marion Labs come into his office an justify yearly raises thought an extremely stern set of standards.
There are stories about him being extremely frugal with George Brett towards the best years of his career. These stories have been tempered through time and he was never vilified like the Glass family is in Kansas City.
Let’s assume that David Glass is a tremendous leader of Men. Why do we hate him?
Does he simply need to be around more? Wave to the crowd? I only see him on the field during Opening Day ceremonies. Have YOU ever seen him at the park otherwise? Have you even seen him in his backyard at Arvest Ballpark in Northwest Arkansas?
People’s perception, rightly or wrongly, is to be at the wheel, you have to be AT. THE. WHEEL. And to do that you simply need to be seen.
So, to answer my rhetorical question above. Why do we hate you? Simply, because you don’t wave.
I was once told something very important, it’s advice I’d give to David Glass if he really cared about improving his image here in THIS town, it’s reference briefly above:
PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING! It’s reality because it’s what EVERYONE SEES. Like it or not, it is what it is. Now whether he cares about what people think of him or not, is up to him.
Truth be told, most people won’t care if we get a winning ballclub out on the field.
I actually saw David Glass walking the concourse a couple of weekends ago. Of course, the series he was doing it during probably won’t change people’s perceptions of him. It was during the series vs. his boyhood team, the Cardinals.
I just wanted to stop in and wave and say, “Hello!”
Chris, I’m glad you started blogging. Looks like you’re talented enough to do more than be Fake Ned.
With regards to Glass’ lack of public presence, I completely agree insofar as it is detrimental to his image, but I don’t think it’s the only cause of the public’s hate. I think it’s the perception that as long as he’s our team’s owner, we won’t have a winning team. I mean, i’ve heard, on several occasions, interviews with different national baseball writers in which they said exactly that – unless the team is sold, the Kansas City Royals will be a losing team. So I think even if he did wave at us, there might still be a lot of that out there. Unless of course, the writers and experts tell the casual fans otherwise.
If Mr. Glass was never associated with Wal*Mar would we hate him as much? We all think of Wal*Mart and think cheap. If Mr. Glass was part of H&R Block, Sprint, or Cerner would we put him on a higher pedestal instead?
If everything stayed the same, low payroll, under 500 seasons and he was at the K 2-3 times a week would we still hate him?
We dont hate him. We hate losing. We hate struggling. We hate 10-11K crowd sizes. We hate September when we are 15 games out. Someone has to be the scapegoat.