Watching KC Royals like watching Weekend at Bernie’s – with Bernie
By Joel Wagler
The KC Royals have had a disappointing two weeks to start the 2020 season.
With only a 60-game schedule to navigate, in which anything might happen, KC Royals‘ fan held onto a slim hope their team might be the surprise. Alas, it hasn’t started out that way.
Thursday night’s game notwithstanding, when they pounded the Chicago Cubs (finally) 13-2, the Royals are 4-10. The dismantling of the Cubs ended a painful six-game losing streak and a stretch where they won just once in nine tries.
Watching them on television was beginning to feel a lot like a Weekend at Bernie’s.
For those unfamiliar with this 1989 comedy, here is the thin plotline in a nutshell. A rich dude invites two employees who discover some shady business records at work, to spend the weekend at the boss’s beach house. We’ll skip to the point where the two younger men arrive at the beach house to find their boss dead, murdered.
To make a long story short, the two decide to pretend Bernie is still alive as guests arrive for a party. They think if they will be implicated if the police are called so they continue their macabre charade while trying to find the killer, who thinks Bernie is still alive and is trying his finish the job.
Shenanigans ensue. The two guys spend the weekend maintaining the ghoulish facade by managing Bernie like some kind of gruesome puppet to make people think he was still alive.
So, how does all of this tie into the Royals? In the nineties, Weekend at Bernie’s got a nice shoutout on the TV show, Friends, when it was revealed the Weekend at Bernie’s was Rachel’s secret favorite movie.
Last night, this showed up on Facebook, on an account called Slam Cummingham.
Posted by Slam Cunningham on Thursday, August 6, 2020
The Royals were obviously having some fun with their cutouts, placing Bernie (middle with the sunglasses) behind the plate at Kauffman Stadium. Bernie’s face kind of expresses the feeling of all Kansas City Royals fans right now.
Not everything is bad with the KC Royals
Setting all jests aside, while the season has been painful so far, there have been some bright spots. Whit Merrifield continues to be Whit Merrifield, hitting .298 with a .906 OPS. He has four homers and 11 runs batted in. Jorge Soler, Maikel Franco, and Adalberto Mondesi are all showing recent signs of life, unlike our friend Bernie.
The career debuts of pitchers Brady Singer and Kris Bubic give fans hope for the future. Both showed signs of inexperience but the positives far outweigh the negative in their performances thus far.
It was always unlikely the Royals would be competitive in 2020, whether they played 60 games or 162. This season was all going to be about player development anyway. Still, sometimes it can be hard to watch unless you’re as cool as Bernie still is after all these years.