August 16, 200521 yr I'm reading a book I found at my school's library. It hadn't been checked out in 20 years and it isn't published anymore. It called "The George Brett Story" by John Garrity published a season after Brett hit .390. I came to this part of the book where it talks about Charley Lau the Royals hitting coach at the time. Charley Lau's warmth and supportiveness-so at variance with his grim visage and taciturn manner- contrasted appealingly with the relentless criticism of Jack Brett. George felt that the then Royals manager Jack McKeon had little to offer as either a teacher or an authority figure, and his loneliness and fustration were transparent to most of his teammates. Two pages later.... After challenging the Oakland A's for most of the season, the Royals desintegrated in September, plummeting in embarrassment to fifth place, thirteen games off the pace. In the season's wreckage, players brooded over the usual nest of greivances and jealousies that lodge in a ball club. And most of their resentment was directed at the manager, Jack McKeon. Some of the complaints about McKeon were valid, others were self-serving, ignoble attempts to make the manager the scapegoat for the Royals collapse. But the inevitable result of the grumbling was to isolate McKeon and to undermine his authority. It was inevitable, some believed, that in that atmosphere McKeon would become jealous of te loyalty and devotion certain Royals lavished Lau..... It goes on to say how McKeon got so jealous of Lau that 3 games before the season ended he demoted him to the minors. This hurt the team greatly and alienated Jack from his players even more. The Royals' players made it their mission in life to get him canned in 75 and he was in the opening weeks.
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