Temporary Insanity for Wathan : Baseball: Kansas City manager keeps saying his team will snap out of its doldrums any time now. He’s still waiting.

George Brett played right field for the Kansas City Royals Saturday for the first time in seven years.

“It’s a temporary thing,” Royals Manager John Wathan explained patiently. It gets trying for a bright man having to explain these things so often, even if it is to himself.

“I’m not hurt; I’m no longer the second baseman,” Frank White said, replaced in the box score by “Shmprt” after a long and distinguished career.

“It’s a temporary thing,” Wathan explained.

And Bo Jackson, who is no Willie Wilson in center field and has more errors (5) than home runs (4), played center. Wilson, the center fielder in the best of times, did not start -- day game after a night game -- but when Wilson played Friday night, he was in left field.

Of course, it’s all a temporary thing. It’s too early in the season for a manager in such a stable organization to conclude it’s too late in the careers of very good players. The most difficult decision a manager ever has to make is concluding when an outstanding player can’t do it anymore. Brett, Wilson and White have been the heartbeat keeping the Royals in contention for nearly 15 years.

Those -- and the departed and lamented wit Dan Quisenberry -- are the players who made the organization decide that it was better to keep what it had than to shop the market. They got lifetime contracts.

Then this team broke its own promise and went chest-deep into the free-agent market in order to get from last season’s 92 wins to 100, or one more than Oakland. This is the team that plays in the smallest market in the major leagues but has the biggest payroll. It has 10 players being paid at least a million.

Ewing Kauffman bought controlling interest back from Avron Fogelman and now has put the team on the market. “If anybody has the finances to buy it,” Wathan said.

They added Mark Davis, last year’s National League Cy Young whiz of the bullpen, to their own Cy Young winner, Bret Saberhagen. And added Storm Davis to Saberhagen and Mark Gubicza in the starting rotation.

Around the Royals, they tell the story of last week’s game against the Boston Red Sox when Mark Davis relieved with the score 3-3 and the ever-patient hometown fans booed. Before the inning was closed, the Red Sox had a two-run lead and Davis had thrown his best fastball to first base, handcuffing Brett.

“If he threw like that to the plate, he’d be unhittable,” Brett said.

And here they are with the worst record in the big leagues. Now Davis, who blew only four of 48 save opportunities last season for the San Diego Padres, already has blown four of 13 -- and although the two-run homer he gave up Saturday was not the losing blow, that dodges the point. Wathan has slid Davis back a half-notch to share the closing role. “It’s a temporary thing,” Wathan said. Of course.

“It’s been a confidence thing,” Wathan said. “He’s trying to come over and prove he’s worth the money. It plays on his mind. He’s trying to do more than he’s capable of, which is what got him that contract.”

Wathan admits to losing a little confidence in Davis as well. But that’s a temporary thing. “He’s still going to be in the same spots,” the manager said. “It’s a kind of feeling I have to have.”

Even Catfish Hunter, with the best credentials around, felt pressure to justify the money he got from the New York Yankees as the first of their free agents. Saberhagen said that he felt that after the first of his two Cy Youngs.

Wathan anticipated some of this and wrote them all a letter in January warning them not to grab onto all of the hype. “Not like this,” he said.

Who could believe this? Brett points out that if we’d all been in France drinking wine and eating and came home to read Sunday’s paper, we’d ask, “Damn, what happened to the Royals?” And if the answer was that Mark Davis had pitched poorly, the other Davis is 1-4, and Saberhagen and Gubicza were a combined 4-7, the honesty of the reply would be questioned. “You’d say, ‘Bull!”’ Brett said.

But then again, tunnel vision is the most natural thing for a hitter with Hall of Fame confidence.

The manager must be all-seeing. “We haven’t been swinging the way we’re capable of; we haven’t been pitching the way we’re capable of,” Wathan said. “If you don’t do that, you’re probably going to lose.” The team earned-run average is 12th out of 14 in the league; offensively, the team is 12th in scoring and last in home runs.

Brett, the last major-leaguer to flirt seriously with .400, went into Saturday’s game batting .229 and has yet to hit his first home run. It’s been 10 years since he hit .390.

He’s temporarily in right field because Gerald Perry is hitting a little bit, and he plays first base. “I’ve seen George off to slow starts; it’s just a matter of time,” Wathan said. “He hit .235 for the first half last year and over .300 the second half; he hit .285 and had 80 RBI.”

Except at some point they all stop. Bad years often begin with a bad six weeks, and careers usually end on bad years. “That’s certainly not the case with him,” Wathan said. “He’s still got a lot more left. I know George; I know his swing.”

The Royals are in transition at just the wrong time. “It’s the start (of the season),” Wathan said. “It’s a long way to the finish.

“The manager’s job is to keep the guys pepped up, to fight things through,” he said. Then he becomes a husband and father, he said. He does not take the losses home, he said.

He recalled that the 1977 Royals won 15 in a row, lost one and won the next 10 -- all in September. “Oakland might not win 100,” he said. “Maybe 95 will take it. Maybe 92.”

Meanwhile, he makes the moves he says are temporary. “Who else you going to put out there?” Wathan said, meaning right field or second base or anywhere. “You go with the guys who got you here. There’s only so many moves you can make.”

And then he had to be restrained after Terry Cooney called Steve Sax safe with the winning run in the 11th inning. One more loss not to take home.