Poppy's Front Porch - in the Missouri Ozarks

Poppy's Front Porch - in the Missouri Ozarks
This photo was taken in 1949. My cousins and I remember the porch after our grandfather walled it in, added a door and big screen windows.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

A Royal Proclamation

Bob beckons and here I am, eager to apply some vocabulary to my thoughts concerning the baseball season, 2008 style.

In a nutshell, who knows what will happen?

Well, that is my standard reply when it comes to sports prognosticating. You would probably do just as well by creating a formula that ranked teams by your favorite colors, nicknames, cities and the square roots of their zip codes. OK, maybe not, but still.

I commented on the Cardinals at my blog, Central Standard, and, if you want, you can read it here. If you are not inclined to jump, I'll say this. They have already surprised us and I think it will continue. A number of frontline pitchers were injured last year and so some young guys were thrown into the fire. Those guys all have a year under their belts. Sometime later this year, some of the better arms will come back. Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen and David Eckstein have departed to be replaced by kids who are eager. No way they are last this year, as some "experts" have suggested. I think they are better than last year's team which hung in the race until mid-September. They just might win the division this year but, if not, I think they'll be in the hunt.

The Royals are better. Right now. And they will get better year-by-year with Dayton Moore and Trey Hillman running things. Get on board with them right now. I don't know what year it will be, but in a handful of years I would not be surprised to see playoff baseball in the land of Arthur Bryant. That being said, they are in one of baseball's tougher divisions. Detroit has a monstrous lineup, Cleveland is where KC is headed, i.e. young talent in the playoff hunt, Minnesota always fields a pretty good team and Chicago has talent and is just a couple years removed from a pennant. KC could improve by 10 games and still be nowhere near the playoffs. But they will be fun to watch and, I think, their day is coming. I was beginning to wonder if they would ever get back again.

The article that Bob linked is good and had nice things to say about KC, as he noted. But, he left the funny line for me to pull:

Speaking of new ballparks, have you checked out the additions to Fenway Park? If there’s a nook or a cranny, the Red Sox are adding a seat. Pretty soon, that guy selling chowder down the left-field line will have a box seat strapped to his back.

OK, how about some teams to watch for this year? In the spirit of Captain Renault, here are the usual suspects: Boston, NY Yankees, Detroit, Cleveland, LA Angels in the American League and NY Mets, Philadelphia, Chicago Cubs, Arizona and San Diego in the National League. Flying under the radar are Toronto and Seattle in the American League and Atlanta (they're back!) Milwaukee, St. Louis and LA Dodgers in the National League. The San Francisco Giants may quite possibly, to borrow Bob's phrase, stink out loud.

I don't think the Royals have the horses this year, but for the first time in a very long time, there is reason for optimism in KC. Pay attention and it will be all the sweeter when they win the division in a few years.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

How 'bout those Royals?

Today as I drove home, I heard on the radio that the Kansas City Royals swept their opening three game series with the Detroit Tigers. I’ll admit I haven’t been following the baseball news all that closely, so I didn’t know until a couple of days ago of the high expectations for the Tigers this year. But it’s not been easy – at least in recent years – for the Royals to beat them, much less three times in a row.

When I got home, I went online to the Royals site to check the standings, and see which other teams still were at a perfect 1.000. Much to my amazement, it was just KC…my home team has the best record in baseball so far. I mentioned that to my family at the dinner table, to responses of “Huh?”, and “That’s weird”.

Okay, it’s only three games into a long season, and much can happen. Oh, and before I go any further, let me pause with this disclaimer. I am by no means any kind of an expert about the great game of baseball. Call me a casual fan. In fact, I’m not even athletically inclined. But of the major sports here in the USA, baseball has always been my favorite to watch. I root for the home team, as the song has it. If you want a more in depth commentary, I’ll direct you to my cousin Mike’s blog. I’m humbled by his superior baseball knowledge. Hey, maybe he will chime in here (hint hint).

So why am I writing about this now, when it’s not one of my usual topics? I think that baseball can have its quirks. A team will have a hot streak, and then go cold. You can point to one thing or another as to why a team performed well, or stank out loud. Then I think – here again, only speculation on my part – that sometimes you just don’t know why. The games have to be played, and they can surprise you.

All that to say, it’s realistic to expect this won’t last. The Royals will have a loss, or maybe a string of losses.

But what if they stay hot, and the winning streak lasts longer than expected? I don’t think anyone around here expects to see KC in the playoffs…but what if our boys in blue have a much better year and finish well over .500?

I’ll close with this. While I was looking on the Royals website, this quote by Richard Justice of SportingNews caught my eye:

“The 2008 Royals are different. Anyone that was around them in spring training could see that. They’ve got a smart general manager in Dayton Moore, and he and rookie manager Trey Hillman are on their way to becoming one of the best GM-manager combinations in baseball.”

The entire article can be found here http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Ala7yD6iOWDy0KhMb4JHNOYc0bYF?slug=nationalsroyalsignitebas&prov=tsn&type=lgns