Royals, Looking for Offensive Boost, Turn to George Brett Jeff Roberson/Associated Press George Brett, who had 3,154 hits during his Hall of Fame career, took over as the interim hitting coach for the offensively struggling Royals. Dayton Moore believes it can happen for the Kansas City Royals. He has seen it before. The night the Royals won their only World Series, in 1985, Moore watched from a hillside between Interstate 70 and the ballpark. Down on the field, it was George Brett who lifted the pitcher into his arms after the final out. Moore was 18 then, a fan from Wichita, Kan., and now he is the general manager of the Royals. Last Thursday, on the seventh anniversary of his appointment to the job, he hired Brett as the team's interim hitting coach. It is the Royals" latest shake-up in an effort to revive a franchise that has not been to the postseason since that 1985 title. That is a longer active drought than any other team in baseball, the N.F.L., the N.B.A. or the N.H.L. "I'm confident in our players," Moore said Friday in a telephone interview. I learned in my scouting days that you've got to continue to believe in talent. As long as those talented players are working hard and they care, they will reach their ceiling, whatever that is. I don't know if that means the Hall of Fame. I don't know if that means a perennial All-Star. But they'll reach their potential. Last winter, Moore tried to give his young core a better chance to win by trading outfielder Wil Myers, the Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year, to Tampa Bay in a seven-player deal for starter James Shields. He hired new hitting coaches, Jack Maloof and Andre David, hoping to coax more power from a young lineup. Maloof and David were reassigned last week to the Royals" minor league system. Shields and another new starter, Ervin Santana, have pitched well. But both have losing records, and the Royals had fallen to last place in the American League Central through Friday, largely because the offense has been dreadful. Brett, the Hall of Famer who collected 3,154 hits for the Royals, agreed to be the hitting coach - for a month or so, he said - with Pedro Grifol as an assistant. "I spoke to the players already, tried to evoke some passion that I have for the organization," Brett told reporters in St. Louis on Thursday. I'm scared to death right now, to be honest with you. But I'm looking forward to the challenge. Brett is a vice president in baseball operations for the Royals, but Moore said he had tried for years to give him a significant on-field role. Brett said he would teach the methods of the renowned hitting coach Charley Lau, who turned his career around in 1974, but his main function is more about attitude than technique. Some of the Royals" most promising hitters - catcher Salvador Perez and infielders Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas - are under 25 years old and struggling to produce as expected. "When you're young and trying to do something for the first time, mentally you're going to question yourself," Moore said. When you fail, you wonder if you should continue with something even though you've been successful in the past. I think what George will do is help these young hitters get through some very tough times, mentally. In the last two weeks under Maloof and David, the Royals managed just two homers, both by the veteran backup Miguel Tejada. Through Friday, Hosmer and Perez had one homer apiece, and Moustakas, who had four, was hitting .183. The team did rank last in the A.L. in strikeouts - but also last in homers and tied for last in walks. "Part of the reason we don't walk is that we don't hit home runs; if we hit home runs, pitchers are going to pitch us differently and you get a chance to be a little more selective," Moore said. But the more we talk about home runs as an organization, the less likely they are to come. Now, the most powerful hitting voice in the organization belongs to Brett, who in some ways remains the face of the franchise, all these years after its greatest triumph. Speeding Up the Game