Blog Archives
Morning post-mortem
When a baseball team out-hits opponent 15-7, it should win, right?
Not the Royals last night.
Unfortunately for Kansas City, four of the Reds’ seven hits were home runs, and Cincinnati got out of town with a 7-4 victory and a three-game sweeping, sending the Royals to their ninth straight loss.
Kansas City fell to 18-50, their worst 68-game record since the franchise began play in 1969. They are on pace to lose 118 games, two fewer than the modern (since 1900) record of 120 by the Mets in their first season of 1962.
The Royals were a miserable 2 of 15 with runners in scoring position. They had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth, only to leave them stranded.
The underachieving Angels of Shonei Ohtani and Mike Trout invade Kansas City this weekend. The Royals are expecting large crowds on Father’s Day weekend.
I won’t be back this weekend, but I might in August or September. I enjoyed the Diamond Club experience, even if there isn’t any barbecue.
The announced crowd was 13,731 There were huge swaths of empty seats down both foul lines, both in the main bowl and the upper deck.
The most incredible part of the game: I didn’t use the restroom despite being in the stadium for four hours and consuming three large cups of Pepsi Zero Sugar.
GET RID OF KISS CAM! It was horrendous when it debuted, it is still horrendous.
However, there was the best moment I have ever witnessed on kiss cam.
A beautiful lady asked her man to kiss her, only to get a face full of ice cream.
Later, Royals mascot Sluggerrr found the couple with a sign which stated “LOVE STINKS”. He then proceeded to place a chocolate ice cream cone on the man’s bald head, all while Def Leppard’s “Love Stinks” blared over the public address system.
Funny, but still, I hate kiss cam!
This was the first time I saw the Reds. By my count, I’ve now seen 26 of 30 teams in person. The ones I haven’t are the Athletics, Rockies, Marlins and Rays.
Not counting the Royals, I’ve seen the Astros the most, seven times. The Rangers are next with six, followed by Cleveland at five.
I have seen the Royals as a visiting team as well, a three-game series in Houston in 2000, the first year of Minute Maid Park, which was then known as Enron Field.
I have not seen the Orioles, Red Sox, White Sox and Brewers (SIGH) since I went with my dad and brother to the Rangers’ first stadium in Arlington in the 1990s.
I saw the Padres play in the Astrodome in 1989, my first MLB game, but not since.
My only games for the Dodgers and Pirates were when they played each other at PNC Park in 2005. The best MLB ballpark I’ve been to. Minute Maid is a close second because it’s indoors (for the most part).
It would be five hours and change to Denver to see the Rockies. I should have gone by now.
The Chiefs kick off in 83 days. Kansas City wishes it could be 83 minutes.
Return to Kauffman
For the first time in almost five years, I am attending a Kansas City Royals baseball game. The Royals, who currently have the worst record in all of Major League Baseball at 18-49, are closing out a three-game series vs. the Cincinnati Reds. The visitors won the first two games by identical 5-4 scores.
The last time I was in this facility was August 2018 when the Royals lost 3-1 to the Cubs on a Monday night. I wasn’t planning on going, but when Jason Malasovich, a friend from middle school, told me he was in Kansas City with his wife and their two children, I felt like I couldn’t say no when they asked me to join them. Fortunately, I was able to find a seat in the same section as the Malasovich family only one row in front. It rained briefly that night, but the low-scoring game got things over expeditiously.
I’m sitting in the Diamond Club. I figured I don’t go to many games, so I would splurge and see what it was all about.
My seat is right behind home plate. I have a table to type this post and rest my food and drink. The chair is padded. Not bad.
The more expensive Diamond Club seats, the ones with padded theatre-style seats and power outlets, are behind me. Those are more pricey.
The most expensive seats in the house, the Crown Club, are at ground level behind home plate. If I would have held out to buy tickets until this morning, I could have had a Crown Club seat for $370. I would love to sit there, but I’m afraid I’d want to do it again and again, and I don’t have the budget for it.
Diamond Club seats come with unlimited pop and wait service, although I went back on the concourse before the game to purchase a couple of hot dogs, extra sauerkraut.
The dogs were excellent, but I’m miffed as to why there are no stands for some of Kansas City’s famous barbecue joints, namely Joe’s Kansas City, Gates and Arthur Bryant’s, three of the biggest names in barbecue anywhere in the United States, not just Kansas City.
I’m also perplexed as to why the Royals do not open the gates to most ticket holders until one hour before games Monday through Thursday. They’re open 90 minutes prior to first pitch Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
To me, that smacks of being cheap. Why not open the gates two hours before to allow fans to watch batting practice, roam the stadium and make concession purchases? It would also allow more time in the gift shop so people can drop $250 on a jersey, a big waste in my opinion, but to each his or her own.
Spencer Steer just launched a 1-1 pitch into the left field stands for a solo home run to give the Reds the game’s first tally. Royals pitcher Daniel Lynch retired the first four in order.
Kansas City had runners on second and third the bottom of the first, only to leave them stranded when Michael Massey struck out.
Reds 1-0 going to the third. First two innings in 26 minutes, meaning we’re on pace for a one hour, 57-minute game. We won’t keep that pace, but Rob Manfred’s terribly misguided rule changes to speed up games, notably the pitch clock and limits on throwing to first with a runner on, is working.
I couldn’t care less about game length. I have nowhere to go afterward, and I don’t have to be anywhere until 10 tomorrow morning.
Today was Donald John Trump’s 77th birthday. Rot in hell, traitor. Just ensure Dementia Joe gets four more years, you son of a bitch.
Let’s play two, even though we would rather not
The Royals and the White Sox took a financial hit today, thanks to Major League Baseball’s insistence teams play 76 of 162 games within their division.
Due to the (grossly) unbalanced schedule, which took effect in 2001, teams make only one trip per season into the 10 cities within their league but not within their division, and vice versa.
When postponements occur in these situations, or to interleague games, it becomes a cluster you-know-what.
The Royals and White Sox, both members of the American League Central, were scheduled to play members of the AL East, the Rays and Orioles, respectively, Tuesday.
However, rain blanketed the Midwest, stretching from Chicago to Kansas City and well to the west, where many high school events in this part of Kansas were cancelled, including Russell High baseball and softball games.
Knowing Baltimore won’t see the south side of Chicago again until 2020, and Tampa Bay won’t be at the Truman Sports Complex until next year, the White Sox and Royals had to get these games in during the current series.
The Royals and Rays were scheduled for a four-game series, with a night game today and a day game tomorrow. A doubleheader is not allowed on a getaway day unless players on both teams vote to allow it. The players vetoed that idea, so there was no choice but to play a twinbill today.
As for the Orioles and White Sox, there was no choice. The White Sox play the Red Sox tomorrow.
Both the Royals and White Sox scheduled traditional doubleheaders, with one ticket good for both games. Both doubleheaders started at 1205 Central (1305 Eastern).
Traditional doubleheaders are even rarer in MLB in 2019 than the complete game, which is saying something. There was a time where the Sunday doubleheader, or the twi-night doubleheader on a Friday, were ubiquitous.
It’s all about the $$$$$ for professional sports owners in 2019. Combined with player’s unions which threaten legal action over the smallest quibbles, you aren’t going to find anyone who really wants to play a doubleheader, at least those employed by the 30 clubs.
Owners are dead set upon 81 dates for 81 games to maximize ticket revenue. Any reduction in playing dates, even for a Tuesday night game which may have drawn no more than 20,000, probably much less in Kansas City, irritates men like David Glass and Jerry Reinsdorf.
I’m surprised neither team scheduled a split doubleheader, where the stadium would have been cleared after the first game. There are provisions in the collective bargaining agreement governing split doubleheaders. It’s too cumbersome to go into detail here.
It’s a good thing Ernie Banks has passed on. He would not be happy with the lack of doubleheaders.
You’re not going to get rid of interleague play, so MLB should cut back the number of division games. For those of you who don’t know the real reason for the unbalanced schedule–to make sure the Red Sox and Yankees play 19 times a season–are living under a rock.
If MLB wants the Red Sox and Yankees to play 19 times a year, let them. THat would mean fewer games vs. the Orioles, Blue Jays and Rays, and none of those teams would complain. But it’s criminal the Pirates and Phillies are in the same state yet play only once in each city per year.
Forget Jesus; Tiger is God this Palm Sunday
The Masters teed off at 0630 (0730 EDT) this morning in order to beat anticipated heavy rain in Augusta. I was not watching.
Why bother? Tiger Woods is going to win and every talking head and writer is going to pee their pants and drool all over themselves about Tiger being the greatest golfer who ever walked the earth.
Francesco Molinari would win his second major in less than a calendar year if he holds on. But if you want to read about it, I suggest finding an English-language version of an Italian newspaper, because all the coverage from American journalists will be about Eldrick Woods and his greatness.
Tiger is one reason why I do all I can to avoid watching SportsCenter these days. Tiger is part of a privileged class that can do no wrong. The class also includes Tom Brady, LeBron, Serena Williams, the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Warriors, Alabama football and Duke, North Carolina and Virginia basketball. ESPN doesn’t give a crap about the NHL, so nobody is listed here, although NBC is strongly biased against the Canadian teams (especially the Canadiens–you can figure out why) and in favor of the Rangers, Flyers, Capitals, Kings, Ducks, Golden Knights, Lightning and Panthers, even though the last team in that list sucks most of the time.
Tiger is a great golfer. I won’t deny it. However, I get nauseous whenever he is referred to as the “Greatest of All Time”. No. Not for me. The problem is people today have ridiculously short memory spans. I bet many people under 40 would have no idea who Jack Nicklaus is, even if they watch golf regularly. On the other hand, someone who couldn’t tell the difference between a golf ball and a tennis ball knows about Tiger Woods because he’s been forced down America’s throats for over 20 years.
I don’t begrudge anyone who is a member of Augusta National. Good for them. Congratulations on your success. However, I have no earthly desire to join a country club of any kind. Not my thing.
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LSU and Missouri wrap up their baseball series at 1200. The home team won yesterday 4-1, its first win over LSU in Columbia in eight tries, and just its second in 17 games all-time. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
I recall LSU won seven consecutive series vs. Arkansas when the Razorbacks joined the SEC in 1992 until the Hogs finally broke through in 1999. Arkansas swept twice within four years (2001 in Fayetteville, 2004 in Baton Rouge).
However, my stay in Columbia is not over. I’m not departing until Tuesday. I have work that has to get done tonight and tomorrow, and the rest must be wrapped up by 1200 Tuesday so I can make the two-hour drive west to Kansas City. It also means more White Castle. I had waffle sliders for breakfast. Great as ########################################################################
Max Scherzer’s number 31 was officially retired before yesterday’s game. Of course, the honoree was with the Nationals in Washington, so his parents accepted the honor.
The Royals must have been stuck on stupid when they did not draft him #1 overall in 2006. Instead, they took Luke Hochevar, who was drafted #1 overall by the Dodgers in 2005, but did not sign, so he spent time in an independent league before re-entering the draft in 2006.
The 2006 draft was the last act of Allard Baird as Royals general manager. He was fired the previous week and Dayton Moore was hired as his replacement, but Baird was allowed to conduct the draft. Had Moore been in charge, it may have been very different.
Scherzer would not have been with the Royals right now, because he would have been too expensive to control. However, he would have come to Kansas City quickly and allowed the Royals not to spend a lot of money on Gil Meche, and maybe Zack Greinke would have stayed. Who knows. But Hochevar definitely was a big-time miss when Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw were available.
Speaking of the Royals, maybe they need to play Cleveland more. They have beaten the Indians 8-1 and 3-0 so far and can sweep the series today. Prior to that, Kansas City lost 10 straight, getting swept in three by the Tigers and four by the Mariners.
As I drove to Columbia Thursday, I got a glimpse of the upper deck at Kauffman Stadium during the game. I estimated there were maybe 80 fans in the entire upper deck. Attendance has slacked off since the 2015 World Series championship.
The Brewers were swept in Anaheim by the Angels, but can sweep the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine today. That’s baseball.
Another jinx vanquished
There will be no World Cup matches today, fitting since today is the 242nd anniversary of the independence of a nation which cannot fight its way out of a wet paper bag in association football, at least when it counts the most.
It’s even more fitting the World Cup is off today, because the country celebrating the 242nd anniversary of its independence gained said independence from the country which birthed “the beautiful game”.
One of the constituent countries of the nation where association football (soccer for those snooty Americans) is still alive in the World Cup, thanks to ending a curse which had long haunted it.
England advanced by winning a shootout (kicks from the penalty mark) yesterday over Colombia.
Repeating: England advanced by winning a shootout.
Let that sink in for a few seconds.
It’s the first time The Three Lions have won a shootout in the World Cup since it was introduced to team sports’ greatest spectacle in 1978 (but not put into practice until 1982).
Previously, England had been eliminated in 1990 (semifinals vs. West Germany), 1998 (round of 16 vs. Argentina in a match which saw David Beckham draw a straight red card two minutes into the second half; that England was able to hold Argentina scoreless for 73-plus minutes was amazing) and 2006 (vs. Portugal, with Cristiano Ronaldo burying the winner).
England appeared as if it would win in normal time 1-0, with Harry Kane burying a penalty kick in the 57th mniute after he was taken down in the box rather aggressively.
Colombia played borderline dirty all match, with the manager giving an English player a hard shoulder as they exited the pitch at halftime, and another Colombian player getting away with a headbutt as they jostled in the box on a free kick.
However, Colombia’s Yerry Mina scored the equalizer only seconds from full time, and the match continued. The half-hour of extra time was scoreless, and the groans went up from Newcastle and Sunderland in the North East to Bournemouth and Southampton on the south coast, and all points in between.
The tension had to be most palpable in Sunderland and Liverpool.
English goalkeeper Jordan Pickford is a native of the North East of England. He played for Sunderland before leaving the Black Cats in the summer of 2017 after they were relegated out of the Premier League.
Everton, located in Liverpool and the archrival of the world-famous Liverpool Football Club, won the bidding war for Pickford. However, the Toffees were unable to fully take advantage of having Pickford and Wayne Rooney, finishing well behind Burnley for the final European qualifying spot, and obviously behind the Big Six of the Premier League: Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Arsenal.
FYI, the four most famous residents of Liverpool, two of whom are sadly no longer with us (one at the hands of a bloody murderer) did not care about the Merseyside Derby, the name given to the Liverpool-Everton rivalry. It was reported The Fab Four did not care much for football, at least the kind played with a round ball (Paul McCartney performed during the Super Bowl XXXVI pregame show and Super Bowl XXXIX halftime show).
In fact, when England won the 1966 World Cup at the old Wembley Stadium, Paul, John, George and Ringo were on the last leg of their last concert tour in the United States. And if you think few Americans care about soccer in 2018, the number of soccer die-hards in 1966 may have numbered less than the number of members of United States House (435).
Back to 2018, Pickford and his mates.
The announcers on Fox stated throughout extra time that Colombia was a lead-pipe cinch to advance to a quarterfinal meeting with Sweden. They felt Colombia had enough momentum from the late equalizer to score in extra time, then kept harping on England’s failure in shootouts in the past when it looked like the third shootout of the round of 16 would be a reality.
Surprisingly, English manager Gareth Southgate chose Kane to go first. Many managers save their best kicker for the fourth or fifth round, which is what the United States women did in shootouts in the World Cup finals of 1999 and 2011. In 1999, Mia Hamm, arguably the greatest female association football player to date, went fourth, leaving the heroics to Brandi Chastain and her famous sports brassiere. In 2011, Abby Wambach went fourth, but because the three before her–Shannon Boxx, Carli Lloyd and Tobin Heath all missed, it didn’t matter, and Japan won. More of the blame lies on the shoulders of Hope(less) Solo (now Stevens).
Kane and Marcus Rashford scored for England after Radamel Falcao and Juan Cudrado did the same for Colombia. Luis Muriel scored the third kick for Colombia, but Jordan Henderson’s attempt was turned aside by David Ospina, shifting the edge to Colombia.
The pressure was now on Pickford. If he could not stop Mateus Uribe, the South American side would have a huge edge, knowing it would at the very least go into sudden death.
Pickford got a piece of Uribe’s arching shot. It hit the crossbar anyway, and England’s condition was upgraded from critical to satisfactory. It became completely healed when Kieran Trippler scored to knot it up again.
Carlos Bacca stepped to the mark for Colombia. He went right, and Pickford was spot on, easily stoning the Colombian substitute forward.
Southgate sent Eric Dier onto the pitch in the 81st minute to spell Dele Alli, the Tottenham striker. Dier now was called upon to take the last kick of the regulation round. If he missed, the kicks would go into sudden death. If Dier scored, England would play again Saturday.
Dier went hard and low to his left. Ospina guessed wrong. England was jolly indeed.
England now plays Sweden, a 1-0 victor over Switzerland. The winner of that match plays the winner of Croatia-Russia, which is also Saturday.
Friday’s matches are France-Uruguay and Brazil-Belgium. I picked Croatia, England and Brazil as semifinalists before the knockout round, and I’ll stick with that. I had France playing Portugal, with Les Bleus losing. I’ll pick France to win, though, against Uruguay.
Maybe it was time for England to end its curse. The Red Sox ended the Curse of the Bambino in 2004. The Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA championship, ending Cleveland’s sports curse which spanned 51 1/2 years. The Cubs ended the Curse of the BIlly Goat by winning the 2016 World Series, their first in 108 years. The Astros broke through last year, their 56th season, to win their first World Championship. The Eagles won Super Bowl LII earlier this year, Philadelphia’s first NFL title since 1960. The Capitals won their first Stanley Cup last month, ending a long run of playoff futility.
See? Most bad things will end. The bad news? All good things WILL end sooner or later.
Meanwhile, the Rays and Marlins played 16 innings last night. How depressing. Paid attendance: 6,259. I’d like to know how many people actually went to the game in Miami, and how many were left when it ended at 0040 Eastern.
The Royals and Orioles seem to be racing to the bottom. Both have lost 60 games, and both are so far out of the playoff race they need the Hubble telescope to find the Red Sox, Yankees, Astros, Mariners and Indians. Both are on pace to lose 114 games. Neither will probably lose that many, but both will likely fall short of 60 wins.
The Royals host the Red Sox this weekend. There are only nine more big-revenue home games left on the schedule at Kauffman Stadium: the three this weekend, plus three-game sets with the Cardinals and Cubs.
In case you’re curious, the Royals and Orioles play three in Kansas City Labor Day weekend. I’m sure the ticket office at The K is burning up over ticket sales for that one.
Happy New Year, Kansas City (at least so far)
Kansas City may have suffered from bitter cold the last few days of 2017 and the first few days of 2018, but most sports fans in the city are over the moon.
Yes, Kansas’ men’s basketball team lost last night to Texas Tech, the first time the Red Raiders have ever won in Lawrence, and that dates back to when the Big 12 was formed for the 1996-97 basketball season. Tech didn’t play every year in Lawrence until 2010-11 after Colorado and Nebraska left and reduced the conference to ten teams, but that is a long time to go without a win in a given facility.
However, Kansas City’s professional sports teams are on cloud nine.
The Chiefs have bounced back from their miserable 1-6 slide to win four consecutive games heading into the playoffs. What has Chiefs fans more excited than the AFC West championship–the first time Kansas City has won division titles in back-to-back seasons in franchise history–or the playoff game Saturday at Arrowhead vs. the Titans is the play of rookie quarterback Patrick Mahomes II.
Mahomes, drafted 10th overall by Kansas City after the Chiefs traded with Buffalo to move up 17 spots in the first round of the 2017 draft, saw his first regular season action and performed well, passing for 284 yards and leading the Chiefs on a game-winning drive in the closing seconds at Denver last Sunday. Mahomes’ performance may prompt the Chiefs to trade Alex Smith prior to the 2018 draft, or at the latest, during training camp. Smith will be the starter in the playoffs, but if he doesn’t get the Chiefs to the AFC Championship game, he’s likely departing One Arrowhead Drive very soon.
The Royals don’t start their 2018 campaign for almost three months, but earlier today, their fans were sent into ecstasy when it was announced first baseman Eric Hosmer was offered a 7-year, $147 million contract by the club.
Hosmer, who was drafted second overall in 2008 behind Steven Strasburg, the All-Star pitcher for the Nationals, has become arguably the second most popular player in Royals franchise history behind George Brett. Hosmer came up to the Royals in 2011 and has been a mainstay in Ned Yost’s lineup ever since, leading Kansas City to the American League pennant in 2014 and the World Series championship in 2015.
It was widely expected Hosmer, along with third baseman Mike Moustakas and center fielder Lorenzo Cain, would leave Kansas City before the 2018 season. The thought was if the Royals fell out of the 2017 playoff chase early enough, they would trade any or all of the players in order to get something in return, but Kansas City hung around long enough to convince Dayton Moore to keep the players around. The Royals faded and finished 80-82, their second consecutive non-winning season since winning the World Series (they were 81-81 in 2016).
Hosmer, Moustakas and Cain all received one-year, $17 million qualifying offers from the Royals in November. The players all rejected them and tested the free agent market.
So far, no takers.
The only player who has received interest is Hosmer, who was offered 7 years and $140 million from the Padres, who are in the midst of a massive rebuild. Right now, it looks like Hosmer will be back in Kansas City.
Moustakas and Cain might be forced to take a one-year deal in Kansas City and retest the market next winter, or else take a bargain deal from another team.
Kansas City fans wanted Hosmer back. Looks like they’ll get their wish.
Now if only the NBA and/or NHL would return to Kansas City…keep dreaming.
Sunday before sunrise
I haven’t done this in forever, but here goes.
I’m leaving Russell before sunrise so I can get to Kansas City at 11 a.m. when Buffalo Wild Wings opens. I haven’t been to the Zona Rosa location since August 4, but I figured i’d better go for my birthday, which is Tuesday.
it will be a crazy day. The Chiefs play the Bears at noon, and the Royals play the Astros in Game 3 of their American League Division Series at 3:10. The game is not available on cable in western Kansas, since it’s on MLB Network. I understand MLB’s desire to put games on its own channel, but that seems kind of cheap for baseball to do it. I can understand the NBA and NHL, simply because of the volume of games, and frankly, a lot of games don’t hold a lot of interest outside the locales of the teams.
If Major League Baseball is the national pastime, it should be available on a national network. Why isn’t ESPN televising this? Or Fox Sports 1?
I’m planning on staying through Wednesday evening, then coming home. I can’t stay through Thursday morning due to my appointment with Dr. Custer in Hays at 8:40 a.m. No way I’m leaving Kansas City at 4 a.m. It’s much easier driving east than it is driving west, trust me.
Time to get in the shower and get out. See you on the other side of the state line.
Ned is Number One
Ned Yost is now the Kansas City Royals’ winningest manager. The 3-2 victory over the Brewers at Kauffman Stadium last night was Yost’s 411th, moving him past Whitey Herzog and onto the summit.
That Yost needed only 411 victories to move to the top of the list tells me the Royals (a) have had many, many bad years, even though they made the playoffs six times (not counting the strike-shortened season of 1981) between 1976 and 1985, but more importantly (b) the manager’s seat has been a revolving door, going back all the way to the day Ewing Kauffman was awarded the franchise in 1968.
Yost has been manager of the Royals since May 14, 2010. He has managed more games, 824, than any skiipper in team history. In September, he will surpass Dick Howser for the longest tenure in team history. Howser amanged the Royals for five full seasons and the first 55 percent of a sixth before the tragic diagnosis of brain cancer which would claim him on July 17, 1987.
Since Howser’s sad departture, the managerial position has been as unstable as an isotope of plutonium 239. And some of the people occupying the manager’s seat have been totally unworthy of being the skipper of any professional baseball team, much less one of the 30 in Major League Baseball.
One of the worst was the man who preceded Yost. Trey Hillman was hired prior to the 2008 season after managing in Japan. Terrible hire by Dayton Moore. Just terrible. In two seasons and a month and a half of a third, Kansas City was 52 games under .500.
I happened to witness Hillman’s last game as Royals manager, a 5-4 victory over the Indians May 13, 2010. It was on a Thursday afternoon. By time I returned to my room at the Kansas City Airport Marriott, I learned Hillman had been fired and Yost, who managed the Brewers from 2003 through most of the 2008 season, was going to take over.
The next morning, I departed Kansas City and drove to Smith Center for the Mid-Continent League track and field meet. I spent most of the day listening to the two sports talk stations in Kansas City, KCSP and WHB, discuss Hillman’s firing and Yost’s hiring. None of the talking heads believed Yost was the long-term solution, and wondered if Moore had a short list for someone to come in after the 2010 season was complete.
Yost has supposedly been on the proverbial hot seat time and again. Some couldn’t believe he survived the 2012 season, when the Royals finished 72-90, the 9th time in 11 seasons they lost 90 or more. A slow start in 2013 fueled even more speculation Yost was on his way out.
Yet Kansas City turned it around following the 2013 All-Star game and stayed in the wild card hunt deep into September. An 86-76 final mark convinced Moore that Yost was the right man for the job.
Moore has been vindicated by the Royals’ performance in 2014 and the first two and a half months of 2015. And now Ned Yost will go for win 412 tonight vs. the Red Sox.
Rambling nooner
It’s high noon in Kansas City, and I’m about ready to get the heck out of my hotel room and do something. There are a few afternoon MLB games, but my big action comes tonight at 7 when LSU and TCU square off for the second time at the College World Series. TCU won Sunday 10-3, putting LSU in the unenviable position of needing to win four consecutive games to reach the championship series, something it has never done.
The Bayou Bengals defeated Cal State Fullerton 5-3 Tuesday to stay alive, while the Horned Frogs fell 1-0 to Vanderbilt, which is waiting for the winner of tonight’s game tomorrow at 7 p.m. The other bracket final is set, with Florida and Virginia playing at 2 p.m. tomorrow. The Gators need to win to force a second game between the teams Saturday afternoon. The Cavaliers defeated the Gators 1-0 Monday.
I spent almost 10 hours at Buffalo Wild Wings yesterday. It was blissful during the evening, with Brittany Davidson, Raymie Lepetit and Rue Jean-Klapproth all on shift. They were so excited to see me, and I felt the same way about seeing them. Brittany was gushing over her July 11 wedding, as she should be. I’ve been invited to the reception, and I had better go, because I shudder to think how she would feel if I didn’t show up.
Raymie is leaving for a vacation to Costa Rica Wednesday. I haven’t been outside of Kansas City since last July when I drove to Omaha and Lincoln to raid Raising Cane’s chicken fingers, which was founded in Baton Rouge.
It isn’t the chicken so much as it is the toast and the sauce. MMMMMMMMM. If the CWS weren’t in Omaha right now, I might have slipped away today. Maybe a day trip there or to Tulsa is in order.
My trivia pals Dawn and Robert showed up at happy hour. That was another nice touch.
Liz is supposed to be working today. That will be an interesting reunion. She doesn’t like it when I’m away for long periods. I’ve got to enjoy the days I see her, because she’s moving soon to Colorado. I guess that will mean a few road trips west.
She isn’t the only one leaving. Lisa is moving to Chicago with Jeff very soon. Jeff showed up sans Lisa last night, because she’s in St. Louis for her brother’s wedding.
It’s going to get very hot starting this weekend. The mercury in Russell will be hovering near 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) consistently through at least next Wednesday. OUCH. This means if I want to do anything in Hays before my appointment with Crista next Thursday, going to have to do it very early to avoid the heat.
The Royals are rolling at the expense of the Brewers. Except for the ninth inning Monday when Kansas City reliever Greg Holland got shelled for three runs, Milwaukee has become beyond inept. KC won 7-2 Tuesday and 10-2 last night. More of the same on the way. The Royals had better take advantage of tonight and three games this weekend at home against a bad Boston team.
Not counting Christmas Eve and breaks during the playoffs, last night was the first night without an NBA or NHL game since early October. For those who don’t like baseball, there isn’t much choice in the sports world, especially on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, until August when NFL exhibition games crank up. The weekends have golf. And please resist the temptation to watch Wimbledon. I would rather get a root canal without anesthetic than watch tennis right now, especially women’s tennis.
I like my baseball plain, thank you
The Orioles defeated the White Sox 8-2 this afternoon at Baltimore in what is believed to be the first Major League Baseball game to be closed to the public.
The decision to bar ticket holding fans from Camden Yards was made due to the rioting which has been going on in Baltimore since the death of Freddie Gray, who suffered fatal injuries when he was in the custody of Baltimore police earlier this month.
I have no sympathy whatsoever for the rioting thugs. There is a major difference between peaceful protest, like Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington in 1983 or the Alabama march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965,and the type of looting and destruction going on in Baltimore right now, or what went on in Ferguson, Mo., last year, or in south central Los Angeles on this night in 1992 following the verdict in the Rodney King beating trial of four Los Angeles police officers.
Enough social commentary. Back to baseball.
The Orioles game was open only to credentialed media members, of which there were about 100, Orioles and White Sox employees, and those who had a legitimate function at the game. The game was televised in Baltimore and Chicago and those with SiriusXM radio like myself (although I didn’t listen) could tune in.
The game was played in two hours three minutes. You want to know why?
NO STUPID PROMOTIONS TO SLOW THE GAME DOWN.
As much as I enjoy Major League Baseball and I like going to games, I don’t think I could stand going to 81 homes games–or even one-fifth that many–due to all the asinine and inane things which go on in between innnings.
Do we need a pointless trivia question after every half inning? Do we need to have some idiot with a wireless microphone go into the stands to embarrass someone who probably could care less about being on the stadium’s big screen TV, someone who probably just wants to be left alone and enjoy the game with whomever he or she came with?
The Royals are among the most egregious violators. Since moving to Kansas, I have never been to a Royals game where there has not been an overabundance of lunacy and promotions which belong at a carnival, not a professional sporting event.
The worst is the hot dog race, which in Kansas City is sponsored by Heinz. This is a ripoff of the dot race which began in 1984 at Arlington Stadium, the old home of the Texas Ranges. I didn’t care for it then, and I certainly don’t care for it now.
Even worse about Kansas City’s hot dog race is KETCHUP is one of the three participants. KETCHUP. That’s un-American. I don’t care if you’re 3 or 103. YOU DO NOT PUT KETCHUP ON A HOT DOG. Period. Cut and dried. If the Royals insist on having ketchup in the race, there ought to be a way that ketchup never wins, much like Teddy Roosevelt never wins in the president’s races at Washington Nationals games.
The worst is the kiss cam. Seriously. KISS CAM? Can’t people have some privacy?
I worked one summer for the New Orleans Zephrys, a Triple-A baseball team. I loathed the stupid dizzy bat race. I could not stand the stupid race around the bases between a kid and Boudreaux, the nutria which is the Zephyr’s mascot.
When I go to a Major League Baseball game, I do not pay good money to park, to get into the gate and to eat mediocre food to watch some idiot with a microphone in between innings. I pay that money to watch BASEBALL. Major League Baseball. The game is more than enough to me.
If promotions departments would eliminate those childish hijinks, I guarantee they will save 25-30 minutes per night.
Sadly, this crap has permeated to the NBA and NHL. Every timeout, every stoppage of play in those sports is time for some fan to make a fool of himself or herself. The NFL doesn’t have these bad ideas. Doesn’t seem to hurt their crowds.
Foots Prints 