I was in the middle of a questioning Joe Posnanski's objectivity on the subject of free agency yesterday, based on this blog post where he scolds President Obama for daring to suggest LeBron James should go to the Bulls, but was interrupted by work and had to set my response aside. Then Bill Plaschke beat me to the punch late last night. Bill covers the Obama-as-true-fan angle pretty well, but I think the more interesting spin here is on why Joe Posnanski felt compelled to call out Obama for saying what every sports-minded human being from Chicago has been saying for eight months.
Joe went to great lengths to say that it's not about politics or the propriety of neutrality, but rather that we should empathize with Cleveland and the region's idolatry of their one sports star, and how would we feel if we had to watch our stars leave for greener pastures. This strikes me as a very Kansas City point of view. I would imagine it's been hard on Royals fans to watch their best players of the past..15-20 years (Beltran, Damon) leave at the height of their careers. The last time the Chiefs signed a major free agent was Joe Montana in his twilight. Joe's marking days off the calendar until Greinke's departure.
No wonder Joe sympathizes with Cleveland. Though I wonder how he'd react if the Royals were able to coax, say, Evan Longoria away from the Rays.
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