That George Brett’s words carry so much weight speaks badly of the team he professes to support.

Mr. Brett had everything a sports hero needed: a marvelous camera presence, a toughness that kept him on the field despite injuries and a sense of sporting drama that made him excel in big games. Beyond that, he had a sweet swing at the plate, an unflappable nature in the field and a serious passion for his work.

His popularity continues unabated.

Trouble is, teams that depend on the same heroes are like farmers that harvest the same crop. The yield suffers without new seeding.

To use as example the cross-state Cardinals, heroism spawned of the Stan Musial years bled into the Lou Brock-Bob Gibson era, which turned later into the Ozzie Smith-Bruce Sutter seasons.

Mark McGwire captured baseball’s attention for a time, but even the love of St. Louis fans has limits in the age of steroid suspicions. Fortunately, a new slugger, Albert Pujols, earned local affections.

Calendars turn, and new faces move into the spotlight. For the Royals in Kansas City, the shine remains fixed.

So it resonated 15 days ago when Mr. Brett batted .400 in obscenities when defending the honor of his former team. He cussed a Royal blue streak, and many fans who remember the glory days cheered.

No other Royal since Mr. Brett’s retirement in 1993 had the gravitas to deliver such a rant. In ensuing years, the team has lost 327 more games than it has won.

In response, the team has won just three of the dozen games since the local hero’s tirade.

This proves a familiar tale, one of bygone glory and the hardships of regaining past success. Attach it to other name brands, starting with General Motors, a fall from grace far more precipitous that anything the American League could conjure.

GM filed Monday for bankruptcy protection, a move to preserve the century-old company once the largest private employer in the United States.

Fifty years ago, as General Motors produced it 50-millionth car and had 54 percent of the domestic car market, a bit of wisdom made the rounds of American business: “As GM goes, so goes the nation.”

Few companies achieve a standing of barometric significance. With a mammoth entity like GM, once exceeding 850,000 in worldwide employment, no measure of the economy made sense outside its realm.

Comes now the giant, laid low by considerable shortcomings and an economic climate no longer capable of disguising them.

The company had trucks that performed “like a rock,” their bedliners filled with Americana. Some of GM’s cars represented working-class people; the old country song proclaimed, “We’re not the jet set, we’re the old Chevrolet set.”

Yet hubris must have been at work in the corporate suites, the company of so many resources oblivious to its own fiscal health, American market shifts and global energy turmoil.

Failure was an option, apparently, and the guys in the good suits coughed up their obligations to the detriment of those on the assembly line.

Also to the detriment of the nation’s taxpayer’s, now into GM’s salvation by $50 billion, counting recent and past financing.

President Obama kept his cool in discussing GM’s struggles on Monday. Maybe that will work better than the profanity meant to lift the Royals.

Ken Newton’s column runs

on Tuesday and Sunday.