Tag: Kansas City Royals (Page 3 of 14)

R’s: Opening Day

In the past week we’ve had more snow combined that we had received all winter. Four inches fell last Thursday followed by over six inches Saturday.[1] In each case the snow melted quickly. Thursday it was all gone before the girls got home from school. Saturday’s snow was almost completely gone by Sunday evening. Now we’ve transitioned into warmer days – at least into the 50s – but it is dark and dreary and the land is saturated from seven days of melting snow and rain.

Makes a man feel like it’s time for baseball season!

My enthusiasm for baseball is not what it has been in recent years. I’m still focused on college hoops for a few more days, obviously. And the Royals window of opportunity has closed. Worse, the team can’t figure out what to do next. They went for “value signings” over the winter and have a team that, on paper, doesn’t look terrible. But it also doesn’t look great, and seems destined to win at most between 70–75 games. Not good enough to compete, not bad enough to be in full rebuilding mode yet.

Dayton Moore deserves an immense amount of credit for building a team that went to two-straight World Series. When you do that, you earn a lot of leeway in how to do your job. Still, I’m not sure I love him being in charge of the next Royals rebuild. The minor league system is already pretty lean but he’s putting off the total gut for at least one off-season. I don’t know that I agree with that strategy. And given how few major leaguers the system has produced since the championship core came up, I have concerns about Dayton and his scouts’ evaluation abilities.

Unless there is some dramatic shift in how baseball revenues are divided up or a change in how the Glass family is willing to spend money, the Royals have to build with young talent. That’s what they did in the first part of this decade. I don’t understand why you delay hitting the reset button to get that process going again. Especially in a division that should be won by one of the best teams in baseball (Cleveland) and also has a team that is both filled with young talent and made some strong moves to fortify that talent in the winter (Minnesota). The AL Central is not up for grabs. Nabbing a Wild Card spot would require a massive amount of good luck for the Royals and bad luck for at least five other teams.

Salvador Perez tearing up his knee this week and taking him off the field for 4–6 weeks is not a promising start.

I think the Royals could – could – have decent starting pitching. It looks like a staff where every guy can go on a 3–4 start roll where things are working and they only give up 2–3 runs a night. But I also worry about the health of most of them, and every dude is also capable of getting into ruts where they can’t make it through three innings for a few weeks in a row.

The once vaunted Royals bullpen is a mystery. Maybe Kelvin Herrera settles down this year and sets a standard that knocks everyone else into place. But I see too many arms that have struggled in the past joined by too many unknowns to have much confidence in that group.

The lineup is full of question marks, too. Whit Merrifield seems like the only sure bet, and that’s based on a single season of big league performance. Can Moose stay healthy? Will Salvy get healthy? Is Alcides Escobar’s modest goal of getting on base 30% of the time doable? Can Jorge Soler harness his immense potential? Can Lucas Duda be a poor-man’s Eric Hosmer? And can poor Alex Gordon provide anything at all at the plate?[2]

A lot has been made of the Royals late winter signings and how they added some “professional hitters” to the lineup. We’ll see if those are enough to keep the team in the window of mediocrity.

I really hope all those elements come together and the Royals can stay in the 70s for wins. It’s really going to suck if they don’t and the team ends up being shitty without having gone all-in with the rebuild. I think most Royals fans were prepared to accept bad baseball if it meant young talent would begin flowing into the system. Without that influx already in place, this will feel like an empty, wasted year that put off the chance to compete another year without making any progress toward that goal.

I’m still downloading the MLB apps onto all my devices this morning, though. I will be listening as the Royals open things against the White Sox this afternoon. And I’m sure they’re still going to be the soundtrack of my summer, even if the goals are a lot more modest than they have been in half a decade.

As for predictions, I haven’t paid close attention to spring break stories around the league, so I’m not sure how great these are going to be.

AL East: New York
AL Central: Cleveland
AL West: Houston
AL Wild Cards: Boston, Minnesota

NL East: Washington
NL Central: Chicago
NL West: Los Angeles
NL Wildcards: Milwaukee, St. Louis


  1. The Indy airport got 10.2” Saturday, making it the sixth snowiest recorded day in Indy history, which is nuts.  ↩
  2. Man, Alex…I feel like Royals fans are going to spend the summer hanging their heads after his at bats, wanting to curse him but refusing because of what he’s meant to the franchise.  ↩

R’s: Requiem

It’s over.

Sure, there are five games left in the 2017 season, but the run for the championship core of the Royals is officially finished.

Although the standings kept showing them just out of the Wild Card spots, they’ve effectively been done for about a month. But it became official Tuesday when Minnesota beat Cleveland leaving the Royals too far behind with too few games remaining.

What a frustrating season. The death of Yordano Ventura in the off-season was by far the worst thing that happened to this organization over the past year. But then came a brutal start to the season that had us worried all the free agents to-be might not make it through June in Kansas City. The team steadied in May and then was blistering hot through June and July. They added instead of subtracted at the trade deadline, and it looked like it was going to be another exciting fall in KC. The team then promptly went to shit again in August. And September has been thoroughly mediocre. There have been injuries all over the roster. Players who put up the worst performances of their careers. Despite that great middle, it’s going to end up being a pretty meh season.

Time and again this team has had chances to get back into the heart of the race with just a solid week of baseball. But every week they muddled around, maybe 4–3, maybe 3–4, but never 6–1 or 7–0. Minnesota wanted someone to catch them, but no one ever did.

Honestly I began checking out about a month ago. I kept waiting for that spark to appear that ignited the team. It never came. Throw in kid sports and a flakey AppleTV and I wasn’t automatically turning the game on each night. Sure, I’d check my phone to see what the score was. Once the kids went to bed I’d turn on the radio broadcast and listen while I did other things. But I was far less invested than I would have been had they kept playing like they did in the heart of the summer.

So it’s been a sad week for a lot of us Royals fans. As the end drew near the blog posts and Twitter threads began popping up reliving the greatest moments of the Octobers of 2014 and 2015. I’ll admit I got a little emotional watching a few of them. We re-ranked our favorites, recalled how those months felt, and shook our heads in disbelief once again at what this team had done. If the end feels a little empty at what was not accomplished the past two seasons, it is with a greater appreciation for what was achieved the previous two years.

And now five games to say goodbye. Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, and Jason Vargas are almost certainly all gone. Alcides Escobar may be back, but only because no one else is interested in paying him. Vargas missed the 2015, but the other four all accounted for some of the greatest moments in franchise history.

Hosmer tripled in the 12th inning in the 2014 Wild Card game then tied the game. He won game one of the 2014 ALDS with an extra-inning home run. He hit a massive home run in legendary game four of the 2015 ALDS. He hit one of the biggest singles in franchise history in game six of the 2016 ALCS. He doubled to bring in Cain in the 9th inning of game five of the ’16 World Series. Moments later he made his mad dash home to tie the game.


Moustakas won game two of the 2014 ALDS with his own extra-innings homer. He made an unbelievable catch of a foul pop-up in game three of the 2014 ALCS. He hoovered up everything hit his way, and was the “5” in the two 5–3 putouts that ended each ALCS. Along the way he reinvented himself, becoming the consistent hitter we had always hoped he would be. This year, became the Royals single-season home run king.[1]


Cain could fill up a highlight reel with his catches alone during the playoff runs. He single-handedly broke Baltimore’s hearts in the 14 ALCS with catch-after-catch while hitting the shit out of the ball. And if he did nothing else, his scamper from first-to-home in the 8th inning of game six of the 2015 ALCS would earn him a spot in the Royals Hall of Fame. He went from a guy with potential to a complete player and became my favorite Royal along the way. Hosmer and Moustakas are going to get paid for sure. I worry Cain’s age is going to prevent him from signing a ridiculously huge contract. I think he deserves every penny, and probably a lot more, that he earns.


And Esky saved his best baseball for October. He was the catalyst for the offense, spraying hits down the lines and taking extra bases. He was the 2016 ALCS MVP for torturing Toronto pitchers with line drive after line drive. And his inside the park home run to open game one of the 2015 World Series was a quick reminder to the Mets that they were powerless against Royals Devil Magic. Oh, and he also played amazing defense throughout the runs.


What was great about all those guys was how we got to see each of them grow up in front of us. Moose and Hosmer were the high draft picks that were supposed to become All-Stars. It took awhile, but it happened for each of them. Cain and Escobar came over in the trade for Zack Greinke, but had yet to establish themselves as everyday MLB players. They fit right in and the fanbase embraced them. They, and the guys around them, had all this potential to change the course of Kansas City Royals history. Holy shit did they deliver.

If you’re a Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Cardinals, or (now) Cubs fan, you expect your team to replace your heroes when they depart. They’re going to sign the best free agents, or have a bunch of talent in the minors they can dip into when legends move on. For Royals fans we’re not sure what’s next. The minors aren’t brimming with talent. The payroll will no doubt get slashed as the team begins to rebuild. That, too, makes our relationship with the current guys more powerful. It might be another 5–10 years before we see a group like them again.[2] And even then, there’s no guarantee the next batch of young talent will be able to do what this group did.

This group began hitting KC in 2011. That’s seven seasons which, on balance, had more frustrations and pain than success. But in those early years they were building to something, and even when it was hard for the fans to trust the process, the players did. Out of that came a year when they narrowly missed the playoffs, another where they narrowly made the playoffs – then made it to the last out of the last game, another year where they dominated for five months then won the whole damn thing, and finally two years where they began the season with legitimate playoff hopes only to come up short. Along the way they helped Kansas City fall in love with baseball again.

That’s not a bad run.



  1. He should have crushed the record if not for six weeks of bad health that slowed him down.  ↩
  2. God forbid we have to wait 30 years like we did last time.  ↩

R’s: Crap

Well, shit.

August wasn’t supposed to be like this.

After a scorching hot June and (most of) July, the Royals were supposed to roar into August and battle Cleveland for the AL Central lead, all while solidifying the lead they had built up in the Wild Card race. Worst case, they were going to play New York or Boston in the Wild Card game. Best case, they would be guaranteed at least three playoff games in the ALDS.

So much for all of that.

This team has completely fallen apart.

The bullpen went first, coming off a dominant stretch in late July and turning into total garbage. Then the starting rotation started leaking oil. Deadline acquisition Trevor Cahill sucked and then went onto the DL. Danny Duffy was mediocre at best after a DL stint, then went back onto the DL, and apparently got himself a DUI over the weekend. Jason Vargas’ early-season magic is long gone. Jason Hammel is really good for five innings then turns into a pumpkin in the sixth every time out.

Oh, and then the lineup. They go into tonight’s game not having scored a run in something like 800 innings.[1] Pathetic. This team has always been streaky as fuck, but this is taking it a little too far.

Pretty much every move Dayton Moore has made over the last two years has gone wrong. It looks like the Royals will be stuck with Ian Kennedy through the end of his contract. Brandon Moss has done very little. Jorge Soler hasn’t contributed a thing to the Major League team and there’s real doubt whether he ever will. Raul Mondesi was a disaster in the bigs, and they Royals may have ruined their best prospect by rushing him. Hammel has been decent at times, but far from a successful signing. None of the pitchers acquired from San Diego have been any good. And the Alex Gordon contract is turning into a blunder of historic nature.

Well, Melky Cabrera has been solid. So I guess that’s one in the win column for Dayton.

I point all that out not to blame Dayton, but rather to show how little luck the Royals have had this year. I think most of those moves were defensible, and even if they all turn into mediocre rather than terrible moves, this team is right in the playoff hunt.

One of the better modern baseball stats is BABIP: batting average in balls in play. It suggests that, over time, luck in baseball evens out. You might have great (or bad) luck on balls put into play one year. But odds are the next year that luck will swing back toward normal. Perhaps that’s what this season is for the Royals. After being an extraordinarily fortunate team from August 2014 through November 2015, they had to swing back. Last year was a neutral year. This year is the pendulum swinging toward the opposite extreme.

Which sucks. As I’ve said many times this year, my biggest hope for this season was that the Royals stay in the playoff race deep into the season. With their roster, a third AL pennant in four years was going to be a long shot. I just wanted this summer to matter. While we got an exciting eight weeks in the middle of the season, the first four and the most recent four all sucked. Now, with school ramping up, football about to start, and autumn just over the horizon, it’s getting harder to tune in each night to see how the team does. I wanted one more September where, despite all the fall stuff, I was still compelled to turn on the Royals game each night. Even if they came up short, I wanted that last month of watching Hosmer and Moustakas and Cain and Escobar fight they way they did in ’14 and ’15.

Flags fly forever, though. So L and I will probably dive into the DVR again soon to watch the bottom of the 8th inning of game six of the ’15 ALCS, and then Josh Donaldson ground out 5–3 to seal the pennant, and 12th inning of game five of the World Series. For her, it’s just fun. For me, it will be to relive that magical 14 months when, somehow, the Kansas City Royals were the best team in baseball.

Hopefully it’s not another 30 years before I get to live through moments like those again.


  1. Or 43. Whatever.  ↩

R’s: Hot Streaks & Bold Moves

I intentionally held off writing about the Royals activity at the trade deadline because I didn’t want to be responsible for jinxing their hot streak. Fortunately, after winning 10 of 11, they’ve now lost 3 of 4, so any bad stretch is not on me.

First off, what a great run! Right after I said they needed to go 6–3 in the nine games leading up to their trip to Boston, they went 8–1. Then won 2 of 3 in Boston. That’s not a bad way to go into August! Sadly The Indians were just as hot, and the Royals only took a game off their lead over that stretch. But they also solidified themselves in the second Wild Card spot for the time being. I’d much rather they win the division and not have to play a single-elimination game against Boston or New York, but being in the playoffs is the important thing.

In the midst of that hot streak, the Royals were one of the bigger buyers before the trade deadline. They grabbed a starter and two back-end relievers from San Diego. Then they reacquired Melky Cabrera to add another bat to the lineup.

Overall, I thought these were great trades. Of course, Trevor Cahill got shelled pretty good in his first start and Ryan Buchter contributed mightily to the bullpen meltdown and led to the winning streak ending on Saturday. But Brandon Maurer has looked pretty good when he’s been in. Cahill is likely the biggest piece of that deal. He at least gives the Royals a proven MLB starter in that #5 slot. If he gets his shit figured out and can go 5–6 strong innings every outing, that will be huge for this team.

But Maurer could be just as big. Joakim Soria has struggled of late. Kelvin Herrera hasn’t been as dominant as a closer as he was in the 8th inning role. Maurer was the Padres’ closer, and shouldn’t have any trouble handling high pressure situations late. He gives the Royals another power arm that can pitch at any point late in games. He will most likely be a 7th inning guy. But he gives the R’s flexibility to slide him in anywhere in the last three innings if needed.

Despite his PED issues after he left the Royals, I, like a lot of R’s fans, love Cabrera. He’s not the same player he was when he had an awesome year with the club in 2011. But he’s still a really solid hitter who can keep either Brandon Moss or Alex Gordon out of the lineup when needed.

So, at the moment of each trade, I loved them. The Royals didn’t give up too much to get four new players, two of which they control past this season.

Now, of course, the catch is these guys have to perform. Cahill and Buchter have made less-than-stellar first impressions. And Melky didn’t get a hit until his eighth at bat as a Royal. Small samples sizes, etc., etc., etc. I still think these deals make the Royals better.

The last couple weeks have felt more like late September than late July. I’ve watched or listened to the R’s each night while keeping an eye on the Indians, Yankees, Rays, and Mariners scores. I’ve been looking ahead to see how each team’s schedules compare. Each morning L will ask me, “Did they win?!?!” I kept having to remind myself that there are still two months of baseball left. The Royals aren’t going to play .900 ball for two months. Nor are the Indians. Just keep winning series, keep having positive road trips, and this team will be right in the middle of the playoff hunt as we move into fall.

R’s: Uh Oh

I was worried this would happen.

The Royals were the second-hottest team in baseball in the six weeks leading up to the All-Star Break. They were playing really good baseball and were in the heart of both the Wild Card race and the AL Central. Suddenly not only were the Royals keeping all their free agents to-be until the end of the season, but they might just be kicking the tires on a pitcher or hitter to add for the stretch.

Then they got swept in their final three games before the break. Sure, that series was in LA, against the Dodgers, the hottest team in baseball. But getting swept was a bad way to end the first half. Given how this season began, I got worried it was a sign the hot streak was over. Would the four days off erase all the Royals momentum and with it the hopes that the championship core had one more run in them?

They stretched the losing streak to five before getting a lucky win Sunday. Then they got pummeled but Detroit on Monday, with ace Jason Vargas getting hammered for his second-straight start. The offense suddenly looks more like its April iteration than the June one. The DH spot is a disaster. Alex Gordon seems unsalvageable. Lorenzo Cain has looked terrible for two weeks. Injuries keep popping up.

Still, they’re only three back in the Central and two back in the Wild Card race.

With the trading deadline less than two weeks away the Royals are in a tough spot. Do they move someone from their depleted minor league system for a DH that can actually put the ball in play, or someone who can throw 5–6 decent innings every fifth day? Does Raul Mondesi have any value and do you risk moving him to get someone who can help this year?

I think if you have an opportunity to make the post-season you go for it. The problem is the trend lines aren’t great. Who says that moving Mondesi and a couple other prospects will be enough? It’s not like 2015, when the Royals were firmly in control of the division and had their eyes on plugging holes for October when they acquired Johnny Cueto and Ben Zobrist. Those were very good and reasonable gambles. When you’re about to begin a large rebuilding process, do you move bodies you’re going to need next year and the year after for ones that will help you for just two-plus months?

My biggest fear is the Royals get stuck in the middle. I’d almost rather them fall apart completely than muddle along and stay 4–6 games back, treading water. I don’t know if Dayton Moore will start moving guys if the Royals go 1–9 over their next 10, but at least that gives him cover if he decides to. Sitting right around .500 on July 29 makes it tough either way.

They have nine games against Detroit and the White Sox before they go to Boston next weekend. I really think they need to break off a 6–3 stretch if they want to be honest about having hopes for October. If they reverse that, and go 3–6, Moore has to be honest about what this team is capable of. And if there’s a decent offer out there for Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, or one of the other guys who will leave this off-season, he needs to jump on it. He hasn’t had great luck with high draft picks, so I’d almost rather him acquire players with minor league track records than get a bunch of extra picks in next year’s draft.

I realize that’s all kind of wishy washy. What I really want is 10 more weeks of these guys playing decent ball. I’m fine if they come up short. But I want to see Lorenzo, Eric, and Moose go out strong.

R’s: Time to Sell?

Logic often gets thrown out in sports in favor of emotion. We mask over flaws in players and teams we love because we love them. And we ignore brilliance among rivals simply because they wear the wrong color of jersey.

The Kansas City Royals are in a dangerous situation when it comes to emotion right now. All of us who are fans, and everyone affiliated with the organization, hoped the core of players who got the franchise to the ’14 and ’15 World Series had one more run in them this season before the dismantling began. Off-season moves to bring in Jason Hammel and Brandon Moss were largely based on giving the team a chance to play this October.

But a brutal April made the team’s postseason prospects slim at best.

May was better. A few guys who were ice-cold warmed up. They went 15–14, which isn’t great, but is at least trending in the right direction. More importantly, no one else in the AL Central seems interested in running away with the division. Despite all the Royals’ struggles, they sit just 4.5 games out of first. After finishing a series with Houston tonight, the Royals travel west to face San Diego, Anaheim, and San Francisco, three teams that are all struggling as well.

Emotion says if they can get hot on the West Coast swing, they can climb right back into the division race. Emotion says that Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, Alex Gordon, Alcides Escobar, and Sal Perez deserve a few more weeks before the team starts selling off its most valuable parts. Emotion says the Whit Merrifield and Jorge Bonifacio are real deals and not young guys with holes in the swings the league is about to discover. Emotion says this team has come back before, why not one more time?

But logic, as always, is a bitch.

The Royals offense has been better over the past three weeks, but there are still gapping holes in it. Escobar and Gordon in particular seem mired in perpetual, horrendous slumps. Moss has been pretty terrible as well. Perez is fighting it right now. The rotation has been flat out weird, with everyone other than Jason Vargas having wild swings of good starts balanced with brutal ones. And the once vaunted bullpen has regressed to a more typical group where you never know what you’ll get from night-to-night.

Danny Duffy being out of the rotation for at least another month and Jorge Soler being such a disaster he’s now in Omaha are two more sobering pieces of logic.

Every time logic seems poised to win the argument, though, emotion defies it. The Royals sweep Baltimore. They win 2-of–3 from Cleveland twice. They come back from six runs down to beat the best team in baseball. Just enough moments for us to think, “Well, maybe if…” and start imagining scenarios in which the team is suddenly a half game out of first.

Plenty of writers have given up on the Royals and suggested they begin selling now. I see that logic. I might even agree with it to a large extent. But I don’t see any advantage in moving Hosmer, Moustakas, Cain, etc. right now. Wait until multiple teams are in the market for making big additions for the stretch. Wait for a major injury that forces a contender to make a panic move. Wait for Houston and Washington to cool off a bit and put their divisions back in play, increasing the number of potential trade partners.

I feel like I have a very pragmatic view of the Royals at the moment. I understand they’re going to trade guys sometime in the next six weeks, but I don’t think they should do so out of desperation. Still, I admit my view is still clouded by emotion. I want to watch Hos, Moose, and Lorenzo play in Royals uniforms as long as possible. Baring a series of miracles, I know this isn’t a World Series or even playoff team.

But keeping those guys around another month or so will make the memories of their October runs seem not so distant. And will keep the reality that the next October run is far off in the unseeable future at bay, too.

Weekend in KC

Another great weekend in Kansas City. Then again, aren’t all weekends in Kansas City great? At least when you’re visiting there. This trip was made more fun by it being the first full-family trip to KC in over three years. For my readers who weren’t involved in the weekend festivities, here’s a little run-down of what we did.

We drove over Friday. Had great weather and easy traffic the whole way. We marveled at how quiet our girls were when everyone has their own screen in front of them. The girls were basically silent for the first half of the trip, until we stopped in St. Louis for lunch. Then they remained quiet until we reached Concordia. Then they started getting a little antsy and ready to get out of the car.

We cruised into our hotel on the Plaza, relaxed for a bit, then headed straight to the original Joe’s barbecue location.[1] The girls had Joe’s three years ago, and were excited to have it again. But this was their first trip to the 47th and Mission gas station location. Luckily, since we rolled in at about 4:45 local time, there was a minimal line and we were able to snag a table big enough for us all to sit comfortably. Both S and M had pulled pork sandwiches, but C and L decided to split a half slab of ribs! Which actually meant they split half of a half slab and I knocked out the rest after finishing off my Z-Man. All-in-all, it was a fine meal enjoyed by all.

We walked around on the Plaza a little after, the girls got some dessert, and we made a stop at Rally House so the girls could get some gear for the Royals game Sunday. L really wanted a jersey. I was pushing a shirsey, pointing out if she got a t-shirt she’d likely get something else over the weekend. Nope, she wanted a real jersey. Then we had to pick a player. The kid options in light blue were Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez, and Alex Gordon. She was leaning toward Hosmer until I told her he wouldn’t be a Royal after this season. She debated between Salvy and Alex before picking Alex. I didn’t have the heart to tell her he’s having a terrible year. She loved the jersey and that’s all that really mattered. Then we headed back to the hotel so they could swim for a bit.

Saturday the girls wanted to go to the Nelson Atkins museum. Kind of an odd request, no? Well C and L follow some YouTube family that lives near KC and had visited the glass maze at some point. The girls just made the connection a couple weeks ago, when I was explaining the shuttlecock statues to them, and suddenly they wanted to go to the museum. They thought the maze was pretty cool, didn’t really get the shuttlecocks,[2] and weren’t nearly as impressed by the Asian temple exhibit inside as I was when I was their age and visited on school field trips. Oh well, I was just excited they wanted to go to an art museum. And I think it’s awesome the Nelson is still free. It would be about $50 for me to take them to our local art museum if we don’t go during the four hour free entry window each Thursday.

After the Nelson we met an aunt, uncle, and cousin for lunch at Ponak’s on the Boulevard. We drove them by the Roasterie and Boulevard plants on the way. They thought the plane outside the Roasterie was pretty cool, but didn’t seem as interested in the location where a significant percentage of the beer I drink comes from. They loved Ponak’s, though! “THAT WAS SOOOOO GOOD!” Back in the day I would have put Ponak’s 4th or 5th on my list of favorite spots on the Boulevard. When I told them that, it just confused them.

After that, off to our first big group gathering at our friends the B’s, who moved out to Lake Quivira six months ago. Good times in and around the water well into the evening.

Sunday, we had brunch with a couple of S’s friends from residency and their families. More good food and catching up.

From there it was out to the K for the girls first Major League Baseball game with a group of 20 or so. Thank goodness we picked seats just under the overhang, because we got stuck in a two hour rain delay and only got a little water blown our way. That delay challenged all the kids that were there, especially since they kept the tarp on a good 30 minutes after the rain stopped. But today L told me she liked the delay, because we got to walk around and do some other things during, and it made our stay at the K last longer. But the game kind of sucked. 8–0 losses are tough to sit through regardless of your age and the weather. The girls had fun, though, and no doubt will be telling all their friends here about going to an MLB game.

On our way back to the hotel I stopped and got Planet Sub for dinner. Which meant I had to bore the girls with the story of how I had Yello Sub for the first time in August 1989, ordered a Yello Sub with no Dijon, and other than a brief stretch in the early 00s when I dined there frequently and varied what I ordered, the Yello/Planet sub minus Dijon has been my go-to meal there for nearly 30 years now. Hey, just because they don’t enjoy hearing the story doesn’t mean I’m going to stop telling it! A little more swimming topped off the night.

Our drive home Monday was uneventful. Thankfully all the big slowdowns on I–70 were westbound and we made it home before the evening rush hit in Indy.

As always, it was too quick of a trip. It was great seeing so many people, but the conversations never feel as deep or long as they would be if we didn’t have 150 kids running around and yelling the entire time. The girls had a really good time. M seemed to pick right up with the her two seventh-grade-to-be friends she hadn’t seen in several years. Some of the younger friends followed C around and thought she was the coolest. And L slid right in with the older boys, playing basketball with them[3] and sitting with them at the game Sunday.

For those of you we got to see, thanks for making time to hang out with us. I wish our conversations could have been longer and with fewer interruptions. For those we missed, hopefully it won’t be too long before we make a return visit and we can try again then.


  1. Always Oklahoma Joe’s to me.  ↩
  2. Meaning they’d fit right in with a signification portion of the KC population. I’m a big shuttlecocks guy.  ↩
  3. And “dominating” according to her.  ↩

Words With Kids

We’ve reached the point in our parenting lives where the annoying moments begin to pretty closely balance the delightful moments. Our girls are all good, but they’re also getting older and hitting natural stages where they become more challenging, whether they’re good kids or not.

We had a couple truly delightful moments over the past few days, though.

Saturday night we were watching the Royals-Angels game and Albert Pujols came to bat at an important moment in the game. He battled Joakim Soria to a full count with the bases loaded, two outs, tie game, top of the seventh. Soria completely fooled Pujols, who looked at a fastball right down the middle to end the inning. As is my custom on called third strikes, I yelled out, “SIT DOWN, PUJOLS!” There was a moment of profound silence followed by all three girls saying, “PUJOLS?!?!” at the same time and bursting into hysterics. They laughed for like 10 minutes, delighting in “Pujols” over-and-over.

Sunday at our family Easter gathering, after their cousin added “Micah sauce” to our hosts’ whiteboard grocery list,[1] the girls added “Pujols sauce,” which I thought was pretty great.

Even Monday one of them would mutter, “Sit down, Pujols!” and send her sisters into more fits of laughter.

Next, kickball season began last week. Our family is off to a very good start, but more about that another time. When we discuss practices and games at home, S and I have a habit of using the phrase “kicked the crap out of the ball.” As in, “Peggy Sue was really kicking the crap out of the ball at practice today.”

For some reason the girls have started calling us on that. There are gasps and cries of mock outrage that we’ve uttered the word crap in front of them.[2] Granted, we would prefer they not use that word at school for sure, and limit it otherwise. But, still, it’s not like it’s a terrible word.

The best part, though, was when M had to pull the Know It All card and explain to her sisters why it’s a bad word. “It means the same thing as S-H-I-T, guys.”

C and L howled at her audacity. I actually thought it was pretty funny, too. But I also thought there was more than a little jackassery in her thinking her sisters don’t know what a synonym for crap is that they are not allowed to use yet.

I could write a lot more words on the things they’ve done – especially the two older ones – over the past week that have made me question my sanity. But I enjoyed those two moments more.


  1. His name is Micah.  ↩
  2. Seriously, they’ve heard way worse, mostly from their Old Man.  ↩

Sports, Man

Sometimes sports are the worst. Sometimes they’re the best. There’s been a lot of both lately.

Super Bowl

Had I been fully neutral, that would have been an awesome Super Bowl. The league heavies get blasted early and look thoroughly overmatched by their young, brash, high-powered opponents. Then an epic comeback, featuring an all-time play, and the first overtime game in Super Bowl history that ends with the Patriots staking claim to greatest franchise in league history and Tom Brady officially passing Joe Montana as the greatest quarterback ever.

That’s pretty great, right?

However, I was not neutral. I reveled in Atlanta’s early dominance. I was giddy when Brady threw a pick-six. I laughed as Atlanta’s defense punished Brady every time he dropped back. It was going to be a really fantastic day!

And then, just like I secretly feared they would do, New England completely flipped the script. They took Atlanta’s offense out of their game. They started finishing their drives on offense. They converted one two-point attempt. They survived a massive throw by Matt Ryan and catch by Julio Jones that really should have ended the game.[1] Then they turned into the Pats we all know and hate. Edelman, Hogan, Amendola, and Bennett started carving up the Atlanta secondary. Edelman’s fingertip catch still looks utterly impossible. And then another score, another two-point conversion, tie game.

Man, Matt Ryan had a great season and was great in the first half. But you knew there was no way he was going Aaron Rodgers and getting he Falcons 60 yards in 40-some seconds for a winning field goal attempt. If it’s fair to say there was a less-than-zero chance, that’s what I’d call it.

I don’t know why they even bothered playing overtime. Even if Atlanta had won the toss and received the ball first, I don’t think anyone but the biggest Falcons fan believed they had any chance to win at that point. Not for the first time that weekend, I snapped off the TV before the final play ended to avoid the post-game celebrations.

Just an awful outcome. The worst, Jerry, the worst.

KU Basketball

Yep, I turned the game off before the final buzzer on Saturday, too. Coming off fantastic wins at #4 Kentucky and at home against #2 Baylor, KU looked awesome in the first half against Iowa State. They shot 71% from the field. They out-rebounded the Cyclones 19–3. They had a 14-point lead at halftime. Life was great!

Except the Jayhawks must have thought, “OK, we’ve had a rough ten-day stretch. We can just cruise to the finish from here.” No flow on offense. No commitment on defense. Terrible turnovers. Missed free throws. Failing to cover shooters. It all added up to an overtime loss and the end of the 54/51 game home winning streak.[2] Thank goodness for Frank Mason, otherwise the game never would have made it to overtime. I wish he would have drained the potential game-winner, though, which was the same shot, opposite side, that he hit to beat Duke back in November.

Sports are awful.

Until they’re not. About an hour later, Baylor lost at home. Two hours after that, West Virginia also lost at home. While the home court winning streak was over, the Big 12 title race stood exactly where it was at the beginning of the day. Weird.

KU had to get their shit together quickly and go play at Kansas State Monday night. A K-State team that felt they should have won in Lawrence last month and had zero fear about playing the Jayhawks. Especially at home. When it was 20–8 K-State early and Bill Self asked a player “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?” as he called a timeout, I was saying the exact same thing. What the fuck are you guys doing?

A 14–4 KU run turned the tide. KU controlled most of the rest of the game, although that grasp was pretty tenuous in the last 6:00. K-State got the lead once – and caused me to throw my remote, two pillows, and pound our leather ottoman while shouting a string of expletives – but KU quickly answered and weathered the storm to pull out a game most KU fans had chalked up as a loss.

Sports are fun!

Except for all the nonsense going on off-the-court around the KU basketball program right now. Which makes sports terrible. I’m keeping my head in the sand and hoping the people I know who are close to the program and keep saying this will blow over are right.

So…just over halfway through the Big 12 schedule, KU has a one-game lead. They’ve played in Morgantown, but not Waco. They’re done with Iowa State and K-State. They have tricky trips to Stillwater, Lubbock, and Austin left. I’d love it if they finished 14–4, which is what I picked at the beginning of the year. I think that’s optimistic, given their depth, how many minutes #BIFM is playing, and how tough the league is. The good thing is I expect Baylor and West Virginia to pick up a stupid loss or two in addition to the expected losses. It ain’t over, but I’d rather be a game ahead than a game behind at this point.

Royals

The Royals signed Brandon Moss and Jason Hammel over the past two weeks. I think they’re both good moves. Both players come with risks, but if they deliver, they could go a long way to keeping the Royals in the playoff race. If not, I guess we’ll see a fire sale in July.

The wife mentioned to me over the weekend that she thought we should take the girls back to KC for a game this summer. I’m thinking we schedule that trip early in the summer, lest we arrive when the big names have all been traded if the team is 10 games back at the All Star break.

Sports are ok, I guess. For now.


  1. What is it with coaches against New England in the Super Bowl who refuse to run the ball when there is absolutely no reason to throw it? Seattle should have won two years ago and now Atlanta goes from chippy field goal to clinch the game to punting the ball with all kinds of time for Brady to get the tying score. Terrible.  ↩
  2. The whole counting games in Kansas City thing was dumb. KU played a number of games in Kansas City during this stretch that weren’t officially home games, and thus were not counted. Same court, different rules. They even lost a couple of those. I don’t care if it’s KU playing in KC, Indiana playing in Indy, Duke playing at MSG: if you’re not playing on your home court, it doesn’t count as a home court win. Even if you sell it as part of your season ticket package.  ↩

Yordano


Sunday sucked.

Not because of the weather. For the second-straight day it was in the 60s here, although it was a more dreary day than Saturday. No complaints there.

Not because anyone in the family was sick. We are all reasonably healthy.

Not because of L’s basketball game. Although we lost by 2, it was a good game and the girls played really well.

Sunday sucked because of a text I got late in the morning from a friend back in KC with the news about Yordano Ventura.

Ventura wasn’t the first athlete to lose his life too early. Hell, he wasn’t even the only one to die on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

But he was the first who played for a team that I loved. I wasn’t Prince-died sad Sunday, but I was bummed for the rest of the day, the sadness rising a little each time I read another tribute to him from a baseball writer, by a fan, or news that his teammates were gathering with fans at Kaufman Stadium to celebrate his life.

My thoughts about Yordano? I’ll argue he was the most frustrating Royals prospect ever. There were plenty of guys who were high draft picks or minor league studs who never panned out if and when they made it the big leagues. But none of them ever had the ceiling that Yordano had while also showing the flashes of brilliance he showed.

From his earliest days with the Royals, he displayed the physical skills to be one of the best pitchers in the game. His first full year in the rotation, 2014, he had an amazing stretch of starts early in the season. He capped that year by throwing seven shutout innings in game six of the World Series.

But he always countered those brilliant stretches with the maddening ones. The innings where he would get two quick outs, walk a guy on a close 3–2 count, then lose focus and give up a single followed by a 3-run home run. There were the games where he appeared to be cruising and suddenly had a 35-pitch inning that prevented him from getting through the fifth.

And then there were the blowups. The yelling at opponents for no clear reason. The yapping with first base coaches as he walked off the mound. The three-straight starts in 2015 when benches cleared because of his antics.

With Yordano every start was a thrill ride of not knowing if he would be un-hittable or a head case. Would he be solid through six-plus, or meltdown in the third and tax the bullpen.

There was always something.

The 2016 season was disappointing in a lot of ways for the Royals. To me the biggest disappointment was that Yordano seemed stuck in mediocrity. Sure, he threw the most innings of his career. But he also gave up the most hits and had the highest ERA and WHIP of his career. And he was a mess in July. Then again, the whole team was. But the Royals seemed fed up with him and publicly acknowledged they were entertaining offers for him. Was he going to be another one of those guys with a million dollar arm that could never figure it out?

In the end, the Royals stuck with him, and he improved in the final quarter of the season. He was only 25, signed to a team-friendly contract for five more seasons, and still oozed with potential. You don’t give up on guys like that.

Looking ahead to 2017, there was the hope that maybe Yordano was a year behind Danny Duffy, a guy that also took awhile to figure it out. But once Duffy did, he became one of the better pitchers in the league for a stretch of the 2016 season. With guys like Yordano, you always hoped.

Many of the tributes to Yordano have mentioned his kid-like nature. He loved to goof off. His teammates, while weary of his on-the-field blowups, seemed to still love him in the locker room, where he was everyone’s little brother. Royals fans will never forget his epic celebration in the locker room after the Royals clinched the 2016 AL pennant. “OOOOOH BABY!” was a meme on Royals Twitter for some time.

There were also mentions of how hard he worked as a player, always diligent in his workouts, his dedication to watching video, his attention to his coaches. He made great efforts to master English, and proudly began giving interviews in his second language two years ago.

I first heard Yordano’s name when he was 18 or 19, back when the Royals still sucked but their minor league system was bubbling with young talent. I kept reading about this kid in A-ball in Illinois who had an electric arm. The scouts said if he could ever harness its power, he could be a gem. They also always mentioned his size, and feared his slight build would limit him to pitching out of the bullpen in the majors.

Yordano was too big to contain. He scoffed at people who said he was too small. He just kept throwing fire.

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