Trey Hillman is trying.
Oh, there've been plenty of problems with the Royals this season that may or may not delay/cancel a Royals' emergence under the current leadership.
Hillman has been cited as a significant part of those problems, because he's the manager, and also because of a feeling that he's losing/lost the clubhouse.
One of the main things you hear from some is that there's been one set of rules for Jose Guillen, and another for everyone else.
Well, in the last few weeks, maybe longer, Hillman has been a different guy. As Poz wrote in the column linked above, he's been closer to the star manager with enormous potential that Dayton Moore saw and loved and hired in Japan.
So, more or less, that's the context we're working with here.
Then comes last night, when Guillen was in the original lineup, batting third and playing right field.
Shortly before the first pitch, the Royals announced a different lineup, one that didn't include Guillen.
That's just the eighth game he's missed all season. Royals' media relations never announced a reason for Guillen being scratched, because they never heard one.
After the game, Hillman sure seemed to hint at some Guillen drama.
"I just made a late managerial decision to not play him," Hillman said.
When asked if Guillen was hurt, Hillman responded: "I just made a late managerial decision not to play him. The rest of it will stay in house. From me, at least. I just decided it was best not to play him."
Now, at that point, with the background of Guillen's eff-the-fans rant, the babies rant, the sometimes lackadaisical effort on the bases and in the outfield, the mind can't help but connect dots and find controversy.
So then Guillen is reached at home Tuesday night on his cell phone.
"Nothing," he says. "I was just not feeling good. I was sick."
Two or three more times in a short conversation, Guillen insists and assures that nothing's wrong, no drama, he just felt sick so he didn't play.
With how Hillman answered the postgame question, the easy thing to do is figure Guillen's covering something up.
Maybe he is. It certainly would seem strange for Hillman to be mysterious about something that's innocent.
It wouldn't be first time Guillen was a late scratch for something physical, but it would, I believe, be the first time he was a late scratch for something physical without an explanation given.
Either way, Guillen was convincing and sounded genuinely surprised that there'd be any question about why he didn't play.
Lying to cover something up like that is not his M.O. He's never done that.
When it comes to his words, his PR problems have come when he's TOO honest. There's an old line I heard about another ballplayer, his manager said, "He doesn't lie, even when he should." That's Guillen, too.
So now, assuming Guillen really was just sick, Royals fans are left wondering why Hillman answered the postgame questions that way, why he was mysterious, knowing better than anyone the questions it would create.
One thought is that it would benefit his public image among many fans if people thought he stood up to Guillen, but Hillman isn't sinister. For all the faults that some see in him, and we all have faults, nobody will say Hillman doesn't care.
Another thought is that he didn't want to let on to the Mariners that there was anything wrong physically with Guillen, so that the Mariners would need to prepare as if they'd face the Royals' home run and RBI leader.
I guess that's possible, that Hillman simply wanted to keep it quiet in the same way that Mark Mangino and Bill Snyder and Bill Belichick keep injuries or playing status quiet.
That would be a significant departure from baseball culture and the way Hillman has been all year, but it's something.
Maybe Guillen said he was sick and Hillman didn't believe him. Who knows.
(Again, assuming it was just a simple fever and weakness...) All this guessing could've been easily avoided if Hillman just said, "Hosey felt a little sick, he spent most of the game in the trainer's room and we'll re-evaluate tomorrow."
As it stands, it's very possible we would've had another half-day of speculation had Guillen not been reached late last night.
Hillman's made a lot of good adjustments recently, even his critics allow that.
But if he created a potential controversy with his outspoken and highest-paid player when the truth was both easy and innocent, he gave those critics another line on their list of valid complaints.
Then again, maybe Guillen's covering something up. At this point, there's no way to know for certain.
Joe Po's column until it was linked here. Having read it, it seems to me that Hillman was completely blindsided by what a bunch of womanish, pansied cry-babies professional athletes have become in this country.
They STILL talk about being dressed down on the field during spring training? You've got to be kidding me. These guys sucked so bad last year at fundamentals they could pull a golf ball through a garden hose, and they are STILL sulking over getting yelled at in front of some fans 1500 miles from home? And yet they are still so bad the manager has to make a point that their ability to catch POP UPS has improved.
These players, who make gaffe after gaffe, who's highlight reel should have piano music behind it like from the keystone cops, have become a national laughing-stock. They hang their head and can't summon the strength to pull out of a no-hit induced stupor for 12 games. This is a team full of LOSERS who act like they DESERVE to have their bags and water and jocks carried for them, even by their manager. I honest to God don't know how Frank White summons the strength to watch them on a nightly basis.
Other than what I think is reasoned analysis of potential, I don't ever remember posting a bad thing about the Royals. I'm one of those guys who in my childhood hid my radio under my pillow at night so I could listen to the end of the west coast games. I have lived and breathed this team for nearly 40 years.
But this Joe Po column has iced this cake for me. How this group of 20+ a-holes, after the way they have wandered around like a bunch of butt-ugly beauty contestants who think they deserve to win the grand prize, thinks they have the right to get upset when Trey Hillman does anything short of walk out to second base and knee them in the balls is beyond me.
The attitude of the modern athlete is breaking me of sports. And that makes me very sad. Don't be surprised if Trey Hillman pulls a Bobby Valentine. Folks, there's a REASON he's not back in MLB.