WELL, THAT WAS QUICK

Hope you enjoyed the 2010 Royals' baseball season. All 6 innings of it.

Ah, it's been a long 5+ months without the ineptitude of Royals' baseball to enjoy. So it was nice of them to quickly get back to business on Opening Day: a dropped infield fly with 2 outs to allow a run to score, sacrifice bunting in the bottom of the first, a total bullpen implosion following a very good start by Zack Greinke, and a moronic decision by the third base coach.

Yep, the Boys in Blue picked up right where they left off last year. Which isn't surprising, given that Dayton Moore did nothing to improve the club over the offseason.

So it looks like it's time for another fan ultimatum. If we remember correctly, the last one of these we did was when we demanded Angel Berroa's disassociation with the organization. It's pretty simple: we make a few demands, and we don't buy any tickets to see the Royals until those demands are met. This is definitely the earliest we've had to issue a fan ultimatum, however...as we write this, the Royals are batting in the bottom of the 9th of their first game.

Here are the demands:

* Kila Ka'aihue is called up to the big league club.
* Dave Owen is relieved of his duties as third-base coach.
* Jose Guillen is DFA'd immediately upon his first bad-attitude episode of the year.

We're only asking that one of these conditions be met. We just want to see one, single sign that the Royals are actually committed to improvement and accountability. We see one of the above, or a similar move that demonstrates an actual concern with winning baseball games, and we'll start buying tickets again.

Otherwise, we'll be content to dedicate our resources to watching actual major league baseball. We hear there's a sweet deal running on MLB Extra Innings right now.

THE BEST DAY OF THE YEAR

Tomorrow, the sport that gets us through the dark, cold days of winter hands off the sports pages and channels to the sport that helps us celebrate summer.

Across America, fans take the afternoon off to sit in chilly but optimist-filled ballparks as the long marathon to the October Classic begins. And once they've returned home, they find a television and tune in to watch the culmination of the best championship event in American sports.

It's the best day of the sports year. Enjoy it.