Month: September 2014

In the afterglow, I find myself trying to remember the low moment, the moment that summed up all of what it meant being a Kansas City Royals fan the last 20 years or so. I think of the time Tim Belcher was named the Kansas City Royals pitcher of the year despite the somewhat limiting…

One of the scholasticists behind me said, “Let’s go. We’ve seen everything. I don’t want to spoil it.” This seemed a sound aesthetic decision. Williams’ last word had been so exquisitely chosen, such a perfect fusion of expectation, intention, and execution, that already it felt a little unreal in my head, and I wanted to…

My favorite Derek Jeter story comes from a time that, I fear, no one will understand in a few years. Maybe no one understands now. It comes from a time of newspapers and early columns and running columns and crushing deadlines. I have tried to explain the newspaper deadline concept to my daughters but, like…

There are many things that bug me about instant replay in sports, but I would say the thing that bugs me most is that replay tends to burn a lot of the fun out and instead turn our games into boring side-session arguments about technicalities. This was never more true than Saturday afternoon, when the…

Hat tip to Brilliant Reader Jason — this pretty convincingly makes the argument that no one is fat enough to block the whole net in hockey.

Today’s Yo Joe! comes live from England (Call it the “Yo Joe! intended to keep me awake long enough to get over jet lag” edition). Thought: Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for my friend Brandon McCarthy and his nine pitch, three-strikeout inning. But calling it an “immaculate inning?” Really? It has happened six times…

From Brilliant Reader Alex: Yo Joe! If the Jays and Royals both miss the playoffs (Jays almost certainly will, and you never go wrong betting against the Royals), whose fans should be more disappointed?  The obvious answer is the Royals … but I think the answer might be Blue Jays fans, for a few reasons:–…

Here is my annual plug where I ask you to take part in Tom Tango’s superb 2014 Fan Scouting Report, where you do the baseball reports. I’ll have more to say about these in the coming days, but these scouting reports have been pretty remarkable the last few years. They have broken all sorts of ground…

Yes, I know I can be hard on Ned Yost, maybe even unfairly so at times. That said, when you are in a pennant race, when every win and loss counts, when you are at home against a last place team, when you can fall a game and a half back in the standings with…