June of 2006 and one of my first conversations with Dayton Moore he was talking about how little tolerance he had for the kind of losing so common to the organization he had just taken over.
“We won’t finish last,” he said. “And we won’t lose 100 games.”
The Royals did finish last that season, and they lost exactly 100 games, which was actually their best record in three years. You do not need to be reminded just how bad those teams stunk.
But you might need a quick refresher on how valuable those rotten seasons turned out to be.