Royals Ban (Then Reinstate) Blogger Over Critical Post

Baseball blogger Rany Jazayerli received less-than-royal treatment from the Kansas City Royals this week, but relations were smoothed between the Baseball Prospectus co-founder and the Major League Baseball club. Jazayerli, a die-hard Royals fan, wrote a post earlier in the week on his Rany on the Royals blog that was sharply critical of longtime Royals trainer Nick Swartz over the team's treatment of outfielder Coco Crisp's shoulder injury. Crisp recently had season-ending surgery on that shoulder. As a result of that post, the Royals cut off his access to the team and threatened any radio show that welcomed Jazayerli as a guest, Deadspin reported. But cooler heads prevailed Friday, as the Royals reversed their decision. Jazayerli's post Thursday read: I was just informed last night that I've been blacklisted by the team. That's right: I've been banned by the Royals! The way this team is playing, I'm not sure if the Royals are trying to punish me or reward me. I don't think I've been "banned" in the sense that they're going to have security guards outside the stadium making sure that I don't buy a ticket. It does mean that the Royals have cut off any access I may have from the team for my radio show, and—this is critical—have intimated that any other radio show which has me on as a guest faces the same penalty. Jazayerli wrote Friday: Thanks to my friends at 810 WHB, it appears that cooler heads have prevailed. The Royals have admitted that their threats to force other radio shows to choose between having me on and having access to the team were made in the heat of the moment. I freely admit that the Royals are well within their rights to snub my radio show if they don't like what I'm saying. But there's a big difference between passively resisting my show and actively trying to sabotage my career. Now that the latter possibility is off the table, we're cool. I don't think I'll be dining with Dayton Moore anytime soon, but I'll get over my disappointment eventually. So let us hope there will be no need to speak of this again. I'm going to take the long weekend to recover, and look forward to making my usual Monday morning appearance on the Border Patrol. And hopefully I'll be back here next week with a new post that calls for someone other than Nick Swartz to lose their job. I'm thinking of going after the PA announcer next. Or maybe the guys who set off the fireworks on Friday nights. They suck. Many thanks to everyone for their support. You never know how many friends you have until you need them, and it turns out I have more than I deserve. And to the Royals: it will take a lot more than this to break my fandom. I wish I knew how to quit you. But I don't.

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Royals Ban (Then Reinstate) Blogger Over Critical Post

David Cohen

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