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KC Royals: Fan treatment of Joakim Soria incredibly harsh

By Leigh Oleszczak

KC Royals relief pitcher Joakim Soria (48) hands the ball to manager Ned Yost (right) as he exits the game against the Detroit Tigers in the eighth inning at Kauffman Stadium. The Tigers won 10-7. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports
KC Royals relief pitcher Joakim Soria (48) hands the ball to manager Ned Yost (right) as he exits the game against the Detroit Tigers in the eighth inning at Kauffman Stadium. The Tigers won 10-7. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports /
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The KC Royals were leading 7-6 in Monday’s game against the Tigers. Joakim Soria had a rough day on the mound though, and the Royals ended up losing by a score of 10-7. Fans were not happy.

During the Kansas City Royals‘ “dark years”, one of the best players to don a Royals uniform was Joakim Soria. He was a closer back in those days. A darn good one too, making it to two All-Star games and being one of the few guys on the team that fans would feel good about when his time came to deliver.

After Soria left, the Royals were bad for another season or two, and then the team got good. The fans became spoiled with how good the Royals’ bullpen was during that stretch and a lot of them never expected to have to watch a bad bullpen ever again in Kansas City.

That bullpen pretty much won the KC Royals a World Series in 2015 and when the team brought Joakim Soria back during that following offseason, the thoughts of many fans was that this bullpen would continue to be a shutdown unit.

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Soria failed to deliver that hype in 2016. In his first game back with the Royals, Soria nearly lost it for his team. The rest of the year continued to be a rough one for the former All-Star, as he ended his 2016 campaign with an ERA of 4.05. That’s really bad for a reliever in case you were wondering.

This season had to be a good one for Soria or the fan base would continue to boo him relentlessly. Up until this past weekend, Soria had been untouchable on the mound. He had a sparkling 1.59 ERA and was only behind Scott Alexander in team best ERA (and Alexander hasn’t pitched in weeks… Put that into perspective).

Yet, as soon as Soria had a bad outing, the fans let him hear it. He was booed on Monday night at Kauffman Stadium, which is about as classless as a fan base can get. Soria had ONE bad outing. He had always done what was asked of him in his previous appearances, but Royals Nation is apparently unwilling to forgive him for his 2016 season and will always be holding that against him.

Josh Vernier of 610 Sports radio (tweeted above) had the tweet of the night. His point is spot on too, as Soria didn’t deserve to be booed by his own team’s fans. If you wanted to boo ANYBODY on Monday night, it should have been Jason Hammel, who left after only 4.1 innings and allowed three runs in the process.

Perhaps the newer age of Royals fans still aren’t used to having a “non-elite” bullpen or perhaps they just hate Joakim Soria and will forever. Either way, this whole booing of their own players needs to stop. It’s not a good look at all.

It’s okay to be frustrated with players, but booing them at the stadium is a bad look for the team, for the city, and obviously for the rest of the fans. This hasn’t been a fun season for the KC Royals, but remember… This team was used to losing for nearly three decades before they briefly turned it around for a few seasons and clearly, some fans forgot what it was like to lose.

When a football city suddenly becomes “baseball fans”, this is what the end result is. What a shame.

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