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Tib · 12-26-2004, 12:34 PM

Chapter 28

"We Got Trouble, Right Here in Kansas City..."

The story of the Knights’ 2007 season is really the story of the arrival of John Grier. However, I must take some time now to fill you in on the Kansas City Knights’ situation as it existed in the early months of the 2007 season. Once I do that you will better understand the importance Grier’s changes and the size of his vision.

Several big developments made a change to Grier possible. The pre-Grier team run by McKinnon and Faraday was very much in transition. Some would probably say it was worse than that; that it was stuck in Limbo, mired in a rut filled with mediocre veterans and unproven youth. Whatever your opinion, the Knights were certainly rudderless, winning one or two here, losing four or five there. There was no pattern to us, no discernable trait that told our critics: “we’re getting it”. There didn’t appear to be a plan for the future. Of course, we young guys could tell there was something there, but it was really just a feeling of camaraderie and of shared struggles to succeed in the cold, unforgiving world of Big League baseball. If there was a plan, no one told us.

Our roles were undefined. McKinnon, for all his skill with veterans, just didn’t react well to the energy of youth. He didn’t know what to do with us. I think we represented an unknown quantity for him. He just couldn’t bring himself to trust in us, especially when his job was on the line. Each day we would slip a little further back, not just in the standings (which was bad enough) but as a team. When that blank lineup sheet stared up at him, Clark McKinnon flinched. McKinnon was a veteran’s manager but the Knights didn’t have enough quality veterans to make a legitimate push for a division title, much less a winning record. But he and Marty Kellinger were tight, so Grier stayed in Santa Fe.

I must say that I liked Clark McKinnon personally. This is not meant to be a harsh criticism of the man. He was professional, knowledgeable and sincere. He was a good baseball man and tactician, but he would not turn down the road less taken. Like a traveler in familiar territory, McKinnon didn’t look around. I think more than anything that was his main shortcoming. Most of all, he was too complacent to notice John Grier coming up fast behind until it was too late. He preferred the known over the unknown.

Speaking of unknown, John Grier’s team didn’t yet exist. It wasn’t on a roster sheet, it was in his mind. It was a team based on theory and potential. It had what McKinnon’s team lacked: constant activity and undeterred focus. It was going to be built on desire and fundamentals and small victories. It was fueled by faith. But to implement it, he had to be in Kansas City. To get to KC, someone had to have faith in his vision.

It wasn’t a question of his skill. He had support. Santa Fe was a decent team, but it wasn’t the team’s performance that caught Faraday’s attention. It was the feedback from the agents of players caught in the Kellinger Shuffle. Only those players could gauge the effectiveness of both Clark McKinnon and John Grier. To a man they preferred Grier. Part of this may be because McKinnon was a vets’ guy and the players in the Shuffle were mostly younger, but the preference was clearly communicated to Faraday. Faraday knew the future lay in youth; with the second lowest payroll in the Bigs he didn’t have much choice. From that moment McKinnon’s days were numbered. But Kellinger and McKinnon were close and that made things difficult. Kellinger protected McKinnon until he couldn’t protect him anymore.

John Grier was 49 years old when he took over the Knights in June of 2007. As a former San Francisco Gulls farmhand (and 4-year veteran outfielder), he had been to the Show. He knew what players went through. He knew what it took to succeed, if only because he played for teams that were not successful. When he went into coaching, he made an immediate impact. In 1996, at the young age of 38, Grier was made manager of the Gulls’ A-ball San Rafael Gladiators. They improved steadily until he left for AA Fresno, where he took many Gladiators with him and led Fresno to three consecutive league titles. Somehow Tom Faraday heard of him. In 2002, he offered Grier the AAA Santa Fe manager’s job and Grier took it. Grier’s wife and family were from Albuquerque.

Grier proved to me that more than anything a manager is a visionary. He alone must assess the potential of his lineup, determine what they can and cannot accomplish and find a combination of existing and emerging talent that will make the vision a reality. It can be a lonely business. He must defend his vision from the impatient. He must convince and re-convince the skeptical. He must persuade his coaches. He must encourage the fans to believe because they won’t come if they don’t care. Most of all, he must inspire his players. I’ve played for realists. Theo Garner was a realist. Lyle Walker was a realist. I was never once inspired by a realist.

It didn’t take long for Grier’s style to make an impact, especially on Marty Kellinger. He and Marty were not going to get along. Kellinger was still bristling over Faraday firing McKinnon himself. He felt the responsibility should have gone to him, as McKinnon’s long time friend, to soften the blow. Also, there was the Ghost Memo controversy.

The Grier Ghost Memo was one of those legendary things that pepper the history of sports teams, corporations or big organizations of any kind. No one has ever seen it, no one is sure how it got out, everyone denies its existence, yet everyone refers to it as if it were real. In this case, upon his arrival in KC, John Grier supposedly wrote a lengthy memo to Marty Kellinger outlining the players he’d like to keep and those he’d like to move before the All-Star Break. Allegedly, this memo was the blueprint for the future success of the Kansas City Knights. I think at one time or another every member of our roster was on the Grier Ghost Memo. I know I’ve been on and off it for years. KC fans still bring it up to me at signings, asking in whispered conspiratorial tones where I keep my copy.

Regardless of the truth of the Memo, Kellinger and Grier began locking heads right away, and Faraday was right in the middle of it. From what I’ve gathered over the years, Grier didn’t like Kellinger’s old boy sensibilities and Kellinger thought Grier was condescending, arrogantly proposing to tell him how to do his job.

Tom Faraday, true to his personality, felt that there was nothing to be gained by looking behind you. “No one ever climbed backward up Mt. Everest,” he used to say. By early-July, Marty Kellinger was no longer VP of Baseball Operations. Whether is was fallout from the many Grier/Kellinger encounters, or the numerous instances of questionable decision-making, Faraday knew he had to take action or the season might be lost to internal bickering and indecision.

Faraday cited several Kellinger moves he thought were directly related (read: a reaction) to Grier’s many requests. Derek Souza was promoted to AAA and released outright a week later. Talented but inconsistent Mike Moore (who Caffey and Grier both wanted) was released as well. On May 4th solid, professional Bill West was on the road with us in Seattle. On the 5th he was released outright. No reassignment, no nothing.

Lance Britt (one of Grier’s “must-haves”, it was said) was openly critical of Kellinger’s methods. He wanted to see the Squires play. “The old Knights can’t defend the kingdom anymore,” he was quoted as saying. He said Kellinger’s constant reassignments were the reason for low morale in the farm system. He was right and the Kansas City press agreed. During the All-Star Break (on July 5th) Kellinger traded Lance Britt to St. Louis for Mark Lieb and Jerry Talbert. Prompted by Britt, the player’s union brought the heat down on Faraday. They had complaints and were willing to take them to the press if something wasn’t done. Faraday also had to fend off angry fans who thought Britt could teach these youngsters a thing or two about how the game used to be played.

In my mind Britt was justified in being upset at the timing of the trade, but he couldn’t have been upset with the results. Lieb was a disaster. Britt’s take-no-prisoners attitude might have worn on everyone, especially on the patience of Ollie Caffey, but it was still better than Lieb’s 85 mph fastball. Lieb pitched from behind the entire time he was with us (which wasn’t long). Caffey thought it was a bad trade but he was overruled. Faraday had had enough. Kellinger was gone on July 6th. Faraday took over VP BOPS.

One last thing about McKinnon/Kellinger – hindsight being 20/20: They may have dealt away our grittiest pitcher and kept youth in chains, but they deserve some credit for plucking Franklin Ward, Rob Saville and Moises Chupp from the free agent pool.

We were 10-16 in April. We were 10-15 in May. We were 5-9 in June before Grier took over and we went on that memorable 11-win run. When McKinnon was fired we were 25-40. In the entire CBA, we were 28th in team batting, 22nd in runs scored and 19th in team ERA. On the eve of the Britt/Lieb trade we were in last place. Okay, we were close to first, but we were still a long way from playing like we should. Thankfully, the Central that year was weak. Even so, like the song goes: we had trouble, right here in Kansas City. Okay, it's really River City in the song, but you get the point.

The first thing Grier did when he came to the team was put two signs up behind his desk. The first read: “A team’s capacity for success is equal to its capacity to learn”. The second read: “Enthusiasm is the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment”. I think that sums up John Grier. I think that’s why we played so hard for him. He convinced us that there was more to success than simple effort, that there was an intangible yet very real force at work when people were committed to a single goal. He convinced us we could harness that force by working together. He didn’t convince us to believe in him, he convinced us to believe in each other. John Grier didn’t make the most of what he was given; he made the most of what we were given.

Mark Twain said all you need to secure success in life is ignorance and confidence. Well, we had that in spades. We were young, talented and completely uncorrupted by the sometimes bitter business of Big League Baseball. In short, as I mentioned before about the Squires, we didn’t have a clue what we were doing but we were having a great time doing it. We were gaining professional experience the hard way; by being thrust into a bad situation and told to excel. Looking back now, it was a good thing we didn’t know anything or Grier’s job might’ve been a lot harder.

January 15th: Chapter 29: The Alchemy of Winning

12-26-2004, 12:34 PM	#356 (permalink)
Tib All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Paso Robles, CA Posts: 887 Thanks: 0 Thanked 14x in 8 posts	Chapter 28 "We Got Trouble, Right Here in Kansas City..." The story of the Knights’ 2007 season is really the story of the arrival of John Grier. However, I must take some time now to fill you in on the Kansas City Knights’ situation as it existed in the early months of the 2007 season. Once I do that you will better understand the importance Grier’s changes and the size of his vision. Several big developments made a change to Grier possible. The pre-Grier team run by McKinnon and Faraday was very much in transition. Some would probably say it was worse than that; that it was stuck in Limbo, mired in a rut filled with mediocre veterans and unproven youth. Whatever your opinion, the Knights were certainly rudderless, winning one or two here, losing four or five there. There was no pattern to us, no discernable trait that told our critics: “we’re getting it”. There didn’t appear to be a plan for the future. Of course, we young guys could tell there was something there, but it was really just a feeling of camaraderie and of shared struggles to succeed in the cold, unforgiving world of Big League baseball. If there was a plan, no one told us. Our roles were undefined. McKinnon, for all his skill with veterans, just didn’t react well to the energy of youth. He didn’t know what to do with us. I think we represented an unknown quantity for him. He just couldn’t bring himself to trust in us, especially when his job was on the line. Each day we would slip a little further back, not just in the standings (which was bad enough) but as a team. When that blank lineup sheet stared up at him, Clark McKinnon flinched. McKinnon was a veteran’s manager but the Knights didn’t have enough quality veterans to make a legitimate push for a division title, much less a winning record. But he and Marty Kellinger were tight, so Grier stayed in Santa Fe. I must say that I liked Clark McKinnon personally. This is not meant to be a harsh criticism of the man. He was professional, knowledgeable and sincere. He was a good baseball man and tactician, but he would not turn down the road less taken. Like a traveler in familiar territory, McKinnon didn’t look around. I think more than anything that was his main shortcoming. Most of all, he was too complacent to notice John Grier coming up fast behind until it was too late. He preferred the known over the unknown. Speaking of unknown, John Grier’s team didn’t yet exist. It wasn’t on a roster sheet, it was in his mind. It was a team based on theory and potential. It had what McKinnon’s team lacked: constant activity and undeterred focus. It was going to be built on desire and fundamentals and small victories. It was fueled by faith. But to implement it, he had to be in Kansas City. To get to KC, someone had to have faith in his vision. It wasn’t a question of his skill. He had support. Santa Fe was a decent team, but it wasn’t the team’s performance that caught Faraday’s attention. It was the feedback from the agents of players caught in the Kellinger Shuffle. Only those players could gauge the effectiveness of both Clark McKinnon and John Grier. To a man they preferred Grier. Part of this may be because McKinnon was a vets’ guy and the players in the Shuffle were mostly younger, but the preference was clearly communicated to Faraday. Faraday knew the future lay in youth; with the second lowest payroll in the Bigs he didn’t have much choice. From that moment McKinnon’s days were numbered. But Kellinger and McKinnon were close and that made things difficult. Kellinger protected McKinnon until he couldn’t protect him anymore. John Grier was 49 years old when he took over the Knights in June of 2007. As a former San Francisco Gulls farmhand (and 4-year veteran outfielder), he had been to the Show. He knew what players went through. He knew what it took to succeed, if only because he played for teams that were not successful. When he went into coaching, he made an immediate impact. In 1996, at the young age of 38, Grier was made manager of the Gulls’ A-ball San Rafael Gladiators. They improved steadily until he left for AA Fresno, where he took many Gladiators with him and led Fresno to three consecutive league titles. Somehow Tom Faraday heard of him. In 2002, he offered Grier the AAA Santa Fe manager’s job and Grier took it. Grier’s wife and family were from Albuquerque. Grier proved to me that more than anything a manager is a visionary. He alone must assess the potential of his lineup, determine what they can and cannot accomplish and find a combination of existing and emerging talent that will make the vision a reality. It can be a lonely business. He must defend his vision from the impatient. He must convince and re-convince the skeptical. He must persuade his coaches. He must encourage the fans to believe because they won’t come if they don’t care. Most of all, he must inspire his players. I’ve played for realists. Theo Garner was a realist. Lyle Walker was a realist. I was never once inspired by a realist. It didn’t take long for Grier’s style to make an impact, especially on Marty Kellinger. He and Marty were not going to get along. Kellinger was still bristling over Faraday firing McKinnon himself. He felt the responsibility should have gone to him, as McKinnon’s long time friend, to soften the blow. Also, there was the Ghost Memo controversy. The Grier Ghost Memo was one of those legendary things that pepper the history of sports teams, corporations or big organizations of any kind. No one has ever seen it, no one is sure how it got out, everyone denies its existence, yet everyone refers to it as if it were real. In this case, upon his arrival in KC, John Grier supposedly wrote a lengthy memo to Marty Kellinger outlining the players he’d like to keep and those he’d like to move before the All-Star Break. Allegedly, this memo was the blueprint for the future success of the Kansas City Knights. I think at one time or another every member of our roster was on the Grier Ghost Memo. I know I’ve been on and off it for years. KC fans still bring it up to me at signings, asking in whispered conspiratorial tones where I keep my copy. Regardless of the truth of the Memo, Kellinger and Grier began locking heads right away, and Faraday was right in the middle of it. From what I’ve gathered over the years, Grier didn’t like Kellinger’s old boy sensibilities and Kellinger thought Grier was condescending, arrogantly proposing to tell him how to do his job. Tom Faraday, true to his personality, felt that there was nothing to be gained by looking behind you. “No one ever climbed backward up Mt. Everest,” he used to say. By early-July, Marty Kellinger was no longer VP of Baseball Operations. Whether is was fallout from the many Grier/Kellinger encounters, or the numerous instances of questionable decision-making, Faraday knew he had to take action or the season might be lost to internal bickering and indecision. Faraday cited several Kellinger moves he thought were directly related (read: a reaction) to Grier’s many requests. Derek Souza was promoted to AAA and released outright a week later. Talented but inconsistent Mike Moore (who Caffey and Grier both wanted) was released as well. On May 4th solid, professional Bill West was on the road with us in Seattle. On the 5th he was released outright. No reassignment, no nothing. Lance Britt (one of Grier’s “must-haves”, it was said) was openly critical of Kellinger’s methods. He wanted to see the Squires play. “The old Knights can’t defend the kingdom anymore,” he was quoted as saying. He said Kellinger’s constant reassignments were the reason for low morale in the farm system. He was right and the Kansas City press agreed. During the All-Star Break (on July 5th) Kellinger traded Lance Britt to St. Louis for Mark Lieb and Jerry Talbert. Prompted by Britt, the player’s union brought the heat down on Faraday. They had complaints and were willing to take them to the press if something wasn’t done. Faraday also had to fend off angry fans who thought Britt could teach these youngsters a thing or two about how the game used to be played. In my mind Britt was justified in being upset at the timing of the trade, but he couldn’t have been upset with the results. Lieb was a disaster. Britt’s take-no-prisoners attitude might have worn on everyone, especially on the patience of Ollie Caffey, but it was still better than Lieb’s 85 mph fastball. Lieb pitched from behind the entire time he was with us (which wasn’t long). Caffey thought it was a bad trade but he was overruled. Faraday had had enough. Kellinger was gone on July 6th. Faraday took over VP BOPS. One last thing about McKinnon/Kellinger – hindsight being 20/20: They may have dealt away our grittiest pitcher and kept youth in chains, but they deserve some credit for plucking Franklin Ward, Rob Saville and Moises Chupp from the free agent pool. We were 10-16 in April. We were 10-15 in May. We were 5-9 in June before Grier took over and we went on that memorable 11-win run. When McKinnon was fired we were 25-40. In the entire CBA, we were 28th in team batting, 22nd in runs scored and 19th in team ERA. On the eve of the Britt/Lieb trade we were in last place. Okay, we were close to first, but we were still a long way from playing like we should. Thankfully, the Central that year was weak. Even so, like the song goes: we had trouble, right here in Kansas City. Okay, it's really River City in the song, but you get the point. The first thing Grier did when he came to the team was put two signs up behind his desk. The first read: “A team’s capacity for success is equal to its capacity to learn”. The second read: “Enthusiasm is the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment”. I think that sums up John Grier. I think that’s why we played so hard for him. He convinced us that there was more to success than simple effort, that there was an intangible yet very real force at work when people were committed to a single goal. He convinced us we could harness that force by working together. He didn’t convince us to believe in him, he convinced us to believe in each other. John Grier didn’t make the most of what he was given; he made the most of what we were given. Mark Twain said all you need to secure success in life is ignorance and confidence. Well, we had that in spades. We were young, talented and completely uncorrupted by the sometimes bitter business of Big League Baseball. In short, as I mentioned before about the Squires, we didn’t have a clue what we were doing but we were having a great time doing it. We were gaining professional experience the hard way; by being thrust into a bad situation and told to excel. Looking back now, it was a good thing we didn’t know anything or Grier’s job might’ve been a lot harder. January 15th: Chapter 29: The Alchemy of Winning Last edited by Tib; 05-02-2010 at 02:06 AM.