The Royals of Kansas City of 2008

boy, grudz has really let himself go.

Still has the bottomless blue eyes. Wasn't he among the top 20 most handsome players of the 90s according to Bill James' wife?

combined three hitter!

take that, you would be 1,000 run behemoth!

It's not Grud'nek. It's the manager.

I like seeing Bannister do well, but that was a bit much.

ORLY

Break 'em up!

Greinke's going to look like he's 18 when he's 47, isn't he?

They FUBAR'd the powder blue alternates:

- white logo!!
- no blue piping around the numbers!!
- come on!!

dudes:

is kc about to sweep los tigres de michoakan?

The offense that's going to score a million runs is having trouble scoring one.

Hey now -- they dropped 3 on KC on Opening Day. They're pacing themselves (AKA waiting for the Orioles to come to town).

Sorry, I meant 4 -- got the 3 from looking @ the Royals starters this series (lol Meche sucks).

Wow -- KC reliever Ramon Ramirez just blew three mid-90s fastballs right by Ivan Rodriguez.

The DRASTICALLY IMPROVED Ivan Rodriguez

I learned today that Trey Hillman knows all the words to "R-O-C-K In The USA" by John Cougar Mellencamp. And now you know.

Great start this year, hope they can keep it up. I also like that they are bringing back the powder blue uniforms.

i had no idea hideo nomo was still alive

Zack Grienke :) :) :) :)

I don't remember the powder blue jerseys ever being worn with white pants. The combination looks a bit... awkward?

Ridiculous bullpen

Meaning Nunez, Ramirez, Soria.

Nunez 7.02 K/9, 0.84 WHIP, 1.62 ERA
Ramirez 11.12 K/9, 1.12 WHIP, 1.06 ERA
Soria 9.92 K/9, 0.31 WHIP, 0.00 ERA

It's a bit early in the season still, but I'm glad they are (finally) making more noticeable improvement this year. What is going on with Teahan though...

Pummeled for 20 hits over his previous two starts, Brian Bannister combines on a two-hit shutout. "Just had to let my BABIP regress before I started dealing again," he tells Joe Posnanski.

just from the box it looks like their fearless leader mismanaged the eff outta this one

meaning im protective of banny cuz of my mancrush on him:

To Banny. I texted him the question: So what’s the deal with the day-night split? He texted me the sort of answer that, once again, explains why he’s the coolest guy in the game:

“The hitters tell me my fastball looks faster when they’re still a little hungover.”

Finally ended their 12 game losing streak, but now they are right back where they've been the past couple years. Sigh.

srsly, they hafta send Pena somewhere.

BALCO, ideally.

Do not hate on nu Oyler.

No respect.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7084/picture1fy0.png

WHY WE HATE PT 247

http://wesclark.com/am/rolaids_logo.jpg

so is Tony Pena Jr an official backup/d-replacement to Aviles now?

Won away series against AZ, outscored them 20-7.

Then swept an away series against the Cardinals.

Aviles for MVP!

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3464459

You're playing against the Cardinals, Alberto, not for them.

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080722/capt.8f0ae48034024eac86d72ef79b50cf00.tigers_royals_baseball_mocr111.jpg

25th anniv of Pine Tar Game!

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=3502239

I was watching the Yankee TVcast on WPIX, Brett really looked scary.

Brett was a complete maniac in that game. I've always wondered why that incident didn't overshadow his entire career like, for example, the spitting incident did for Robbie Alomar.

because he didn't touch the ump, and it was a pro-Yankee call? We understand, George.

Move the game/incident to the present, replace George Brett with Milton Bradley, hmm...

Rolays

The only reason he didn't touch the ump was because there were about five guys restraining him!

well, he was one lucky closeted gay Republican man.

So you're trying to tell me that he *enjoyed* spreading black goo all over his wood and being held down by several sweaty male athletes afterward?

Going, Going, Gone ... Berserk: Pine-Tar Bat Incident Revisited
By TYLER KEPNER

Twenty-five years later, it remains one of baseball’s most riveting images: George Brett, eyes bulging with rage, bolting out of the visiting dugout at Yankee Stadium, intent on enacting a most primal impulse. He wanted to kill the ump.

The object of Brett’s fury, a quarter-century ago on Thursday, was back in the Bronx this week. It was Tim McClelland, then working his first series at Yankee Stadium and now a respected crew chief. McClelland was the umpire who tried to nullify a crucial home run because Brett had too much pine tar on his bat.

McClelland is a commanding figure, at 6 feet 6 inches, and he said he was not afraid of a rampaging future Hall of Famer.

“I knew he really wasn’t going to hit me or run over me,” McClelland said Wednesday before working third base in the Yankees’ game with Minnesota. “If he did, I’d probably own the Kansas City Royals right now.”

The Royals held a conference call with Brett on Wednesday to commemorate the anniversary of his disputed homer off the Yankees’ Goose Gossage. Brett will be in Cooperstown, N.Y., this weekend for Gossage’s induction to the Hall of Fame.

“I’ve always been proud of all the home runs I gave up,” said Gossage, who joined Brett’s call. “But that was probably my proudest one, because we had so much fun with it.”

Brett came up against Gossage in the top of the ninth with two out, one on and the Yankees ahead by a run. He homered deep into the right-field seats, giving the Royals an apparent 5-4 lead. That was when Manager Billy Martin put into motion a plan hatched by third baseman Graig Nettles.

Years before, the Yankees’ Thurman Munson had been called out for having pine tar higher than 18 inches from the knob of his bat. Nettles remembered that when he noticed that Brett was using a similar bat.

“When the rule was originally made, it was actually for the protection of the hitter, because if the pine tar would get on the ball, then the pitcher could grip the ball better and snap off curves and stuff like that,” McClelland said. “So, really, it’s kind of funny how the rule was made for the protection of the hitter, but the penalty was on the hitter.”

Brett said he had never heard of the rule, and because he never wore batting gloves, he liked to put pine tar on his hands to get a grip on the bat handle. His pine tar extended to 23 inches from the knob.

“I didn’t like the way the bat felt with batting gloves,” Brett said. “It was July 24 in New York, and it was hot and muggy, a day game. Pine tar just gave you a better grip.”

When Martin argued, McClelland agreed that Brett had violated the rule. He called him out, presumably ending the game but instead provoking chaos. Brett snapped, and another umpire, Joe Brinkman, held him back from McClelland.

Meanwhile, a Royals pitcher known for subterfuge was intent on stealing the evidence.

“Gaylord Perry, being the man of foreign substance that he is, got the bat and twisted it out of my hands,” McClelland said. “He threw it to Rocky Colavito, and I went to grab it from Rocky, and Rocky held it up over his head like he was going to hit me with it. You know, take it, it’s not that big a deal.”

Eventually, security guards nabbed the bat and sent it to the American League president, Lee MacPhail, who overturned McClelland’s call based on the spirit of the rule, which was repealed after the season. The Royals completed their victory in August when the game was finished at Yankee Stadium, but the major players were gone.

Brett, who had been ejected, was watching on television from a restaurant in New Jersey. McClelland was working in Seattle. If he had let the home run stand, McClelland said, it might have been Martin who charged him.

“We’ve got to rule on the letter of the law, and the letter said that we should call him out,” McClelland said. “But if I’d have gone to Billy Martin and said, ‘Hey Billy, you’re right by the rules, but come on’ — who knows what Billy would have done?”

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

This game is on ESPN Classic right now.

Willie Wilson wore New Balance SPIKES?

They showed the top of the first and then skipped to the bottom of the seventh.

Soria's WHIP: 0.69

brian bannister: 10 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks while getting 3 outs thus far

oh, and three homers

A BRANDON DUCKWORTH SIGHTING

shutting down that "vaunted" Twinkie "offense"

probably a rerun but i lol'd

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/blog_article/other-factors-1-numbers-behind-numbers-0/

The Royals, the very worst team in the American League, have not had a single player on the roster this season who's made his major league debut. Because, you know, the veterans are doing such a bang-up job.