A few links and a plea to Dick Kaegel

I'm feeling linky today, so let's share some cool stuff from around the sports Interwebz.
1. Fascinating 2-part series from Roto Authority. You know how, every spring, MLB players swear they've lost weight, gained muscle, or improved their body through some radical new workout system? These articles put those claims to the test.
Part I - Players who claim to have lost weight, gained muscle, or lost body fat percentage.
Part II: Vision improvement, new exercise routine, finally healthy, working on a new pitch, expected to run more

2. A horribly fascinating list of pro athletes who have illegitimate kids. Yikes.

3. Jonah Keri brings us this hilarious video of Pat Burrell showing off his condo. The video's old, apparently, but it's a hoot.

4. Royals Review's own devil_fingers makes his debut at Driveline Mechanics by awarding Gold Gloves...to designated hitters. He works in a Justin Huber reference, so you know it's good.

5. This wouldn't be a true Baseball and Other Things link post without a link to some of my own work offsite, so here are 7 little things I miss about baseball season.

6. Dick Kaegel is again unrealistically optimistic at Royals.com. The money quote is the very last paragraph, which I will post here in case you don't want to read the whole article:

Everyone seems ready to surge into '09 after a super September lifted the Royals into fourth place, ending a four-year stay in the American League Central cellar. If there's to be a new version of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, fans in Kansas City have a candidate in mind.

Sigh. Oh, Dick Kaegel. You honestly think that the '09 Royals and the '08 Rays are similar things? That's...cute, but horribly misguided. I'm amazed there are still so many baseball journalists - people whose job it is to know about baseball - who still refer to the Tampa Bay '08 season as "a total surprise" and things like that.

I'm no professional sportswriter, but I wasn't totally shocked by the Rays. You know why? I spent 20 bucks on a Baseball Prospectus book, and then read it. It's not that hard to be somewhat educated, and if mainstream writers continue to insist on staying in dark caves where only grit and RBIs matter, they are cheating their readers. It's not noble to hang on to antiquated sports ideals at the expense of actual expertise. Not when your entire job is to inform fans about a sport.

The Royals can not, and will not, have the kind of season that the Rays just did. The Rays spent years acquiring talent and building up a young core, and made a small number of moves last offseason that, in the words of the '08 Baseball Prospectus book, "[made] the Rays more of a real baseball team rather than a random assemblage of talented youngsters."

The Royals do not have an assemblage, random or not, of talented youngsters. They have a few elite pitchers, and a few sundry parts on offense who are either "solid," "unproven," or "horrible." Kansas City can't just make one trade, like the Delmon Young-for-Matt Garza deal, that will allow everything to fall into place for a playoff run. The Mike Jacobs acquisition isn't going to boost this team from the depths of hell to a 97-win season. Ditto for Coco Crisp. And signing Kyle Farnsworth for such a huge salary might actually damn us all to more hellfire.

So no, Dick Kaegel, don't try to say that the Royals are a candidate to do what the Rays did last year. That's an uninformed, hacky, stupidly optimistic proposition that does no good for anyone. False hope isn't enough to float a fan base that's been this far from goodness for this long. Please...just stop. You're hurting me.

...Wow, that got a lot more bitter than I thought it would. One more link for you:
7. Keith has supplied us with the latest profile of a Royals prospect: 2008 third round draftee Tyler Sample.

K, I think that's all. Happy Tuesday!

Looking back and looking forward

Long story short (for once), I didn't go out for New Year's. That puts me here, in my computer chair, at less than two hours into 2009, and somehow I don't feel any different than I did before 12:00 struck. Also, all the cool kids are doing years-in-review, so I have to too!

This blog and its author had some fun times in 2008.
Like...January, when we went to Texas and caught up with Mike Sweeney again. Fun times, right?
We also hit up the Royals Caravan in that month, got a snazzy pic taken with Ryan LeFebvre, and made John Mayberry chuckle.

In February, we had some trouble with an old laptop (may it rest in peace), and openly mocked KSU superfrosh Michael Beasley to his face. One of those things was more fun than the other.

In March, we fretted about Spring Training performances, made some pointless tables, and also got "discovered" by a couple of Royals message boards and other Royals blogs. Finally, someone who doesn't share my last name or bloodlines started reading this! Then Opening Day finally arrived, and we babbled like idiots.

Then came April, which meant the Royals home opener. We ogled Crown Vision's enormous glory and watched A-Rod strike out FOUR times. Then we became one of the Ladies..., which was pretty exciting, and reflected on the origins of our Royals fandom.

May...was mostly stupid. We stewed about the Buzz Bissinger affair, had our hearts broken by a 12-game losing streak, and finally had something to celebrate when Mike Aviles got called up.

June was all about branching out, like a piece for Yahoo! about Aviles, and a new sports blog elsewhere where I pondered the human drama of minor league ball, and shared a tale of a game the ORoyals played with no electricity after a horrible storm beat our fine city to a pulp. (That game ended up being my favorite sports moment of 2008 in this Ladies... post.) Oh, I also saw my first no-hitter in person, and was not amused. Oh, and I went to Kansas City for a few days!

The beginning of July contains my birthday, so we figured out how the Royals have done on birthdays past. We later wrote our first-ever FanPost at Royals Review, which was a trade rumor involving Tony Pena Jr. And then TPJ pitched. Then, we were giddy to learn that the Hawaiian Punch himself, Kila Ka'aihue, had been promoted to Omaha.

Remember the time the Royals won seven f*^*^&*^*ing games in an entire month? Yeah, that was August. But we had Kila to keep us sane. His plate approach was a sensational break from people who we won't specifically name, but whose name might rhyme with...Mason Pith. Oh, and here's a tale from the dugout.

September was SO. MUCH. BETTER! The Shealy finally got his much-deserved callup when rosters expanded - and was still misused - and hit a bunch of homers. But we also got to see Kila (now!) in KC. We enjoyed all the winning and pondered why we're still Royals fans. Then we got to see The Shealy at an awesome win over the Stupid PoopySox.

In October, we DID NOT WANT Mike Jacobs, but it happened anyway. How miserable.

November came, and the Royals did a bunch of stuff with catchers, which prompted us to examine the catching market. Then Coco Crisp happened, and we reacted. We then ate our words for your enjoyment, and hopefully more of those posts are coming soon.

December was a month of farewells, like Greg Maddux. And the Royals said farewell to Mark Grudzielanek but helllooooo to a sandwich pick. The Baseball Writers Association of America said some hellos, inviting two Baseball Prospectus writers to join their ranks. And we tried but failed to make any sense of the Kyle Farnsworth signing.

Going into 2009, I hope to post more often, use shorter sentences, and use more statistics. I hope more people find this blog to be worth reading and sharing. I hope the Royals give me happy things to say. I hope I don't suffer any awkward injuries at an ORoyals game in front of 6,000 people, because Joey Gathright is no longer around to save my life. I hope Brian Bannister bounces back to his 2007 form. I hope Zack Greinke signs a long-term extension already. I hope there's at least one person who has read this far, and I hope anyone who is reading has a happy new year!

Some links

Some other stuff I've done in the last few days, because I sure as heck haven't done anything notable here.
At Just Other Things: Googling for dummies. (with a new update!)
At Getting to First Base: Athletes being people and people being athletes
At Ladies...: Ladies... Gift Lists

So there's that. I really, really, really, REALLY miss baseball season.
Oh, and here are two threads at Royals Review that win my award for Bestest Unintentional Comedy of the Winter:
Guillen is our best hitter - I dare you to question this
and
Can you all just shut up!! Farnsworth will be better in KC than Ramirez in Boston

I have no idea what I'd do without Royals Review.

Grammar, the Royals, and YOU

Since Dayton Moore appears to be finished for the season*, I would like to explore the fascinating community of commenters on the Kansas City Star Royals section. I don't understand where any of these people come from; the commenting community in most of the Royals' online community seems to be made up of intelligent, thoughtful people who understand what stats are and how they work. But reading the comments on Star stories is a far more negative and, um...not very well-researched.

*So much for the massive shake-up Moore promised. I was sort of excited to see what he'd do. What a disappointment, like paying 8 bucks to go to a movie, and then realizing it was Saw V.

I don't even know why I read these comments, ever. It only serves to frustrate me and make me cry a little for humanity. But since I have been reading these oh-so-enlightening comments, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites nuggets of Royals wisdom from this column I think was JoePo's but isn't labeled as such. All [sics] are implied.

1. "...I'm guessing there won't be any "I was wrong." ever put in here after Jacobs gets 600 AB and draws 50-60 walks and a few more hits fall to bring his OBP up to around .338..."
There was about 4x more to this sentence, but I snipped it for you because...if Mike Jacobs gets SIX HUNDRED at-bats, I will quit being a Royals fan. There are simply not that many ABs available against righties, and if anyone has any sense Jacobs won't be seeing more than a dozen ABs against lefties.

Jacobs has never appeared in more than 141 games in a season and never had more than 477 AB. And that's the way it should remain, no?


2. "Oh, I forgot most royal's fans aren't to bright."
One of the best things I've ever read. If you're going to insult a group's collective intelligence, you might want to use the right "too." And don't put a random apostrophe in "Royals."

3. "Who cares! Glass won't spend any money so I'm going to spend my money somewhere else."
OLD. Also irrelevant, because Glass has been spending money. Someone hasn't been paying attention.

4. "Maybe Joe the intent is to trade him somewhere else for what he really wants ...."
I wish. Except that Moore has already said that he's finished for this offseason. But good try. Also, punctuation and nouns to accompany pronouns are good things.

5. "Please remember triple A and the majors are a lot different, let KK develope, look at Gordon & Butler they are realy playing like they did at triple A, right? wrong not even close."
Yeah, man, you actually do have a point. Except the part where Gordon ever played at AAA.

6. "You are right Joe, the Royals should just stand pat, they are doing awesome. Kila will probably be the next great power hitter in the MLB.

Signed,
Craig Braizel"
I give 1 point for cleverness, but deduct about 50 for spelling "Brazell" wrong. Kinda ruins it. Also, I'm pretty sure Joe wasn't suggesting that Moore stand pat this winter, but that signing another 1B/DH who can't on base is asinine.

7. "What do you know? Again, we traded a middle reliever for a guy who hit 32 homeruns last year. I'm glad you are not the GM and Dayton is!!"
Yep, and homeruns [sic] are the only thing that matters!!!1!1!one! Never mind what Jacobs did in his other 445 ABs last year...

8. "I don't know much about Tilman, but the way he seems to manage best is when he has runners on base. Hit and run, pressure on defense."
I have...no words.

9. "Remember that home runs count for OBP too! You win by reaching home plate more times than the other team, not by reaching 1st or 2nd. A TEAM needs to have a good OBP to win, but not every batter on the team needs to have a high OBP..."
How can a team's already-low OBP go up if it signs a player whose OBP is significantly lower than the team average? I guess I'm not cut out to understand this kind of math. Curse my decision to only take three years of math in high school!

OK, I'm done. I have no idea what made me do that. I must really like pain.

Random football thoughts

I think the phrase "nearly intercepted" is used way too often in football broadcasts, both on TV and the radio. I don't care if the pass truly was "nearly intercepted;" the phrase is still grossly overused. A good way to die is to drink every time you hear it, no matter who is announcing.

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My heart is totally broken after the Husker loss yesterday. It would have hurt less if we had lost to Texas Tech by 50, because that's what Vegas said we were supposed to do. Instead, Joe Ganz (or MANz, as I like to call him) and his receivers shredded the Tech defensive scheme and scored a VERY late TD to force overtime. You know what, I don't even want to describe that game right now. It hurts too much. Ganz should not have thrown that ball. It hurts. So hard.

Here's what happened, and a bunch of other stuff from Huskers.com.

He was SO GOOD. Until he wasn't. :(


_______________________________________________________

Turns out the Jerry Jones' strategy for dealing with Adam "not Pacman" Jones' latest scuffle is to not deal with it. Pacman is in the lineup today against Arizona. Also, Arizona ran back the opening kickoff for a touchdown, which makes me laugh because I hate the Cowboys.

The coolest thing happened to me tonight

Boy it's been a long time since I've posted, hasn't it? Long story short, I did not have Internet in my dorm room (horror of horrors!), and then both of my computers conspired against me and gave me hard drive failure scares.

Tonight was the last Omaha Royals home game until April 17, 2009. I'm not counting down or anything, but that's 232 days away. I have a lot of thoughts from the last homestand, but I'll have to get to those tomorrow when I have no classes to attend and a whole day to spend with my Baseball Prospectus and my laptop (now featuring an Internet connection).

For now, just one quick story:
I ran dangerously low on fuel on my way to the stadium this afternoon, but decided to wait until after work to get more. So I pull into the gas station closest to Rosenblatt, put in my debit card and pin number, and untwist my Taurus' gas cap. Before I could get any further, a white pickup pulls up behind me, and the driver, a 40-something man, says "Hey! You're from Western Nebraska?"

Turns out this man and his wife were from a town near my hometown. And also that they had $35 left on a gas card to that station that they couldn't use, so they gave it to me, based only on my familiar license plate prefix.

After the bummer of a game that Omaha played, on top of the fact that it was the last home game of the season, I was feeling pretty blue. I can't think of anything else a stranger could have randomly done for me that would have been better, or more timely. So now I'm in a good mood, reflecting on the positives of my day, rather than being completely bummed out that my season is over, and I no longer get to see the Shealy and the Colon and the Wright and the many, many other smiling faces that made my summer days so much fun. Man I'm getting all mushy and cheesy here, so I'll stop and go do something manly, like chop down a tree or watch last night's Project Runway. Back with actual baseball stuff tomorrow!

1B/DH drama continues in Omaha!

Kila Kaaihue hit yet another home run in Omaha tonight, but so did Ryan Shealy. What to do? I say they do an American Gladiator-style duel to decide who is the First Baseman of The Future, because I can't keep rooting for them both to dominate here and get (back) to the Majors, can I?

Shealy was back in the game at first after DHing every game since Kila's promotion (except last night, when Shealy had the night off). I wonder if it's a coincidence that Shealy had been in a minislump in those games, or if he hits better when he plays at first. I will look that up in a bit, but I really need some supper first.

But first, some quick thingies:
- Mike Stodolka left tonight's game with some sort of hand injury. Later reports from someone who accompanied him to the hospital said nothing was broken. More updates as they come, but hopefully it's nothing major because the roster is already pretty depleted these days.
- Tonight's winning pitcher for Colorado Springs was none other than Mark Redman. Yeah, that one.
- ORoyals president Alan Stein has been in town the last two days. The team has lost both games. I'm not saying these two items are related, but if this continues I will become a little bit frightened. (In all seriousness, Stein always amazes me with how much time he gives to fans of the team. In the wake of all the news that the ORoyals probably won't call the NoDo stadium home, Stein could have spent tonight's game up in a suite and avoided any potential for negative backlash about what has been a very touchy subject around town. Instead, he spent the entire game in the stands, conversing with fans and hearing their ideas about the team's future. He's a cool president, and I'm not just saying that because he might be reading this; I mean it!)
- I can't overstate how much I enjoy watching Kila Kaaihue bat; he took another walk tonight in addition to the homer. I observed to my friend Becky last night that he's the antithesis of Jason Smith's swing-happy approach, to which she replied, "You mean, he's the antitheSmith?" Yeah, exactly.
- It seems like Shealy has been walking a lot more lately. I don't know if he has changed his approach or if pitchers are being more careful in the wake of his torrid late-June and July, but I will ask him when I get the chance.
- Yes, I realize I've been focusing a lot on Kaaihue/Shealy. It's a dramatic battle to see whose career trajectory can be stifled the most by Ross Gload, a tragicomic dance, with all the grit, determination, dirty uniforms, veteran presence, and other excuses for Gload's playing every day.
- A random cool blog I found tonight: PhotoshopDisasters.

Some Random ORoyals things

1. Last night in the first inning, Dusty Hughes struck out the side in ELEVEN pitches. Wow. The rest of his outing wasn't as awe-inspiring, but still...just WOW. (Here's the box)The game was a 10-inning thriller with a heck of a crowd. I couldn't ask for more!

2. The Royals have acquired lefty reliever Josh Newman from the Colorado waiver wire.

3. ORoyals players who have facebook groups dedicated to them:
Neal Musser
Brayan Pena
Ryan Shealy has three.
Shane Costa
Chris Lubanski
Mitch Maier

I don't know what made me do this, other than when I realized I'm not in any fan clubs of our own AAA players, but I've joined one for someone from another team. Anyway, totally meaningless, but it helped me pass the time before the Royals play tonight.

4. Here's a pro/con thingie I wrote at Ladies... about day baseball games.

5. This item is not ORoyals related at all, but I wrote a thing about Brett Favre's latest comeback-related shenanigans.

Fascinating trade rumour

Here.

Birthday cake, Royals style

So, it is my birthday.

Last year on my birthday, I was at Rosenblatt to watch Scott Elarton give up 3 2-run homers in the first inning, and a solo shot in the 2nd. I don't think I need to say this, but the O-Royals went on to lose that one. Pretty miserable present, right? But that was also the day that Kansas City exploded for 17 runs and Billy Butler had 6 RBI in the first two innings.

I have always had the thought in my head that Kansas City loses on my birthday, but I'm never actually around to watch the games because my family is really big into fireworks so maybe they've won more July 3 games than I've perceived. Maybe I just remember the losses more, but the wins are actually there. RetroSheet to the rescue*!!

*What in the hell did sportswriters do without RetroSheet, Baseball-Reference, FanGraphs, etc.? Seriously. I can't go an hour without rushing to one or more of these sites to chase down verification on some thought or statistical inquiry. I know a lot of people don't use these amazing resources, because I still hear incredibly unfounded complaints, inane comparisons, and flatout falsehoods about every team and player under the sun.

As I started to go through the boxes from my birthdays each year, I wondered to myself where I got the idea that the team always lost on my birthday. They were right around .500 for a few years, but then went on an incredible stretch from 1995 to 2002 (inclusive) where they lost every birthday game, then won in '03, then lost three straight years. That brings us back to last year's tea party, which sounded like an awesome game but I was too busy watching Omaha get slaughtered. Yikes.

Overall, the Royals are 6-13 on July 3 in my life, with one off day. (Yes, I'm only 20. I don't want to hear it.)

Some random highlights:
1988 and 1990: Bo Jackson homered
1995: Household favorite Matt Stairs homered to contribute to Boston's win
1997: Royals did not play, which was probably for the better
1999: Mike Sweeney and Jermaine Dye both homered, but KC lost anyway
2005: Game called after 5 innings due to rain
2006: My brother Ryan was there, and called me after a few beers to tell how KC was beating up on Johan Santana. Royals lost 6-5.

So basically, uh...The Royals hate me. The end.

New stuff

I like to think about the mental struggles that inevitably accompany life in the minor leagues. Some of my thoughts about that are here, at Getting to First Base.

Meanwhile, Mike Aviles, Rookie of the Millennium, just hit a home run against the Cards. Woo!

Potential can of worms

Sexism in sports blogging has been kind of a touchy subject recently. We've approached the subject a few times over at Ladies..., like here with the Rick Sutcliffe/Erin Andrews' dress comments, and today because Fanhouse decided to trim an interview with Lady Andrea which seemed to change her argument pretty significantly.

The full interview in which Andie actually gets to make her point: Here.
The truncated interview which changes the tone of her argument: Here.

Boys will be boys

Hat tip to Baseball Time in Arlington, where I saw a video of some Rangers players doing one thing I have always wanted to do: Slip 'n' Sliding on the tarp during a rain delay. I've never been so jealous of anything, ever:


That is all.

Quick and random musings

I'm hitting the wide open road tomorrow so I can go see some friends and then go see my parents/little brother/dogs for a couple of days before the College World Series takes over my every minute. But here are a few things, in my beloved numbered list form:

1. So, how about that Mike Aviles? Well, except for today*. I loved the other night as he was standing on second after his first big-league hit. You could tell he was trying SO hard not to smile, as if it was just another hit, business as usual. After a few seconds of that charade, the glorious face-splitting grin couldn't stay inside much longer, and it was just...cute. I love those grown-men-being-reduced-to-little-boy moments that baseball gives us so abundantly.

Seeing Aviles get intentionally walked to set up the Guillen grand slam yesterday was one of the most delightful things I think I've ever seen. Not only is it more fuel to the flame of people who are annoyed by IBBs, but the mere thought of Andy Pettite, a likely HoFer, pitching around Mikey in his 7th big-league at-bat is hilarious. Then Guillen did the most un-babylike thing possible with the situation.

*not that I could see how he did today, because Cox doesn't care about Royals fans enough to televise all the games they're supposed to. It's a problem for them to institute a tiny surcharge to accommodate those extra broadcasts that a lot of people would like to watch, but it is not a problem for them to institute HUGE rate increases so two people can watch HGTV in HD while seeing caller ID on their TV screens. We love paying for useless garbage that no one will use, instead of getting something useful and entertaining.

2. I came halfway to having a lifelong dream fulfilled yesterday. Carlos Rosa pitched four perfect innings and was not really showing any signs of letting down, but then a bunch of stupid rain came, and there was an hour and seven minute-long delay, and of course by that time they didn't send Rosa back out, so the dream of seeing a PG were shattered. Not only that, but Omaha went on to lose the game anyway. On that note...

3. I couldn't be happier to be done with the Iowa Cubs for a while. The O-Royals are just 2-6 against the Cubbies so far, and many of the losses were of the heartbreaking variety. (However, I will miss the crowds that the Cubs series always bring. Those crowds have some great energy!)

4. I will have my first actual professional baseball writing gig for this year's College World Series. During that time, I probably won't write here much (if at all) but I will post links to whatever I write for Baseball Prospectus. (Yes, them. Woo!)

5. Glad to see Jeff Fulchino called up to the bigs (the first-ever ex-Natural to make it there), and to see that he was effective in today's game. I wonder how Joel Peralta will react to being demoted; he really didn't like it the first time this year but responded by not allowing a run in his time with Omaha. I hope he does the same thing; some more scoreless relief would be dandy.

6. I would love to have written more, but I need sleep. Earlier when I sat down on my living room floor to fire up my laptop, I noticed that the carpet was soaking wet. After some severe weather last night and a bunch on other recent nights, it seems that maybe my house's foundation has a leak, because the water was definitely coming up from under the carpet, rather than having been spilled on to it. This is disturbing because I have a specific fear of water-related accidents that stems from the time a toilet* in my childhood home literally split apart and flooded a big chunk of the house.

*No, a pipe didn't burst; the toilet tank itself just inexplicably split open, so as the tank kept trying and trying to re-fill itself, hundreds of gallons of water spilled down into the TV room below that bathroom, and then the room below that. I still freak out at the possibility of more flooding in the 4 places I've lived since then.

7. From the Heartwarming Stories Department: Lady Andrea at Ladies... writes about how the NFL has pitched in to help a tornado-ravaged town in her area.

8. Two of my brothers and I have recently started joining in the in-game open threads at Royals Review. For me, it feels like a support group. I can never have enough bitter-yet-optimistic, snarky, clever Royals fans around. I don't know why we didn't start doing those things much sooner.

Thanks for sticking around while I haven't been writing much. I love you all dearly. On that note, if you find yourself at an O-Royals game, feel free to come say hello! A while back, reader 'mike in omaha' introduced himself, and it was delightful to meet someone outside of my family who reads this here site.

A good day?, and a proposal for ASG voting

The three teams that matter most to me will all be playing this afternoon. The KC Royals will try to mount a winning streak of two games at 1:05, which is the same time the Huskers will try to stay alive in their Regional after yesterday's loss to UC-Irvine. Then at 2:00, Carlos Rosa pitches for the O-Royals, which is obviously kind of a big deal. This could be a very good baseball day for me, or an exceptionally bad one.

Anyway, that's not the point at all. The point is, I got an e-mail from Nicole, a fellow bloggerette who has this proposal about voting for this year's All-Stars:

Hi, I'm a blogger in Wisconsin who covers the Brewers (cutesports.blogspot.com and here) and I had a thought on All Star voting that I think might be mutually beneficial and I thought I'd run it by you.

I'm not sure about your ballclub, but the Brewers go all out trying to push the All-Star voting by their fans. I've literally seen kids walk out of the stadium carrying boxes of unpunched ballots (3000 or so to a box). They offer incentives for every 10 ballots turned in with raffles of autographed merchandise.

I realized that I punch in all my Brewers and then arbitrarily vote for members of the AL. If I feel like reading over it, I try not to punch any Yankees or Red Sox, but for the most part, I just go right down the line. I don't care who's on the AL team.

If my theory is correct, AL voters feel the same way and I do about voting for the NL team, especially if they're voting in mass quantity.

So I propose we two fan bases tie together and agree to vote together. All your NL votes go to Brewers, all our AL votes go to Royals.

We're both small market teams with limited coastal media exposure and a long shot at getting more than one guy on the All-Star roster. As all our "opposite league" votes are just throw aways, why don't we start a campaign of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

We involve other team blogs, spread the word, and make a difference.

I've thought about possible detractors, and I don't see any. I can only speak from this side, but since they're handing out ballots 3000 at a time, I don't think the Brewers have any problem with stuffing the ballot boxes. If we're doing it anyway for our guys, why don't we help each other out.

What do you think? I know it's a bit late for the idea, but we do have 6 weeks til the game and I really think that it we can get this going, we could make it a yearly tie-together and get some midwestern love for our little teams that could.

Nicole

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.

Still here, thawing out

Last night was yet another cold, rainy night for the Omaha Royals and their faithful fans. Five Royals players homered, but...Omaha still lost. It sucked.

Overheard in the Omaha dugout: "Why are there still people here? Don't they know it's cold and raining out here?"

Before that game, I tagged along to help with this event. We got to feed some fish, using handfuls of other, smaller fishes. (Note to self: If I am ever famous, I should be as nice to my fans as Matt Wright is.)

And today, the sun came out, and Jorge de la Rosa was awesome, and Omaha pulled out a sweet 3-2 victory.

But I haven't been around here to write about any of these things for two reasons:
1) I have not been near a reliable Internet connection, and more recently
2) This came out.

I haven't died, abandoned this blog, or given up hope that the Royals can win again. And once I get through this week (dead week), things will be back to a more normal pace here. Thanks for your patience!

BIG news for B&OT

After the departure of a few of their fine blogstresses, the Ladies... were looking for new contributors. After a rigorous screening process that included a background check, urinalysis, submission to random drug testing, an IQ test, and a strange ritual involving paddles, two kittens, and KY Jelly, I am one of them.

Why would I want to write for such a website? Fame, glory, and the big bucks. Duh. Also because I've always loved the balance the Ladies... provide for me as a sports fan. The Ladies... all legitimate sports fans with intelligent* thoughts, ideas, statistical knowledge, etc. about our favorite teams and sports. And we all have our regular blogs and other websites for those ideas. But from time to time, I find myself wanting to extol the virtues of high socks and eyeblack, or criticize MLB's dumbest goatees, but this blog isn't really the place; that wouldn't be fair to people who are here for actual baseball (...and, uh, Other Things?). I can do those posts there, comfortably assured that Ladies... readers understand that it is a balance, not merely a girly obsession with athlete asses in tight pants.

*Them, not me.

This is by no means the end of Baseball and Other Things. It's more like B&OT now has a baby sister. And that I'm this much closer to being Internet-famous.

Fantasy conundrum

I resisted the urge to try fantasy baseball for years. I know myself well enough to know that once I started a fantasy team, I'd get hooked and spend way too much time on it. I was pretty much right.

And tonight, I am faced with a heck of a quandary with my fantasy team: I forgot to move Jared Weaver off my roster before he faced the Royals tonight! Now, the Royals are knocking him around a bit, which is great for me as a fan, but is doing horrible things for my staff's ERA and WHIP (which had been at an astounding 0.00 and 0.40, respectively, for the last day and a half).

I have been thinking all season that I don't always like the way my fantasy involvement makes me look at games. It works beautifully when Brian Bannister throws a complete game so I get a whole bunch of points, but what when a Royal opponent is a member of my team, like tonight? It's just kind of disconcerting to be watching any game for a reason other than enjoying watching baseball.

On the plus side, I have paid closer attention to some teams because their players are on my team. It's making it easier for me to work on paying better attention to the NL. But it still weird. What if I'm watching the Yankees and Red Sox? I always root for Boston over New York, but I have Mariano Rivera, so it helps my (fantastic) staff if he dominates. But I also have two Boston outfielders, so maybe it would help me if those guys got their offense going, at Rivera's expense. I don't like the relativity of it all; I'd rather just enjoy watching and root for whomever I wish.

I could just convert to an all-Royals team via some heavy trading, or go with a silly theme (bad facial hair?), to cut down on how much I am actually bothered by this discontinuity.


Meanwhile, in real baseball, Gil Meche has thrown first-pitch strikes to 13 of his first 16 batters faced. That's a good sign. He has also gotten rid of that silly triangular beard. Do you think those factoids are related? I tend to think so...

Also, I have some fairly large news that I will share in more detail later this week. It's pretty exciting for me though. Feel free to speculate, but I'll eliminate some possibilities: I'm not getting married, I'm not pregnant. The rest is fair game.

Go Royals!

Just so you know

I won't be posting much this month. It's unfortunate because April is so awesome -- it's the month I spend all offseason pining for. Now that it's here, I have zero free time. None. Tonight is the first Omaha Royals home game, one of 16 this month. I'm working all but one of those (taking off for the KC home opener!) and I have a one-hour commute each way. Meanwhile, I am a full-time student, and apparently that is supposed to take some time. So I apologize profusely, because a lot of times I'm certain that blogging is more useful than classes ( because it has allowed me to "meet" so many of you fine people!) but I don't really have a choice.

If you're in Omaha this month (or at all this summer), I'd love to see you at a game! The schedule is here, and the promotions are listed here. See you at Rosenblatt?

EDITED TO ADD: We have sole possession of first place! Whee! (Click image for beautiful evidence) And I'm not terribly good at math (which is unfortunate because I really love baseball math), I've come up with an amazing statistical breakthrough comparing the Royals to the Tigers this week. Are you ready for this? Click here to see this mathematical revolution in the making.