Our own Kansas City Royals keep getting more and more local, regional and national coverage. The following was in none other than Sunday's New York Times.
What Davis is doing for the Kansas City Royals almost defies explanation. From the time he became a full-time reliever in September 2013 through the All-Star break, Davis had pitched in 117 regular-season and postseason games. His E.R.A. was 0.80, with 180 strikeouts in 1351/3 innings with no home runs allowed.
“I’ve been in awe of him since he picked up a ball,” said Chris Sale, the overpowering starter for the Chicago White Sox. “He went into that bullpen, and he has been lights out. I’m pretty sure nobody likes facing him. What, has he not given up a home run in two years or something? I can’t even go two starts without giving up a home run.”
Then, in the much larger picture, check this out from Yahoo Sports a few days ago:
The topsy-turvy world that is Baltimore right now.
It's bad enough the police force there has a bad reputation for roughing up and/or killing anyone, let alone one certain group of people, in this case, blacks. Heaven knows that's bad enough.
Then, one more time, a black man is taken into custody and ends up dead. It doesn't look good. It looks beyond bad.
So the man does die and lots of other black Americans are outraged and protest, not surprisingly. Riots break out, stores are burned, looting takes place. It's not good. It's beyond not good.
Reacting to that, the city's baseball team cancels 2 baseball games but finally figures they need to go ahead and play a game.
But instead of going ahead and playing the game and calling it out publicly so they could pull the city together, they go forward with the game WITHOUT FANS. They shut out the fans, shut out the public:
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/article19876623.html#storylink=cpy
And the symphony orchestra, for crying out loud, got it:
The Baltimore Orioles and Major League Baseball could have seized this moment, thrown open the doors to their game and given everyone memories for years to come but a great afternoon they need and needed now.
And sure, it would have needed police and security there when they're also needed across town but call out more National Guard. Put them on the scene. Then have the game and have everyone revel in everything Baltimore and Baltimore pride. Pull everyone together---black, white, poor, wealthy, middle and working class, everyone.
Instead, they lock everyone, all the fans out and play to an open stadium, instead. What a huge, important, possibly transformative situation. Lost.
It was insane and even shameful they ever had it. I'm thrilled they did the right thing without the people having to scream bloody murder and fight to get this overturned.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- If it had been a foul ball or broken bat that struck John Coomer in the eye as he watched a Kansas City Royals game, the courts likely wouldn't force the team to pay for his surgeries and suffering.
But because it was a hot dog thrown by the team mascot - behind the back, no less - he just may have a case.
The Missouri Supreme Court is weighing whether the ''baseball rule'' - a legal standard that protects teams from being sued over fan injuries caused by events on the field, court or rink - should also apply to injuries caused by mascots or the other personnel that teams employ to engage fans. Because the case could set a legal precedent, it could change how teams in other cities and sports approach interacting with fans at their games.
Coomer, of Overland Park, Kan., says he was injured at a September 2009 Royals game when the team's lion mascot, Sluggerrr, threw a 4-ounce, foil-wrapped wiener into the stands that struck his eye. He had to have two surgeries - one to repair a detached retina and the other to remove a cataract that developed and implant an artificial lens. Coomer's vision is worse now than before he was hurt and he has paid roughly $4,800 in medical costs, said his attorney, Robert Tormohlen.
But the fact is, Sluggerr didn't "throw" the hot dog, folks. At the time this happened, Sluggerr was shooting these things from a cannon, of sorts. Unfortunately for Mr. Coomer--and Sluggerr and the team, frankly--it hit him in eye.
The thing is, I know John Coomer. John Coomer is a friend of mine. And I happen to know he originally merely asked the team to pay for his surgery and medical bills.
Mr. Glass and the team said no, solidly.
It was only then that Mr. C. then had to file suit, merely to cover the costs of said medical bills.
I'd have thought--and most people would, I think--that the team and virtually any other company would merely pay the bills, likely out of their insurance coverage, do the right thing, mark it up to good PR and call it a day.
Not the skin flint that David Glass is, apparently, sadly.
So now, not only has it gone to court but it's now going to the Missouri State Supreme Court.
Pitiful.
It just doesn't seem as though a few thousand dollars, to cover some medical bills for a fan who was injured at the stadium, by the team mascot, would much to ask or expect, given the millions upon millions the team makes each and every year, from all the other fans.
Shameful.
It's bad enough they don't win enough baseball, enough years, down through time.
They also have to first injure and then punish their own fans in the stands.
Ewing Kauffman must surely be--once again--spinning in his grave.
The MLB All-Star game will take place on July 16 in New York. The All-Stars will represent their teams and play for bragging rights and home field advantage for the World Series. Aside from pride, players also get plenty of perks and money. We have compiled a list of the players who have All-Star bonuses written into their contracts. Find out who will be getting a nice one-day payday and the other perks the league provides for the players selected for the 2013 All-Star game.
Contract bonus: $500,000 in 2014 and 2015. Kansas City's Gordon didn't even realize he'd pocketed and extra million until his agent reminded him of the big clause in his contract. He also tacks on another $500K to his now $13.25M player option in 2016. Makes you feel better about our Royals, doesn't it? (Not). Whaddya' bet Mr. Gordon is on a short list to be traded off soon, with that in the budget, if he stays hitting.
From left: Brett Parker, Negro League Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick,
Brad Belden and Elizabeth Belden
Kansas City Royals fan Brett Parker isn't the first
person to get dressed up for a ballgame, but he's still kind of a genius for
organizing "Dressed to the Nines" at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday. With the help
of Negro League Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick and Major League
Baseball, it should have a real shot at becoming a recurring annual event — if
not a habit to be repeated many times a season. Parker and his friends not only love going to baseball games but they also
support the NLBM in Kansas City, Mo. (That place, along with the Hall of Fame at
Cooperstown, N.Y., and the Louisville Slugger Museum in Louisville, Ky., are
about the coolest places of their kind in the United States. All are must-sees
for fans).
As Kansas City Star columnist Sam Mellinger wrote recently, the
Negro League Museum is replete with photos of fans in the stands at Negro League
games dressed in their 'Sunday best' clothes. Back in the day, most fans of
every color — no matter if they were attending major league or Negro League
games — dressed up. Actually, it seems like folks dressed up no matter where
they were if they were going out, in those days. But looking your best meant something more to black fans at a Negro League
game:
--Buck O’Neil talked about this often. They took so much pride in their
appearance. When a kid signed with the Negro Leagues, often from a job working a
cotton field, his teammates took him straight to the tailor for two suits. The
kid would sign for them, take the suits, and when he got his first check he’d go
back and pay for the suits.
--Fans were the same way. Games were often on Sunday afternoons, so fans were
coming straight from church. No time to change clothes, and besides, why not go
looking your best?
--“There was nothing recreational about it, it was the social event of the
week,” Kendrick says. “And in the African-American community, it was a way to
dignify themselves.”
Parker and friends started dressing in suits, dresses and hats for the Jackie
Robinson Day game in 2012, which makes sense, given the Negro League link. It
makes even more sense for "Dressed to the Nines" to be it's own day. It makes
even more sense for fans to dress up on any random Sunday. Not only
does it keep us in touch with our past (a natural reason people love baseball in
the first place), but it's just plain classy. And there's nothing wrong with
restoring a little class to this world.
Pretty cool.
Good--great?--coverage for these people, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the city.
NEW ORLEANS – It is the most American of occasions, the showpiece of the most
American of all sports, so why does the Super Bowl use Roman numerals to denote
its grand event every year?
No other major American sport uses the Roman counting system, one
formerly familiar to school kids around the country but now essentially obsolete
to the iPad generation. Yet the Super Bowl persists with the tradition, has no
desire or plan to change it, and the ancient characters will continue to appear
just as they have since 1971.
That was the year when what was supposed to be Super Bowl 5 became Super Bowl
V, at the insistence of pioneering sports entrepreneur Lamar Hunt, the owner of
the Kansas
City Chiefs and one of the most significant figures in the growth in the
game’s popularity. The Baltimore Colts emerged victorious that year, outlasting the Dallas
Cowboys 16-13 thanks to a winning field goal in the dying seconds.
Lamar Hunt (Getty Images)
Lamar Hunt
was a man with plenty of ideas, most of them good. It was he who also coined the
term Super Bowl ‐ coming from the children's toy, a "Super Ball" – and his
numbering concept was considered successful enough to retain. The system has
even been retroactively incorporated for Super Bowls I through IV. "It was his brainchild," said Bob Moore, historian for the Chiefs. "I think
people felt from the start that it had something to it, even if they couldn’t
quite put their finger on exactly what it was. Before long it was just part of
it. Now it wouldn’t be the same without it."
Hunt, who died aged 74 in 2006, was a stakeholder in seven different sports
franchises and has been inducted into eight different ‘Halls of Fame’, but amid
his multitude of achievements he was, according to his son, Clark, to be
particularly proud of suggesting Roman numerals for the Super Bowl.
"It has been in place ever since," NFL official historian Joe Horrigan told
Yahoo! Sports. "It is part of the Super Bowl culture, it is an established part
of the magic of the Super Bowl.” No discussions have been held to consider changing to a more common numbering
system even with Super Bowl 50, sorry, Super Bowl L, just three years away. "If you asked me to count up using Roman numbers I wouldn't even know how to
do it," said San Francisco 49ers safety Donte Whitner. "But it's a good thing.
It's the Super Bowl, man." The fans love it too, according to a small sampling of opinion gathered on
the streets of New Orleans on Wednesday afternoon. "I don’t think you need anything to make the Super Bowl even more dramatic,"
said mother of three and Saints fan Ree Nygren. "But it does add something to
it, it is kind of cool and timeless and important-sounding. There is no point in
changing it, although it won’t be quite the same once it become Ls rather than
Xs."
So, hey, if we--Kansas City and our Chiefs--can't get remotely close to the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowl, at least we can get some national recognition from and after the game, eh?
Sure, I know the zeitgeist is against unions but the NFL's lockout and attempted breaking of the referees just now by the NFL owners, rich, selfish greedheads that they are, proves, yet again, the need we working-class stiffs have for unions and for organizing:
NFL gives into public pressure and does right thing by bringing back regular officials
The uber-wealthy, disgustingly rich owners wanted to pocket yet more cash, on the backs of the working stiffs--the refs, in this case--and fortunately, it blew up in their faces.
Good for us.
The thing is, it's as I said on my Facebook page, when we stand together, it's not that we win, it's that we don't lose.
Any middle- or lower-class person who isn't solidly pro-union defies logic and good, strong common sense, to me. Without unions, it's us, singularly, against the corporation and/or the wealthy.
And if that's the case, when it's them vs. us alone, we'll lose.
Every time.
This, then, this next headline and story is why this is all pertinent to all of us now, too:
Mitt Romney: Free Speech Is for Billionaires, Not School-Teachers
At an educational forum this week, Mitt Romney called for restricting teachers' unions from participating in the political process.
What does a plutocracy look like? How about a leveraged buy-out artist who used his family connections – and gamed the tax code – to amass a $378 million fortune, and whose campaign is almost entirely financed by deep-pocketed conservative sugar-daddies, saying that while money equals Constitutionally-protected free speech for his own donors, there should be limits on political spending by teachers making $75,000 per year.
This is why we can't afford to lose any further ground to these people.
The NFL referees' strike is an excellent example of what this election in November is all about, folks.
"If they play football come September at Penn State, something's wrong." --Bob Costas, NBC sports reporter, writer, speaking today to David Gregory on "Meet the Press"
It's for monumentally screwing up a play--in two different ways (from Yahoo! Sports):
Mike Moustakas misses first base, settles for very long, very strange single
On Friday, Oakland A's outfielder Seth Smith turned in a defensive gem that could receive consideration for Play of the Year in Major League Baseball.
On Saturday night, the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates were involved in what very well could be the exact opposite of the Play of the Year. And no, this has nothing to do with the insensitive gesture made by Humberto Quintero in the dugout during Bruce Chen's interview. Though that certainly qualifies as the poorest use of judgment we've seen recently.
This actually took place on the field, where Kansas City's Mike Moustakas and Pittsburgh's All-Star center fielder Andrew McCutchen teamed up to botch a routine base hit in every possible way.
Royals?
It's "Our time"?
Our time for what, exactly?
At least, bad as that was, it wasn't as out-and-out stupid as this:
Check that out. It's the number two top story on Yahoo! News right now: Reading Royals fan displays just one way to cope with the worst home start since 1913
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