Well, there’s snow on the ground. Probably as good of a time as any for my first lengthy football post of the year. Jayhawks It says a lot about the KU football program’s recent history that a win over another crappy team and a near-win against a very good team went down as the best stretch since the end of the 2008 season. So go ahead and laugh at us if your team has been a consistent winner over that span.
The college basketball season officially begins tonight. Tuesday I will be watching my alma mater take on the modern goliath of the NCAA, Kentucky, at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse. As aggravating as Kentucky is, I’ve been on record for a couple years as saying, like him or not, you have to give credit to John Calipari. There is no better recruiter in the game, as he finds every angle and uses it shamelessly.
youtu.be/TLEXHFsSz… “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” - Tears For Fears I’m not ready to give up on the music from 1985 yet, apparently. Songs From the Big Chair just got its (slightly early) 30th anniversary rerelease this week, and Tears For Fears is making the rounds to promote it. I’ll share a review of the updated album in the links, but this performance seemed like justification to throw this song out as the vid of the week.
Well, the Hinkle Fieldhouse stuff was technically a lengthy reporter’s notebook entry. But I still need to get you caught up on the last month of work. The final regular season football game I covered came over a month ago, the same night as game one of the ALCS as a matter of fact. My team was down 24–0 before the first quarter was over. It had poured rain all day and was still raining steadily with chilly temperatures.
In the first six months I lived in Indiana, back in 2003, I had a pretty solid sports run. I went to the RCA Dome for a Colts pre-season game. I went to a Notre Dame football game in South Bend. I’m told that I went to West Lafayette for a Purdue football game, although that day is rather fuzzy thanks to a huge amount of alcohol. I went to an IU basketball game in Assembly Hall.
I failed to share links last week, so I’ll do it the way I originally planned and get caught up on a Friday. Still a few baseball things to get through. I’ll begin with a tech tip that could have been very useful when the playoffs began. But save it somewhere safe for next year. Jason Snell explains how to combine the video and crowd noise of the national TV broadcasts with the audio of the local announcing team.
youtu.be/9SaHXd4Rh… “Brill Busters” - The New Pornographers We’re just about a month away from when I’ll begin unveiling my 20 favorite songs of the year. The top ten is pretty locked in. The second ten has some flux in it. And then there’s a third group of 10–15 songs that I’m still debating whether they deserve to slip into the top 20. This song falls somewhere between 15 and 35 right now.
A rash of baseball books read between games and even during commercial breaks. Wild Pitches - Jayson Stark Stark has been one of ESPN’s baseball ‘insiders’ and columnists for nearly two decades, and had been covering baseball nationally long before that. This is a collection of his favorite columns from his ESPN years. I should have read the back cover and realized that before I checked it out. I thought it would be more a collection of his thoughts on baseball with a few columns sprinkled in.
I’m glad I was not alone. I heard from many of my friends who are Royals fans last Thursday. The common theme was we all felt like garbage following game seven of the World Series. I was able to shake off the funk by late in the day, as I began to see the big picture again. It sucks that one game can wipe out many of the good feelings built up in the 14 (or 176) games that came before it.
Worst Halloween ever? As far as the weather was concerned, I think the answer was a resounding yes here in central Indiana. It was just a nasty night. It was cold, wet, windy, and miserable. Temps were in the mid–30s, the winds were gusting at close to 30 MPH, which made the steady rain come down sideways. There really was no way to stay dry. So none of us were disappointed when the rain turned to snow.
youtu.be/3LDTOELWK… “Broken Hearted Savior” - Big Head Todd & The Monsters Not Halloween music, but the band is called The Monsters so it will have to do. Big Head Todd at Red Rocks? No pot was smoked that night. Their drummer is wacky. I’ve been putting together a list of albums you most likely owned if you were in college in the early-mid 90s. Sistery Sweetly, the album this comes from, has to be on that list.
I was nine years old when the Royals made their first World Series. We had moved to Kansas City less than three months earlier. Just three weeks earlier my parents interrupted me listening to a Royals-Mariners game to tell me that they were getting a divorce. I was dealing with a lot of shit, as Kevin Costner might say. When Willie Wilson struck out to end the World Series in game six, I burst into tears.
I don’t think I’m getting much done today. It’s not yet 9:00 am as I write this and my hands are already jittery, my stomach an unsettled mess, and overall anxiety level is too high for this early. Game Seven is supposed to be one of the best phrases in sports. But it’s doing a number on me today. I would love a repeat of last night’s 10–0 Royals rout, where a 7-run second inning ended the game soon after it began.
The ebbs and flows of the baseball postseason can be tough. Between the long series, travel days, the breaks between innings, and the gaps between pitches and at-bats, there is so much time for the emotion of the situation to ferment, turning into something more potent than reality. For example, after Friday night’s Royals win, I think most Royals fans were ecstatic. The post-game show from the Power & Light district in KC sure made it appear that way.
You know the drill. Watching lots of baseball, reading lots about baseball, not many links to share, etc. etc. etc. Thus, it’s kind of a requirement that I kick things off with an article about the crowd at Kauffman Stadium. You’ve read my thoughts on this. It’s nice that a national voice, who was actually in the stadium last week, agrees. The Royals fans, and that sound, is what makes this series unique.
youtu.be/wbL2lMn34… “Oh Sheila” - Ready For The World I’m sticking with this 1985 thing for another week. A week after hitting #1, this was #4 this week in October 1985. There’s a lot to discuss. Prince’s influence is all over this. So much so that even now people think he wrote the song.[1] While the band wrote it themselves, it sure sounds like something Prince would have cranked out and passed on to one protege or another.
Twenty-four hours can make a huge difference in the mood of a sports fan. Wednesday morning I think most of us Royals were down. Not because the Royals dropped game one to the Giants. I bet a lot of us figured it would be a tough task to beat Madison Bumgarner. But James Shields getting rocked early wasn’t in the plan. The Royals returning to their early July flailing at everything mode of offense wasn’t in the plan.
Well, here we go. The series that was never supposed to happen is about to begin. The Royals will play for the World Series championship over the next four-to-seven games. Wildest dreams, Cinderella story, “…tears in his eyes, I guess…”, etc., etc. I’ve read a couple posts already this morning that spoke of how surreal this is. Even after a week of rehashing how they got here, it’s still hard to believe that any of this has happened, and is continuing to happen.
As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been a little off my game the last couple weeks. This crazy Royals run has messed with my internal rhythms. Not that I’m complaining. But this past week I’d say three-quarters of the stuff I read was about them and their run. So not much to choose from. Of all the “The Royals Made the World Series” columns and articles I read, it should be no surprise that Joe Posnanski offered one of the best, and most touching.
youtu.be/djV11Xbc9… “Take On Me” - a-ha One of the most memorable videos ever, no? Also the song that was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts exactly 29 years ago. You know, the last time the Royals were in the World Series.