Is John Sherman another Charlie Finley?


Since the Royals entered the league in 1969, the Royals have had three owners: Ewing Kauffman, David Glass and now John Sherman. The Royals were purchased by John Sherman and his group for $1 billion dollars. Glass put the team up for sale due to his failing health, and he would pass away on January 9, 2020 due to pneumonia. Almost immediately after Sherman bought the team, he started to clean house, starting with the firing of Dayton Moore. Following the end of the World Series runs in 2014 and 2015, the Royals had struggled to put a playoff contender on the field but it's only gotten worse since Sherman and company bought the team. 
During an interview in 2022 Sherman told reporters: "The objective is to return to form, to compete for a championship on behalf of our great fans, to be playing meaningful baseball at this time of year. Our objective is to compete consistently and on a sustainable basis.” Unfortunately Royals fans are getting the complete opposite from Sherman, a dumpster fire for a team with maybe a few stars thrown in with Bobby Witt Jr, Salvador Perez and Brady Singer from time to time. While Sherman might be a better person than Charlie Finley, he's still a Finley to the fans and putting a team on the field that can't win a ball game and only focusing on a new ballpark. According to former Kansas City Athletics player and former Royals manger Whitey Herzog, playing under O Finley was a joke: "This is nothing more than a damned sideshow. Winning over here is a joke.” Many Royals fans are probably getting that same vibe from Sherman, and the players could possibly be feeling it too. Kauffman Stadium opened in 1973 after the Royals played their first four seasons at Municipal Stadium. Sherman is hoping to build the new ballpark downtown in the next few years and honestly that's all he seems to care about. Following the sale of the Royals, the Glass family released the following statement about Sherman buying the ballclub: "The decision to sell the Royals was difficult for our family," Glass said in a statement. "Our goal, which I firmly believe we've achieved, was to have someone local, who truly loved the game of baseball and who would be a great steward for this franchise going forward. In John Sherman we have found everything we were looking for in taking ownership of this franchise." According to an article from former Royals beat writer Jeffrey Flanagan regarding Dayton Moore: "I don’t know where that came from,” Sherman said. “There’s been no change to the contract that he has. He has a good contract. I look forward to working with him." Three years later Moore was cut loose by the team.  Shortly after his dismissal from the Royals, former Royals pitcher Chris Young hired him as the Texas Rangers Senior Advisor of Baseball Operations. Both Charlie O Finley and John Sherman made their fortune by themselves like David Glass. Sherman made his fortunes in natural gas in Kansas City. Although Sherman had shares in the Cleveland Indians ownership group, it wasn't a large amount. The firing of Dayton Moore was a surprise to him and maybe a bit of a surprise to fans. The way the Royals are playing currently, it wouldn't surprise me if we see more turnover in the next few years. Hopefully we don't see as much turnover as we did during the O Finley era. According to cityfrequency.com: "Finley would go on to fire lots of managers, make lots of enemies and go on to be one of the most hated owners in all of professional sports." Kind of like with Finley, Sherman doesn’t seem committed to personnel in Dayton Moore even after the reports from John Heyman said: "But John Sherman, from what I understand, knows Dayton Moore well...is an admirer of Dayton Moore, according to league sources. My understanding is that Dayton Moore, once this is approved, will receive a long extension and be there for a long time.” Now in 2023, Sherman doesn't seem to care about winning ball games, but a new ballpark. Sherman told KSHB 41: "When I get up in the morning, I’m thinking a lot more about how we play than where we’re going to play in four or five years from now,”. That sounds pretty similar to what Charlie O Finley said. In an article from Royals Review Max Rieper: "Finley continued to have discussions with Kansas City officials on a new stadium to house the Athletics. A proposed downtown multi-purpose domed stadium was shelved, in part, because Finley did not want to share a facility with the Chiefs. Instead, two stadiums were proposed at an alternate site in the Leeds area at the intersection of I-70 and I-435. In June of 1967, Jackson County voters approved a $102 million bond measure to build the Truman Sports Complex." Now 56 years later, John Sherman is kind of doing the "Finley" like I mentioned earlier in the article and only focusing on a new ballpark instead of putting a competitive team on the field. Hopefully after Sherman gets his new ballpark, he won't be a pain in the neck and let the Royals play good baseball.


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