Dear Bob Dutton, you're breaking my heart

Oh, trade rumors. It's the time of year when I'm simultaneously giddy with anticipation of juicy trades, but nervous that someone I like might get traded away. Behold: Yankees taking a hard look at Bannister as trade deadline nears

By now, y'all have figured out how I feel about Banny. I mean, it says right there in my blog description that he is my favorite Royal. I love the extent to which he's a student of baseball...all pitchers review films and study opposing hitters, but Banny lives, breathes, eats and shits baseball studies. And he still loves baseball. He's the reason I spend more time learning about the game than I ever took the time to learn before; I have always found the game to be interesting, but had never devoted time/money/energy to knowing it until Banny so riveted me last season.

Furthermore, JoePo has the same love affair with the magnificent brain of Brian, so the joys I reap from a Banny day do not end when his start ends - I also get treated to the Banny Log. (Also check out Poz's piece about Bannister in the Star - it's like the B-Log in newspaper form! Heck yeah!)

Anyway, I'm pulling hard for the Yanks to work out some deal with Seattle. Let Jarrod Washburn be a Yankee; I don't want to see Bannister in pinstripes, and besides...what would I do with my Bannister powder blue?

I am intrigued by this trade rumor though. Kind of flattered, even. It's not easy being a fan of someone like Banny sometimes, because not everyone is willing to be patient while he tweaks one thing or re-thinks another, and his ERA hangs out in the neighborhood of five. So people rip him all the time on message boards, other Royals blogs (as I am only one of thousands), and pretty much everywhere. Once he started slumping after that amazing 3-0 start, the negativity about him was everywhere, and while I understand where these people were coming from, I defended him every time because it's Bannister, and that means something to me. So for the Yankees to be courting him makes me feel like JoePo and I are not alone in this; someone else thinks having a Bannister is better than not having one. Like this latest round of adjustments will be the right one, and he'll be able to have more (and not flukey) success for a team scratching its way towards the top of its division.

So if the Yankees see that in him...does that mean the Royals do too? Will they hang on to Banny even if it means losing out on Melky Cabrera, whom they've actively courted before? I'm just selfishly going to sit here and hope the Yanks are successful in their quest to land Jarrod Washburn so I don't have to see my favorite pitcher join the Empire. And I'll probably be wearing that #19 powder blue, just in case.

Not that I saw the game at all, but...

I didn't hear a thing about Jon Lester's no-hitter against the Royals last night until it was almost over (I was at work, a loss for the Omaha Royals). In the 7th, I heard it was 7-0 Boston, and that Alex Gordon was on deck. In the 9th, one of my superiors, Adam, warned me he was going to tell me something that I wasn't going to like. "Looks like Lester is an out away from no-hitting your Royals."

Dang, he was right. I didn't like it. But the weird thing is, I don't hate it either. There's something about no-hitters that I love more deeply than most things in baseball. It's one of those rare things that makes the Baseball Tonight crew shut up about home runs for once and celebrate pitching. It's the way a defense bands together to make impossible plays for their pitcher when they realize there's a shot at history on the line. It's the way there's always a cool story behind the guy throwing it, a story that's a little bigger than sportswriters searching for an angle.

Look back at last year, at Clay Buchholz's second big league start. I'm not a Red Sox fan by any means, but that video gives me chills every time, makes me root for the defense to not mess it up, makes my jaw hit the floor every time Dustin Pedroia makes the diving stop and rolls to fire it to first in time. It's beyond baseball, I think. It has to be a little bit of magic.

That magic is why I can't be too pissed off that the Royals were no-hit last night. Sure, I'd rather have had KC win, but it's kind of cool to see a young guy say "F*** you" to cancer and do something like this. It's cool to see any kind of guy do something like this.

As usual, JoePo and Brian Bannister said it best, so I'll let them finish this out:

There’s no manual telling a player what to say after getting no-hit. There’s no model for how to feel. Mostly, there’s silence. Pitcher Brian Bannister dresses in front of his locker. He watched the whole thing from the dugout, of course, and he heard the excitement of the crowd, and he understood the magic of the moment, and he felt the agony with his teammates. Brian is never at a loss for words. Now, though, he says he doesn’t really know what to say.

“If someone had to throw a no-hitter against us, I’m glad it was Jon,” he finally says. “That’s just an amazing story after what he has gone through. As a fellow pitcher, I can see just how amazing this is. It hurts to get no-hit, but you think about what he did. You know, that’s why I love this game.”

On Buzz Bissinger

It amazes me what fear of change will make a man say. Out of nowhere, a man who has spent 40 years showing he knows how to craft words in a pleasing, meaningful way could not think of anything more to spout than “I really think you’re full of shit.”

The crafter of these fine words, of course, was Buzz Bissinger, whose bizarre and pathetic attack on Will Leitch you’ve probably already seen (but is here if you haven’t). Before Bissinger interjected, the conversation had been lighthearted and sensible even where viewpoints differed. Bob Costas brought up the point that some blogs take on a mean-spirited tone, and then Leitch (blogger) responded in a level-headed, mild-mannered way before Bissinger (classically trained legitimate sportswriter!) interjected with the completely random assertion that Leitch is full of shit. Which side is mean-spirited, again?

I remember reading once how threatened maestros were by the advent of radio back in the day. They were certain that if people could listen to orchestras on the radio, they’d cease to attend live performances, and the musicians and the maestros themselves would be out of business. Replace “radio” with “blogs,” and “maestros” with “newspaper writers” and this is exactly the fear Bissinger faces. Have people stopped attending symphony performances? Heck no; if an orchestra is good, people will travel many miles and shell out all kinds of money to see them – or any of a thousand other types of musicians that came into existence only because new forms of listening to music were introduced. The difference is that advances in technology have given music fans – or in this case, sports fans – a choice.

Something that really insulted me as a young person who loves reading is that he seems sure that my generation (or even Leitch’s) wouldn’t know good writing if we saw it, because our internet is so full of bad writers. That’s offensive; is he not aware that a lot of people his age – people with journalism degrees, press passes, and decades of experience -- can also suck? Working for a newspaper does not make a man a good writer; writing for a blog does not make a man a bad writer, and shame on Bissinger for refusing to acknowledge that. He did nothing to help his case; his own fear of change will only contribute to the death of newspapers. If “traditional” journalists don’t start to embrace or at least acknowledge the new avenues by which information is available, they will cease to have a place in sports fans’ daily lineup of reading, and will have no one but themselves to blame.

UPDATE: I could have saved myself the trouble of stewing over this matter all night (and accidentally oversleeping a final exam by 45 minutes) by just referring to this post of JoePo's from last fall. A lot has been said in the last few days about the Bissinger tirade specifically, but it all boils down to a stupid Us v. Them debate that doesn't need to be brought up another time. OK, I promise this is the last I will say about Buzz Bissinger.

No worries, it's just Spring Training...right?

I know that I can't put a whole lot of stock in Spring Training performances, either good or bad. If you take ST stats too seriously, the Royals are all better batters than Ichiro. But how many sub-standard performances am I supposed to shrug off here? My handy countdown tells me the real actual season is coming very soon, and right now a lot of KC pitchers have some scarily big numbers in statistical categories where smaller is better.

I should point out that I haven't been able to actually listen to many games, so maybe I'm missing something. My mlb.com audio has been playing a funny game for the last two weeks, wherein I go to sign in to listen to a game, and they say "Nope! You aren't actually a subscriber," and I say "But I signed in just fine yesterday, what's the problem now" and the site says "Nope! You aren't actually a subscriber, I'm not listening to you lalalalalala!" so all I've had for reference so far are box scores. Maybe the broadcasts would be more informative than the box scores. Are Brett Tomko, Hideo Nomo, and a few others in whom I'm supposed to have faith just hiding their true skill until Opening Day?

I understand small sample sizes -- Tomko is the only Royals pitcher to have reached double-digits in innings so far -- and I understand that ERA is a flawed statistic and I understand that I'm not supposed to be too upset about ERAs in the tens and teens because the calendar tells me it's only mid-March.

But...it's mid-March. That's close to April, when for-real games start. Are pitchers supposed to be closer to their regular-season form yet? I honestly don't know, because I haven't always been a religious Spring Training follower as I am at the moment. Is it getting to the point where I should be worried about various parts of the KC pitching staff?

On an unrelated note (aren't they all that way with me?), I am spending my Spring Break in my hometown with my parents, little brother, and dogs. I guess most people go somewhere crazy during this week. I think the most exotic thing I have going on is a trip to the eye doctor, to get my glasses updated for the first time since 8th grade or so. My older dog (we call him The Perfect One) is napping at my feet, which I think is better than some overpriced trip to a place overcrowded with drunken frat boys and scantily clad sorostitutes. I may have mentioned this before, but my dorm building is nestled among about 60487 Greek houses, so I am surrounded by these types of "people" during every week of the year. This is my break from them.

Some links, for your reading pleasure:
-JoePo interviews Bill James. I like this: two of my favorite baseball minds talk about a bunch of random stuff.
-Clark Fosler takes a look at Royals pitching prospects. I think more are coming.
-The Minnesota/Illinois game (the Big 10 quarterfinals) ended in a CRAZY fashion. Definitely worth watching if you, like me, missed SportsCenter last night.
-A little late, but here's something "completely useless" but somewhat entertaining from Pizza Cutter at StatSpeak. It includes a Royal being first in the Majors in something. I'll let you read to find out who it is, and in what he led the league.

Lastly...
In Big XII tournament presented by Phillps 66 action,Nebraska lost to Kansas last night, which isn't much of a surprise. However, the first half was awesome. I wish I could have watched on TV, because I think I missed one of the only opportunities I'll ever have to see my Huskers frustrate and ultimately outplay the Jayhawks.

Big XII and other awesomeness

Today was really really awesome. I mean, the kind of awesome that leaves you grinning for hours, for no particular reason. Firstly, I only have one class on Tuesdays, so I didn't have to waste much time being indoors. It was the first warm day we've had a long while (I think we finally passed 70 degrees). And there was a Husker baseball game (another win, which gives us a 10-game winning streak that stretches all the way back to the season's first series). And I got to play catch. And playing said game of catch did not hurt my shoulder nearly as much as I thought it would. And my dining hall had papaya at supper time. And the Soul of Baseball is now out in paperback. (Hi, Joe.)

So really, I could scarcely ask for more awesomeness in a day. But now the time has come to sit down and write something, so...well, here. The Big XII men's basketball (presented by Phillips 66) tournament starts in like 35 hours, and here's what I think will happen on Day 1. I am probably going to be totally wrong.

Thursday 11:30 a.m. - Oklahoma State vs. Texas Tech
I'm actually going to call a Cowboy win here. I know Tech is the 8 seed and OSU is #9, but in the first matchup between these two teams this year, OSU won by a handy margin. Later in the year, Tech took the win in a second contest, so I think Okie State might be looking for a little revenge.

Thursday 2:00 - Colorado vs. Baylor
Baylor wins, no question. Colorado is not a team. They are a Roby and a bunch of bodies. (Then again, my refusal to respect them as a team possibly stems from a deeper hatred of all things CU. But still, Baylor will win this game.)

Thursday 6:00 - Missouri vs. Nebraska
My apologies to Tigers fans, but...well, Nebraska ought to win this game. Last time these two teams met, it was a heartbreaking overtime loss for the Huskers. I mean, it hurt. Doc Sadler has proven to be an excellent button-pusher, and I'm guessing he'll use that last meeting as quite a motivator for the 7th-seeded Huskers.


Another reason Nebraska has to be refreshed is the return of playmaker Cookie Miller, who was out for what seemed like ages (but what was really 3 games) with a separated shoulder. He came back against Colorado, but wasn't quite back in form. His hand was all taped up, which affected his ball movement pretty ferociously. If that is all cleared up by Thursday, Tiger fans can expect to see Miller come up with a few sneaky steals, and slide a lot of passes to his teammates where it might look like there aren't any passes open.

Thursday 8:30 - Iowa State vs. Texas A&M
Texas A&M. Again, I don't see any upset brewing here; the seedings are the way they are for a reason.

It worries me a little bit (OK, a lot) that Nebraska is stuck playing Kansas on Friday (assuming they do, indeed, beat Mizzou). By the way, here is the schedule of the Big XII Tournament Presented By Phillips 66.

Sweeney to become an A, and more

Well, the wait is over for Mike Sweeney fans. We know where he's going, and that's to Oakland.

I'm happy he gets to be closer to home. I'm happy that a somewhat likeable team is getting all the things I love about my best friend Michael John Sweeney. I'm happy that he is no longer in limbo, I'm happy that he doesn't have to slip quietly into retirement.

He has spent half his life as a Royal, and now he's not a Royal anymore. Predictably, I am still quite sad despite all the times I used the word "happy" in the preceding paragraph. Kansas City is losing a family who has done an incredible amount of good. Mike never quit being generous and selfless toward the people of KC, even when his seasons started to become severely shortened by injuries and the boos started pouring in from all corners of The K. He never said a negative word about those fans, but kept giving and giving wherever he saw need.

I wrote this open letter on the day Sweeney filed for free agency, with the words "Just in case" scrawled at the top of the page. I was still hoping that Sweeney would be around with that familiar letter 'C' on his uniform, and I wouldn't have to consider anyone else being the Royals' captain. Here we go:

Dear new Royals captain,
You have really big cleats to fill. Michael John Sweeney was known to be a fantastic captain. Are you prepared to follow suit? He liked to take freshly-promoted rookies and other new teammates out to dinner to make sure they felt welcome; in fact, it's likely that he did it for you. Are you ready to do the same for your teammates?
Sweeney showed a fierce loyalty to his team and his city. He knew that the 'C' on his shoulder meant he had to lead more than just his fellow Royals. This year alone, he did things for the KC for which he deserves - but would be reluctant to accept - some great reward. Everything that happened to him, good or bad, was an opportunity to lead, and never to complain.
In the end, it was all about spaces on the roster, and Mike didn't make the cut this time. It's your turn now, so congratulations and good luck.

A little dramatic? Yes it is, I know, but obviously Sweeney meant a lot to me. He gave my faith a jump-start this summer, and followed that up in January by checking up on me at the FOCUS national conference. Were it not for Mike, I might still be a lukewarm Catholic (at best) like I was before. It might not be smart for me, readership-wise to wave that flag here (you know, the whole "don't bring up religion or politics in polite company" thing), but I don't care. One of my biggest personal influences is going to be far away from me now, so I'm a bit upset.

Back to some less emotionally-charged business:
Will the Royals name a new captain this season? If so, who would it be? My guesses:
- David DeJesus: He has a few full seasons under his belt, and has been known to lead by example. He works hard, can play adequately well, and has a few years left on his long-term deal with the team.
- Mark Teahen: He's a good model for never complaining about where the team puts him, even when he was demoted to Omaha in 2006 (kind of an anti-Guillen*). He is coming off a less-than-great season, but will almost certainly be better this season.
- Gil Mehce: I know, a pitcher as captain? I don't see why not in Meche's case. He was such a big piece of the improvements made last year, and even if he ends up not being the staff ace, he still seems to be a good leader.

And the bigger question, does a team even need an official captain? I mean, look at what David Riske contributed to the bullpen without having a title. Meche and DeJesus have both had things written about them relating to their leadership abilities. Does it matter if the title is made official? No matter; moving on:

Miguel Olivo will join Guillen in the naughty corner. On one hand, I tend to celebrate players who keep a cool head (see Sweeney, Mike), but I also kind of like players who have the fire in them to defend themselves when someone offends them in the heat of baseball battle (see Sweeney, Mike). As long as forgiveness is granted when it needs to be (see again Sweeney, Mike and Weaver, Jeff), all is well. But...it looks bad for the Royals, who are generally thought of as a Midwesternly-polite team, to have two players miss a chunk of April's games because of naughty behavior. Oh, I had a Guillen-relted asterisk like 13 paragraphs ago, and now would be a good time to cover that.

* Jose Guillen had better have a monster season for all the negative press he has managed to cook up for himself. The steroids thing and the subsequent suspension that will follow were kind of a bad thing on which to start his KC career, but I was ready to forgive. But then, he used FanFest as an excuse to whine about where Trey Hillman was tentatively thinking about playing him. If he has an issue with Hillman's plans, that is fine, but something like FanFest is supposed to be a happy and optimistic time: photos, autographs, feel-good soundbytes, upbeat forecasts, and nothing else. The more I've thought about Guillen's FF whine party (which was sadly devoid of fine cheeses), the more I think he's going to have to have a ridiculous season to make up for his bitchiness. Cursed be the man who makes me wish for Emil Brown back! On the other hand, Teahen is brilliantly making himself look like the better man and the more adaptable player in response to Guillen's immaturity.

- I have another excuse to write about Matt Wright. (In the same Royals Notes as the Olivo mess) This all makes me miss my O-Royals days madly.

- Check out Part I of JoePo's assessment of the upcoming season. I particularly liked his assessment of Teahen, and even the idea of Teahen leading off.

Happy Friday, y'all

Ahh, what a great day. It was much better than last Friday, when everything was garbage; today it was sunny and warm out (all of 36 degrees!), and the worst thing that happened to me was that I was a little bit late to Spanish class.

If you need to smile about a lot of random little things, read this post by JoePo, and all the comments too.

And, in preparation for the NFL's biggest day, be sure to check out The Ladies...' thoughts on how NOT to throw a Super Bowl party.

I started building a fun fantasy baseball team the other day. It's made up of players about whom bad headline writers would make those puns* which make me groan and immediately discard the publication I'm reading. I'll share the full roster when I'm finished,** but here's a snippet.
My bullpen will include Tony Armas, Jr. (headline: All Armas in Pitt's 'pen come in for the win), Matt Capps, (Bullpen Capps off another Pirate win), and so on. Coming up with headlines for these guys is nauseating.

65 days until Opening Day...

*All puns
**I'm going through the Bill James Handbook alphabetically, and will pare down the players to a 40-man or 25-man when I get through all of them. I'm somewhere in the Cs right now.

Annnnnd.....back!

I just spent a week in lovely Grapevine, Texas for the FOCUS national conference. It was overwhelmingly awesome, and now that I'm home, I am overwhelmed by the task of catching up on the stuff I missed while I was gone. The Royals made a couple of moves, JoePo wrote approximately 7 million words (including the results of the Pozcars!), the Ladies... covered all the bowls of the week in a way that only they could, some great conversations about the Royals' future were opened up over at Royals Authority, and I gained some major ground (and possibly even first place) in my bowl pool, based on my arbitrary picks and as-stupid-as-I-could-muster reasons.

Well, that's the stuff that happened that had nothing to do with me.

For my part, I survived an outlandishly long bus ride to Dallas to start my 2008. You should know that buses and I...we're not friends. But I made it, so 10 points for me! The conference was held at the Gaylord Texan, which was completely wonderful despite having really tacky carpet everywhere:
I think the goal of the Gaylord Texan is to see how many Texas cliches they could cram into one resort. It seems kind of silly to me. I mean, Nebraskan hotels don't have carpet with ears of corn all over it, right?

Part of the carpet in the ballroom featured larger versions of the motifs in the hallway design. Those giant boots, hats, and belt buckles were a crazy-awful distraction during daily Mass.

This being a Catholic conference, there were tons of nuns (Say that a few times out loud, it's fun: Tons of nuns! Tons of nuns!), priests, brothers, deacons, and even bishops everywhere. Some regular hotel guests (ones not associated with the conference) were quite confused by this; people overheard some fun observations like, "There's some nun convention going on here," and "What in the name of hell is this??"

We had a lot of dynamic, hilarious, intelligent, moving speakers address us throughout the week. They talked about everything from birth control to spreading the gospel on our campuses; from baseball to navigating the Bible. My favorites were Mike Sweeney (of course) and Fr. Benedict Groeschel. Sweeney kindly took a few minutes to see how I've been doing since we met up in August, because he's that awesome.(Pictured are me, Sweeney, and my good friend Becky.)

On Sunday night while we were stopped for a needlessly long dinner break in Oklahoma City, I called my dad to check up on football scores, and to pass the time before all 200+ people in my traveling party got their darn food and boarded the buses. I was planning on telling Dad how amazing it had been to be at Mass that morning, because there were four bishops there, and I felt very privileged that they had given us their time. But before I could say that, Dad told me that my brother, who is traveling around Italy, had gone to the Mass given by the Pope that day. I think he wins, but I at least got a picture taken with a cardboard cutout of His Holiness.


Now I'm back at the home of my parents, and I brought back some souvenirs from Texas, like some t-shirts, books, and a sinus infection. Their furnace has gone out, so my fingers are getting a little bit too cold to type any more (lucky you!). That means I have no choice but to snuggle up under like 20 blankets, make a giant mug of hot chocolate, let my dogs curl up at my feet, and watch some movies, right? My, my; what a hard life I lead...

I've got some ideas brewing that were inspired by the Bill James Handbook (which I finally own, hooray!). Those ideas should magically turn into a post or two in the coming week, along with some Nebraska basketball stuff, as the 11-2 team gears up to open conference play against #3 Kansas (gasp!) this weekend.

Happy new stuff, and things

I'm going to be in Dallas, and likely not anywhere near Blogger, for a few days, so before I go, I'd like to do two things:
1) Wish you all a happy new year. So...happy new year! And thanks very much for reading my blog
2) Revisit some of 2007, because it was the most eventful year of my life. Here we go!

January:
I had shoulder surgery two days after New Year’s. It sucked. What kind of idiot starts a year that way? However, having that operation meant that, in all likelihood, the rest of the year would be a whole lot better.

I spent most of that month either in physical therapy, or sitting in my room hating my life (or getting sick on campus buses...when the label on a painkiller says "take with food," they mean to take the damn thing with food. Don't disobey, or you might also get sick in a public space. Not pretty.). It didn’t help that my best friend and wonderful roommate had to move out, but my beslinged arm and I made it through to…

February:
Typically my least favorite month of the year, but some cool stuff happened. Well, cool stuff happened on Valentine’s Day, but as far as I can recall the rest of the month was a waste. On Valentine's Day,
1) My physical therapist told me I could quit wearing my sling. I had grown a little bit attached, as it was a great conversation piece when I met Ryan Shealy for the first time. He and Ryan Braun signed it, so of course I still have it.
2) My brother proposed to his wonderful lady friend, and she said yes. (Yay!) More about them later.
And then Spring Training started! Yay again!


March:
March Madness followed the typical custom of being Husker-less, but I participated in a pool or two nonetheless, and made a few bucks. The tournament kept me happily occupied as I waited for Opening Day. I think I probably went to school and stuff too, but that wasn’t important.

Here is a random picture of my roommate's cat in a box, to break up the monotony of the offseason.

April:
April 2, 2007, was one of the happiest days of my life. Is there a way for a baseball nut to adequately describe the joy that comes with Opening Day? Before this year, I had never been able to make it to KC for the opener, but this year I said, “To hell with classes!* I’m not missing another Opening Day!”
So to Kansas City I went, along with two of my brothers and two of their friends. The weather was perfect, the BBQ was perfect, the game was perfect. Gil Meche made his Royals debut, and dominated the Red Sox. Manny and Papi went a combined 1-7 on the day, whereas the Royals worked together to score 7 runs. On that day, and only on that day, the Royals held a slice of 1st place in the AL Central. It felt wonderful, while it lasted.
April was also when I started my job with the O-Royals, which is the best job I’ve ever had, and I never want to give it up. I wonder if there’s an upper age limit for Powerade girls...

*This move resulted in my VisLit professor almost failing me. I think it’s because he hates me, America, and baseball…a lethal combination.


May:
The school year ended, and my grades were decent. I finally moved to Omaha so I didn’t have a 55-mile (each way) commute anymore. At the end of the month, I jumped off the dugout onto the edge of a step and sprained the hell out of my ankle. It didn’t break, but I wish it would have.

June:
I have a whole new appreciation for athletes who have to be on the DL a lot (I’m looking at YOU, Ryan Shealy). It sucks, even if you don’t actually play a sport. Not that the boys had many home games in June, because that was College World Series time at lovely Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium. Because I was stuck in my house (or, again, in physical therapy, because the 20 weeks I did it for my shoulder weren’t enough for the year) resting the stupid ankle, I only made it to one game – the perverted-sounding Beavers/Eaters matchup. After the CWS, I finally got to return to work for the Powerade Power Team, after 32 days of sitting in my room hating my life (see a theme here?)

July:
Scott Elarton gave up a bunch of home runs in the first 2 innings of the game on my birthday, so the O-Royals did not win for me (those jerks!). But I did get to wear a festive lei, so all is forgiven.

August:
To make up for all the time they’re on the road during the CWS in June, the O-Royals played at home almost every day in August, and I worked every single game. I am not complaining about that; given a choice between working a game and having a day off, I’d take working 10 out of 10 times. Remember the proposal my brother made in February? The wedding was in August, on the one weekend in which the O-Royals were on the road. What splendid timing! The wedding was wonderful; everyone in both families was happy to welcome new members into the fold, and I was thrilled to finally have a sister after two decades of life with four brothers and no sisters.
August was also the month in which I got to meet Mike Sweeney. See, it always comes back to baseball.

September:
The O-Royals were done for the season, so I moved back to Lincoln for another year of schooling. School is kind of lame, so I won’t bore you with the details. It was especially hard to transition from the fun and glamorous baseball life to the dull existence of a poor college student.
During September, Nebraska’s football team and fan base were excited to see what the super-hyped ASU transfer Sam Keller could do for our offense. He (and the rest of the team) looked mighty fine against Nevada (who, by the way, got in a bowl game despite being so thoroughly crushed by a Nebraska team who didn’t even have a ghost of a chance to get a bowl game. Silly, eh?), but started a steady decline after that, including an almost-loss to Ball State (who also got a bowl invite).

October:
I don’t remember if anything happened in this month. I watched the MLB postseason and went to Husker football games, and I think that was all. Oh, my favorite sportswriter – the reason I even want to be a sportswriter – told me at some point during October that he thought I was a decent writer. That was pretty significant. I may have printed that e-mail and showed it to everyone I know. Unless that would be pathetic, in which case I totally kept my cool and went about my merry way.

November:
Another boring month. Baseball ended, Nebraska’s football team was doing poorly, which led to the happy (for me) end of the Bill Callahan era. At least I had a new year of Nebrasketball about which to be excited. It’s head coach Doc Sadler’s second season, and many of the most ardent Nebrasketball fans are sure it’s the year in which Doc will lead us to the promised land, the Big Dance.

December:
I grew up in a tiny town in the southwestern part of Nebraska, but I do consider Omaha my town too. So when, at the beginning of December, tragedy struck in an Omaha mall, I felt it too. That’s not supposed to happen in my town, right? After that, my petty hatred of winter seemed pretty small.
Now Christmas has come and gone, and it was awesome as always to spend time with my parents, all of my brothers, and my sister-in-law. On New Year’s Day, I will be going to Dallas for the national conference of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS). If you are the praying sort, I'd appreciate a prayer or two for safe travel, and open hearts, and such.
Meanwhile, my dear brother is traveling through Europe, mostly in Italy. Color me completely jealous.

Yep, that was my year. I'm sure I left a thing or two out, but I hit the main points -- gaining a sister, meeting Mike Sweeney, and Opening Day. After reading that, you either "know" me a little bit better, or you feel like you've wasted your time. To ensure that it's the latter, I'll leave you with a random thought about Mr. Gerard Butler.

I think Gerard Butler is handsome. Very, very handsome. But I don't know that I would recognize him if I saw him on the street; he looks like a completely different (but still devastatingly good-looking) man in every movie in which I've seen him. In this photo, he's standing next to a poster of himself, and he still doesn't look like himself. How does he do that?

All right, if you're still with me after all that, I thank you for sticking around. Let's see what the heck happens to this site in 2008; I am hoping for good things, and maybe a few new readers (tell all your friends!), and that enough baseball happens in my life that you never have to hear my musings on Gerard Butler, ever again.

The Soul of Baseball

It embarrasses me a little bit to say that I just finished reading Joe Posnanski's book, The Soul of Baseball, for the first time. I mean, Posnanski is may all-time favorite sportswriter, the main reason I want to be a sportswriter too. I'm not entirely sure why I didn't get my hands on the book before "Santa" brought it to me yesterday morning. What kind of fan doesn't even read her favorite writer's book? I suppose I could have checked it out at my university's library -- I checked, and they do have it -- but I have a tendency to avoid the library, even though I love reading.

Anyway, what that all amounts to is the fact that I had Christmas music playing in the background as I read stories about Buck O'Neil and a huge cast of other people, from baseball greats to a random woman in a red dress. My music of choice this year has been a steady stream of Trans-Siberian Orchestra tunes. I've known about them for a number of years now, but this is the first year I have listened -- really, truly listened -- to all of their music and the messages behind it, and I've found a lot of similarities between their songs and Joe Po's stories about Buck.

One thing I love about TSO's songs is their insistence that everyone hold on to the wide-eyed magical feeling that surrounds Christmas when one is very young. The songs say that sometimes with lyrics, but the song "First Snow" says it best with no words at all. It sounds exactly like how it felt to be a kid and to wake up to find the yard and everything was covered with snow for the first time, and to want nothing more than to be outside, rolling in the snow, building things with it, catching it on your tongue, not caring how cold it might be outside or how slick the roads might be. Snow meant joy back then, and even though I mostly hate it now, in the few minutes of that song, I feel exactly like I did when I was little and I still loved it. The music is teaching me to recapture the joys of being a kid instead of the cynicism of being a starving college student.

That's what reading about Buck O'Neil feels like for a baseball-loving soul thirsting for goodness in an age of steroids, too-big contracts, and all that crap. This book invigorated my spirit in a way I forgot a book could do. I know in my head that I love baseball, and I'll tell that to anyone who will listen, but I think my heart had forgotten the true depth of the joy that the game brings to my life; simple things like seeing how many sunflower seeds I could spit into a bucket near my usual perch next to the O-Royals dugout, or the steady, comforting rhythm of batting practice.

I read all of TSOB in one day, begrudgingly putting it down only when I had to join my family for Christmas dinner and some card games. After that and some Wii-playing, it was back to the book. After several hours, nestled in my bed with my dog, Shadow, sleeping soundly on the floor next to me, I realized a had a bit of a headache so I looked away from the page for a moment. When I looked up, I caught sight of Shadow's back paw twitching just a little bit. As I watched, that one paw's tiny twitch turned turned into all four paws flexing back and forth, their movement rippling through muscles all the way up his legs. My stately, dignified, perfectly behaved 9-year-old black lab was staying young at heart too, by chasing squirrels in his dreams. And I got to see it; man I love my life. Anyhoodle, I will likely read TSOB again many times, but first I am giving everyone else in my family the chance to read it, so maybe their souls can feel as happy as mine does as we wait and we count days until we get to gleefully place ourselves where baseball, and the simple but deep joys that come with the game if you let them, are.

He said it best

Joe Po always says what I want to say, only a thousand times better. I got home from class this afternoon, and heard someone on ESPN talking about the possibility of Tony La Russa being Joe Torre's successor at the helm of the Yankees. My immediate reaction was -- and I am not making this up -- a comical, cinematic "Whaaaaaaaaaat?!?" (My roommate can attest to this.)

Posnanski's response was a lot more eloquent and cool-headed:

A friend brought up a rumor, I have no idea if it’s true, that the Yankees want to hire Tony La Russa to be the manager next year, replacing Joe Torre. I want to say right now that I am 100 percent in favor of this. I’m 40 now, and I simply don’t have the time to do all the things I need to do in my life. There are so many projects I want to get involved with but I lack the time. So I’m always looking to consolidate. It would certainly help my schedule if, instead of spending so much time despising BOTH LaRussa and the Yankees, they could be together in one easy-to-loathe package.

Heh. Exactly.

Incidentally, I think I need a separate tag for posts regarding Posnanski's writing, especially given the number of visitors who find this blog by Googling his name.
UPDATE: So it shall be written, so it shall be done!

Eating my words: The 2007 Edition

I am the first to admit that I'm an idiot. That is not the kind of claim I make proudly, nor is it the kind of statement I'll make without some factual evidence to back it up. So, for proof, let's look at all the times this season (plus part of last off-season) I've had to eat my words on this blog. Behold:

Gil Meche: I was not sure what I thought of this "Meche" fellow:

Not sure how I feel about this one. This seems to be some big talk for an up-and-down pitcher who's never been in the spotlight before. For $11m a year, he'd better live up to some of that talk. For the moment, I'm still "meh" on him, and that's sad. I want to put all my trust in Dayton Moore, but something about Meche's acquisition and giant contract seems...off. Time will tell.

(From Feb. 17)

In reality, Gil was a quality starter. Maybe he wasn't an "ace" by most ballclubs' standards, but we aren't "most ballclubs." We needed a #1 pitcher like Meche to get us started. He did his part, starting 34 games for a total of 216 IP and a 3.67 ERA. His win-loss record is in no way indicative of his talent as a pitcher, and I'm confident that next year's numbers will be better there.

EDIT: So the problem with being somewhat social is that sometimes my friends come over and interrupt me from writing (the nerve!). The end result is that I publish posts with blanks where Gil Meche's stats need to go. My bad; it's all fixed now, I think.


The Cleveland Indians:
I thought for sure I posted about them before the season started, but apparently I did not. However, I am an honest woman, so I'll confess: I disagreed with baseball analysts who picked Cleveland to win the AL Central. And here they are with a chance to win the entire AL. Color me wrong.

The endurance of Royals starters:
Around the beginning of the season, I stated with great confidence that a number of Royals starters could -- nay, WOULD -- pitch complete games:

Could any of them go the distance...? My answer: a definite YES. Gil Meche and Zack Greinke will both have complete game wins before the All-Star break. I think that [Odalis] Perez could do it too, but it will take him a little longer.

Ha! None of those fellows gave the team a complete game. In fact, only once did a Royals player go all the way: Brian Bannister on August 17. For the record, I was correctly excited about his acquisition.

So there you have it: scientific proof that I can, in fact, be a complete idiot. But it happens to the best of us; even the great Joe Posnanski (who, if you didn't catch this sooner, is blogging again!) does this occasionally. It happens. But the way I see it, things like this create some amount of job security for sports writers.

If stats were the sole indicator of how a baseball team or well-paid new pitcher would perform, then why play? The Yankees would win every World Series, Paul Byrd would not have started over C.C. Sabathia, and Gil Meche would not have scored the big-money contract that made him the Royals' ace. That's the beauty of baseball, though. No matter what happens, and no matter how many games we've seen, and no matter how much we think we know, we can always be proven wrong. Every team and every game provide some writer the opportunity to make a bold prediction, and the opportunity to have his words fed back to him after the game. And even if it means looking like an idiot after almost every prediction I make, I wouldn't trade that beautiful mystery of baseball for anything.

Good news, bad news

Good news: Joe Posnanski is blogging again!!!
Bad news: I already have a problem with getting things like schoolwork done. Is it possible to accomplish less than nothing? If so, that is what I will do now that I have my regular dose of JoePo bloggy goodness.

Good news: Stanford beat USC.
Bad news: Stanford, by extension, is better than Nebraska.

Good news: It's not like Nebraska losing to Missouri was a big upset, but
Bad news: Nebraska could have at least showed a little effort.***

***Disclaimer: Maybe it was personal tragedy that prevented the Huskers from playing anything that resembled football. I wonder if God could cut Maurice Purify a break; his brother was murdered this summer, and his girlfriend just died this past week. He played anyway, because he's a badass like that. Can I say badass here? I'm going to anyway.

Good news: The Rockies have continued their unreal Cinderella-esque run by beating the Phillies again.
Bad news: The Ladies.... will be quite sad. In homage to the Ladies..., I'd like to say farewell to Pat the Bat, Chutley, and most of all, their beloved Bacon Pants. Sorry it had to end like that, Ladies..., but when Cinderella magic happens, someone has to lose.

I'll be back with something better later, but I'm pretending to be a responsible student this weekend. (Hi Mom!)

A bit

My goodness, but it has been a while since I've written here!

I try to be a ray of optimistic sunshine, but when my Royals lose five straight they leave me with little to say. I have to take some advice from the greatest character from Bambi (Thumper!)..."If ya can't say nothin' nice, don't say anything at all!"

Well, that and I've been pretending to do homework. But I'm back now, and I'm trying to think of good things to think and say about my Royals.

Luke Hochevar might have been the one and only good thing about the series with the Yankees that has thankfully ended. If I never had to see another KC game against New York, that would be fantastic.

A lot of people like to ask me why I hate the Yankees. I'm not great at listing concrete reasons, because as most of you know, I'm an idiot. But the KC Star has been very helpful recently in outlining the historic reasons why every self-respecting Royals fan, or any fan of real baseball, should feel a deep hatred for the Evil Empire. Here's one from Sam Mellinger, and one from the great Joe Posnanski.

- David DeJesus has just claimed sole possession of the Royals record for most Hit By Pitch in one season with 19.

- I love Baseball Almanac, but I'm bitter at them for being so interesting and eating large chunks of my time. I wasted away a few hours this afternoon on pages like this list of baseball lists. It started when I was looking for cool quotes to share with my Bible study.

- Blogger is having a planned outage in 3 minutes, so I must go.

Omaha loves Mike Sweeney

Michael John Sweeney may only have played one of the games of tonight's double-header in Omaha, but Sweeney Fever left the whole crowd feeling happy and energized through the last out of a fantastic second game. Other than a couple of hits, Omaha couldn't get a whole lot going in the first game. Maybe they were feeling rusty afer not playing a night game since last Saturday. Anyhoodle, the first game was mostly forgettable, as the Round Rock pitching and defense had their way with Omaha.

The second game was the opposite. From the first pitch, Tyler Lumsden and his teammates showed that they owned Round Rock. Lumsden's very first pitch was hit weakly right back to him, and that set the pace for an awesome game. Lummy did not allow a hit for the first three innings, and only walked one in that time. That led me to wonder: If a Minor League pitcher threw a no-hitter in a 7-inning game, would it still go down in the books as a no-no? In every other sense, these rain-shortened games count as regular games, but would a pitching accomplishment like that still get recognized despite not having the opportunity to play nine full? It didn't matter tonight, because shortly after I started thinking about that, Round Rock came through with a single. Bummer. However, Lumsden never did allow a runner to reach scoring position. Lumsden then gave way to another show of Musser Being Musser. Before the 2nd game, I educated a couple of kids on how awesome Neal Musser is, so I hope they hang on to his autograph. After his work tonight, he's pitched 50.1 innings and lowered his ERA from 0.38 to 0.35.

(Side note about Neal Musser: One night during an I-Cubs game, the Rosenblatt Stadium radar gun clocked one of Musser's fastballs at 100. I later asked him about it, because I hadn't heard that he could throw in triple digits. Sure enough, the gun was being a little kind to him. He did say that he asked whoever was charting pitches that night to use the 100 mph readout on his charts, but they went with a meager 98 or so instead. Hard life...a 98 mph fastball and a 0.35 ERA. Man I love Neal Musser.)

Anyhoodle, in the bottom of the third, Omaha started nickel-and-diming the RR defense to death. By the time Ryan Shealy came up to bat, the O-Royals had already scored a run on a walk and a couple of singles. Shealy took the first pitc h for a strike as the two runners waited on base. From my spot on top of the dugout, I heard a little kid say something about "It's OK, he'll get a hit next time." The next pitch met Shealy's bat and made the most perfect sound I've ever heard. I knew as soon as I heard that crack that the ball would be way out of the park, and yet I did not allow myself to breathe or move until it cleared the wall. I could listen to that bat sound all day...especially if it's Shealy's bat, as he's one of my favorites.

All told, each team was shut out once tonight in Part I of a double-double-header. It turns out that two consecutive rainouts means two consecutive double-headers. After tonight's games, I got to hand out free copies of Baseball America while my coworkers handed out free loaves of Sara Lee bread as part of their Great Whole Grain Giveaway. In honor of Sweeney's time with Omaha, I'm going to get biblical here:
"Man does not live by free Sara Lee bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the latest issue of Baseball America."

...isn't that how it goes?

After all the fans left, I went to clock out, only to discover a ton of Chinese food in the offices. Turns out that two people each thought they were in charge of getting food for the Express players, so one had gotten Chinese food and one had ordered Outback Steakhouse food. Of course the guys went with the Outback, so the O-Royals employees got to feast on free Chinese food. Hooray!

Quick notes:
- I'm writing this on my boyfriend's computer, as I made the mistake of moving my computer to Lincoln a few days early. Thanks J!
- I wish Baseball America was always free.
- I never thought I'd be excited to go to Des Moines -- it is one of my least favorite cities -- but I'm pretty pumped to go on a bus trip to see Omaha play the I-Cubs next Friday. For just $30, you can join this trip too!
- Joe Posnanski is not going to be blogging for a while, because he'll be working on a new book. The good news is that I will have several "extra" free hours a day while I'm not reading his blog, but the bad news is there are few activities worthy of filling that void. Sigh.

Joe Posnanski is my favorite

One of the hardest things about being away from my house, and consequently my computer, for a couple of days is trying to catch up on all my favorite blogs and forums (forii? forctopodes? Hi Mom!). The hardest one up on which to catch is Joe Posnanski, as he is prolific and eloquent. He also goes off on delightful tangents, such as this one against Jason LaRue in the middle of a post about Pedro Feliz. This is fantastic stuff, as I also don't understand why LaRue plays, ever. (Well, okay, he calls a good game, but we'd be much better off DHing for him and having our pitchers hit!)

Bill James has often said that if we didn’t keep trustworthy offensive numbers, we would likely not be able to tell much difference between a .300 hitter and a .275 hitter, a 25 homer guy and a 20 homer guy, a 100 RBI guy and an 80 RBI guy and so on. I think this is true, though I would say there are exceptions here – I do think that, in a very short period of time, we would realize that Jason LaRue can’t hit.

Tangent: This year, in 127 at-bats, LaRue is hitting .157. That would be a 1 followed by a 5 followed by a 7. Now, many people have wondered why LaRue keeps playing on a fairly regular basis, and I don’t have a particularly intelligent answer for this; I do have a theory. I think it may have something to do with the regret the Royals feel for not going into the National League a few years ago when they had a chance. Since they cannot have their pitchers hit, they are doing the next best thing.

Two other points about LaRue:

1. He hit .194 in 191 at-bats last year. So that means that in his last 318 at-bats, LaRue is hitting .179. The last guy to get 300 at-bats in ONE season and hit that badly … the great Rob Deer in 1991. He hit .179 in 448 at-bats. Deer did bang 25 homers (13 more than LaRue) and walk 89 times (50 more than Larue). Before that, you have to go back to 1974.

2. Tony La Russa made big news by hitting his pitcher eighth. So where was the national media when Buddy Bell hit LaRue seventh?

Everyone needs to bookmark The Soul Of Baseball (the blog) and buy The Soul of Baseball (the book). Also, keep tabs on what JoePo writes in the KC Star, like this lovely, hope-filled piece from yesterday, which was good to keep in mind last night as KC left the bases loaded in the 8th inning.

Back to baseball: Bonds and more

Barry Bonds. I'm almost afraid to write anything about him at this point, so I'll be friendly to Mother Earth and recycle. The last time I was brave enough to have an opinion on Bonds in particular was here, and here are two heavily researched pieces (in one post! Go me!) on MLB's steroid issue in general.

Joe Posnanski, in whose writing I could immerse myself for hours on end, is currently part of the media circus that will be stuck on Bonds as long as they need to be. Bonds is at 753, leaving Posnanski unsure of how to approach the impending record and what he'll write about it. (It's here) I take solace in this, because I face similar confusion:

...these are confusing times. I don’t have any clearer picture of this crazy home run deal. My own thoughts constantly contradict each other. I tend to believe that steroid use is worse than using amphetamines (or the more law-friendly cheating like corking bats or scuffing baseballs) but I couldn't tell you exactly why. I think that Hank Aaron is more worthy of the home run record though I believe Barry Bonds was the better player (even before steroid suspicions). I think Barry Bonds was, in most ways, just playing the rules and boundaries of his time, and yet I also think he was fully aware of the lines he was crossing.

-Enough of that. Time for O-Royals!

Last night's Blake Shelton concert drew a crowd of over 14,000. Luke Hochevar got off to a rather rocky start...his first pitch bounced in the dirt about 55 feet in front of the mound. His control problems continued (but not to such a gross extent) for the rest of his outing, as he walked five over five innings. However, he wasn't all bad. He did not give up any runs, only surrendered one hit, and he struck out four.

In tonight's game, everyone in Omaha's lineup had at least one hit, and five batters had more than one. Mike Aviles homered twice (I think he either hits zero or two in a given game; never one), and Angel Berroa and Shane Costa also homered. Some of those may have been helped by the wind blowing out to left, but we'll take 'em wherever we can get 'em, no? I do not like relying on the long ball as something to build an offense on, but it is a ton of fun for me when O-Royals batters hit them, as I get to jump around on the dugout tops and high-five every fan I can reach. Doing that is easily in the top 3 thing I love about my job. One of the other top 3 favorite things is up next...

- Tales from the dugout
Yesterday afternoon, my co-workers and I found ourselves with a ton of extra time before the game because of a scheduling typo. Our boss accidentally wrote that we should arrive at 4:00 for a 7:05 game, so we were all ready to rock 'n roll a couple hours ahead of first pitch, and were chillin down by the field before most of the players even arrived. Joey Gathright was the first player there, taking extended batting practice before his first appearance since being sent back to Omaha. As the rest of the players trickled in, they all greeted him pretty warmly; it was pretty clear that they all like having him around as much as we fans do. He told me that while he was in KC, he spoke with my cousin Chris (who works for the Royals) about me and how I heaved myself off the dugout. I'm not sure I want to know how that conversation went.

Anyway, it's great to have Gathright back, even though it's likely only going to last until the trade deadline. He injects a certain something into the fans' spirit; it seems everyone is more into the game when he's leading off. (Perhaps it's the fact that he had two hits last night, and two more tonight.) That means I misjudged him completely when he first joined the Royals organization last year. This is me admitting I was wrong, and wholeheartedly embracing Mr. Gathright as an important part of the Royals' lineup.

Before tonight's game, the usual smattering of fans was gathered 'round the Omaha dugout, looking to score some John Hancocks. A young boy, maybe 10 years old (but I'm not sure because I'm terrible at guessing that kind of thing), had a request with several contingencies for Ryan Shealy:
"Um, hi, Mr. Shealy? I was wondering...if you guys win tonight, and if you break a bat, can I maybe have the broken bat? Please?"

Shealy's reply: "That's a lot of ifs, but I'll see what I can do."

He broke two bats tonight.

Here's my thing about Shealy. I like the guy a lot, and I seem to be much more patient with him as a hitter than most people are. He's not having the best year at the plate, I know. I'm well aware of his tendency to strike out frequently, but I'm also aware that he has power. It's unfortunate that he had to be hidden in Todd Helton's shadow for so long, but I think he still has the chance to prove to the KC fan base that he was a good acquisition. He also happens to be pretty darn nice, and good with fans. I spoke to him yesterday about how much I appreciated him being a part of the Royals Caravan this past winter, as meeting him (along with Frank White, Ryan Braun, and Brian Poldberg) was exactly the kind of thing I needed to cheer me up from the worst winter EVER. I wanted to thank him for doing what I figured was kind of a chore for players to do. His response kind of shocked me. He told me that he actually really enjoyed being part of the Caravan, and he was actively pursuing the opportunity to do it again this winter. How can anyone not like this guy?

One more. Last night as I was singing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' from on top of the Royals dugout, a few fans stopped me as I was making a safe, non-injury-inducing exit back into the camera well. They had an adorable little boy with them, and said it was his 4th birthday. The one thing he wanted out of his birthday baseball game was to get a ball, if he could, from the dugout. Of course I told them I'd do what I could to acquire one for him. The players in the dugout were pretty engrossed in the action, because it was a close game, so I couldn't get anyone's attention for a little while. Then a foul ball was hit into the dugout, and pitcher Billy Buckner picked it up. I turned to my co-worker Britany and said, "Maybe that ball should go to the little birthday guy up there." Note that I did not say that to Buckner or anyone else inside the dugout. But Buckner overheard, and asked where the birthday boy was so he could give him the ball.

One very last thing
-Kansas City SO far from the basement
I am NOT a fan of the worst team in baseball. Pretty much the entire NL West has a worse record. I'm pretty sure the Comic Book Store Guy from the Simpsons has the scientific name for a division like that:
"Worst. Division. EVER."

Anyway, here's the list of teams that are not doing as well as KC right now:
Tampa Bay
Texas
Washington
Pittsburgh
Houston
Cincinnati
San Fransisco

WHEW! What a long list!

Sorry for the crappy blogging tonight, you could make it up to your brain by reading more Joe Posnanski. Also, buy his book.

The designated hitter

-My parents have been married for nearly 30 years, a phenomenal fact for which I thank God every day. They absolutely do not fight, ever.

"Okay," I can see you asking. "That's great, but what does your parents' long and fightless marriage have to do with the designated hitter?"

Oh darlings, it has everything to do with the DH. The only time I've ever heard them argue is over the merits and drawbacks of the DH. Some people think that's ridiculous, and that surely these two people have something bigger about which to argue. I think it's a perfectly valid thing to fight over, and have entered a number of debates about why the DH makes managing baseball too easy, and takes away some of the purity of the sport.

This has been an issue on the table for years in our household. It comes up from time to time, and we all have a merry laugh that something as seemingly trivial can cause such division in our otherwise harmonious family. But tonight, according to a commercial for the Missouri Lottery, this argument puts us among baseball's craziest fans. These commercials (which I'd link to, but I can't find yet; sorry!) feature some ridiculous show of ultra-fandom like "You haven't washed your lucky socks since 1985 -- Or removed them." or "You watched every game of the 1985 season -- consecutively." The punchline (if that's what it would be called in an advert) is that there are easier ways to show you're a hardcore Royals fan, like buying the new Royals-themed scratch tickets from the MO lotto.

One that my dad and I saw for the first time tonight reads like this:

"The DH argument has ruined two friendships...

...and a marriage."

Dad and I were talking on the phone when the commercial first aired, and laughed heartily for quite a while. Did they write that commercial about us specifically?!?

-Last night, the O-Royals took 13 innings to down the Sacramento Rivercats. They loaded the bases (on 3 walks, if I remember correctly) in the 10th but did not score, which was kind of frustrating. But then in the 13th, Mike Aviles of all people -- definitely more of a scrappy speed guy than a power guy -- smacked a home run to end it. I was impressed with our bullpen for holding the tie as long as they did; as a follower of the Royals for so long, I generally take the attitude that once we hit extra innings it could take a miracle for the bullpen to hold up.

Aaanyway, yesterday's game was pretty strange for me, as Nebraska alum Shane Komine took the mound for Sacramento. It felt so wrong to root against him after all the time I spent cheering him on in his Husker days! I ended up getting the best of both worlds, as Special K dominated for a few innings, but the Royals offense picked up in the middle of the game. So I got to see my team do well enough, and got to see a former Husker excel as well. I'm so spoiled sometimes!

-My extra access to various O-Royals players has made me think a lot about who they are, why they are in AAA Omaha, and what they are doing to make it to The Show (whether they've been there before or not).

For example, I'm one of many who has criticized Angel Berroa for his fall from grace after his Rookie of the Year season in 2003. It was easy for me to criticize, because I did not know who I was dealing with. He was just a guy who I had heard was goofy, but was ultimately more a compilation of statistics than a person to me. (That sounds really heartless now that I have finished typing it. But the thing is, I don't know many players personally, so I don't have too much to go on besides their numbers. I hope you know what I mean.) But this article in the Kansas City Star, combined with the fact that Berroa is my favorite player to be around at work, makes me feel bad about ever having spoken harshly about him.

Sure, he has his weaknesses on the field. From a strictly baseball standpoint, Berroa is a guy who swings at bad pitches, has a tendancy to ground out (often in DP situations), commits errrors a lot, and almost never walks. But he's a person. He's a person who works hard but LOVES baseball (and life) so he smiles and jokes all the time. He's a man of the people and signs autographs for almost anyone who asks -- he has a special weakness for his youngest fans, as he himself is a father. The guy mentioned in the KC Star article is someone I know; he's a season ticket holder and a pretty vocal heckler. But I'm pretty sure that Angel will still sign autographs for him, despite all the mean comments. (As an aside, I'm pretty sure I was about 2 feet away when the situation described in the story actually happened.) Of course Berroa wants to get back to the majors, but he's not a mopey guy. He is wise enough to know that being bitter about his demotion will do nothing to help him get back to the bigs.

In the article, Sam Mellinger describes Omaha as a place where fans only show up for "goofy promotions." As a member of the O-Royals' promotions staff, I almost take offense to that, but then again a lot of what we do is pretty goofy. But the people we bring on the field for promotions are that many more people for Berroa to pick on, joke with, or startle with his loudness. And as well as that goofy atmosphere does suit Berroa's personality, I hope for his sake he doesn't have to be in it for too much longer.

P.S. Tomorrow is, as mentioned in the article in the Star, Thirsty Thursday. Drink up, Royals fans!

UPDATE: Mark Teahen just got yet another assist, throwing out a runner at home to end the inning!! He had an astounding THREE assists on Saturday, and one more over the weekend, plus the one just now. I think it's safe to say he is adjusting pretty handsomely to right field, yes?

Also, I can not for the life of my type the word 'soul.' For some reason I always want to put a 'd' at the end of the word. I mention this because that word is in the name of my favorite baseball blog, Joe Posnanski's 'The Soul of Baseball.' If you're looking for some great reads on baseball from someone way more knowledgable than me, go read it. He's great!