I Was Skeptical, But Apple Sports Won Me Over

iPhone Sports App

iPhone Sports App: A Convert's Perspective

For years, iPhone users have relied on third-party apps for sports scores and updates. But Apple recently stepped into the game with its own Sports app, and after some initial skepticism, I'm now a convert. The Apple Sports app was introduced on the iPhone on February 21, 2024. I initially tried it back in February, but it lacked customization, so I didn't use it for long. However, I've returned to using the app for the past two months, and I'm enjoying it much more. Apple has made several improvements that enhance usability, including displaying live games I follow on my lock screen and Apple Watch. Adding or removing games from my "followed" list is now a breeze.

While other apps on my phone (e.g., ESPN, MLB, NFL) offer game tracking, I particularly appreciate how Apple Sports displays real-time countdowns on my lock screen and Apple Watch. Often, the countdown is ahead of what I see on TV, giving me a more "live" feel.

Follow a Specific Game

Following a Specific Game

The screenshot shows the games I'm currently following. In this case, there are NFL games and college basketball games. To follow a game on your lock screen or Apple Sports, simply open the game in the app and tap the icon in the upper right corner of the game details. Tapping the icon again unfollows the game.

The ability to display followed games on the lock screen is a relatively recent addition, introduced within the last two or three months. This feature wasn't available at the app's initial launch and has been a game-changer for me. I often close live updates from other apps like NFL or ESPN, relying on Apple Sports for at-a-glance updates.

Followed Game on Lock Screen

Lock Screen Updates

As shown in the screenshots, Apple Sports provides clear updates on the lock screen and Apple Watch. On my Apple Watch, I receive notifications for scores, end of quarters, and halftime/game endings. These notifications can be customized if you only want to see score updates.

Final Thoughts

I am currently using Apple Sports as my primary app for following my teams. I appreciate the real-time updates, which seem faster than those in other apps. Occasionally, a game might not update correctly, requiring me to force-close and restart the app, but this is a minor inconvenience.

I'm optimistic that Apple will continue to update and improve the Apple Sports experience. If you haven't tried it recently, I encourage you to check it out.

A Weekend Escape: From Kansas City Adventures to Backyard Grilling Bliss

Here I sit writing about the weekend on a Sunday morning. Last week was a short work week but as is usually the case it seemed like a very long week. It was very busy at work, but it was a productive work week. 

I was glad when Friday arrive as we had plans to travel to Legends in Kansas City to go to Yard House to celebrate Greg's birthday from a few weeks prior. Always a good spot and this time did not disappoint. From the beers and appetizers to diner, everything was delicious. Would you believe I did not get any pictures from the Friday trip? I need to do better at taking pictures to help liven up my weekly posts but that is for another day.

Saturday morning was low key with a trip to Higher Grounds for breakfast, coffee, and a little reading. This was our second visit to Higher Grounds and it continues to be a consistent spot with good food. We discussed while we were there that we want to go back sometime to have lunch. We were able to sit on the patio and the fire was going on the patio as it was a little chilly out Saturday morning here in Topeka.

Following Higher Grounds we went to pick up groceries at Aldi's for the weekend and week. We had plans to grill Saturday night and again on Sunday. We picked up some salmon which along with a salad Carrie was going to make would be our dinner for Saturday night. What a great meal for a beautiful Saturday night.

Salmon Meater Cook

I enjoy using Meater to say when it is time to remove from the grill. Grilling on the Big Green Egg that I have had for a few years I got the Meater a few years ago and I have used it for doing everything from salmon to steaks, turkey, and pork. It works great and would recommend one if you are in the need for a meat thermometer. Works not only on the grill but also in the oven and the newer models will even go into liquids to provide readings. I have the older model, so it can only go up to around 600 degrees and cannot go into anything liquid. Still, it has worked great for me. 

Sunday should be relaxing for us with a lot of NFL games on today which I am looking forward to watching. I have NFL Sunday Ticket through YouTube TV which is my second. year to have and I enjoy the ability to watch any games on Sundays. It helps me to track my fantasy football players and watch them instead of relying on stats to update. It makes it fun to watch them when they are playing and also the ability to switch over to a game if I get a notice they are about to score. I thought about getting NFL RedZone, but decided not to add it this year.

A short meandering Sunday morning post. Now it is time to get ready to watch some football. Have a great day and I will talk with you next week.

Super Bowl Sunday and Kansas City Chiefs are in SB Again... So Excited! Let's GO!

Chiefs Shoes for Super Bowl

Quiet Sunday morning as we prepare for the Super Bowl this evening. It is hard to believe that the Kansas City Chiefs are playing in their fourth Super Bowl in the past five years. It has been so much fun and a good reminder to never take anything for granted in life or sports. I am so excited for the game tonight, I can hardly stand the wait.

Carrie and I attended the Washburn mens basketball game on Saturday. Washburn lost to Northwest Missouri State. It was a good game, but came up short on a three point attempt and let the game slip away. Northwest Missouri State is always a tough game and their #22 player was hitting three point shots like he was doing layups. He had 18 points in the first half. There was a really good crowd at the game, so it was fun. Only a few games left in the season before the post season starts.

Saturday night was the Kansas Jayhawks game who took on Baylor. Got off to a good start, but let Baylor stick around and only won by three points. After losing the prior game to the Wildcats, it was good to get a win. Monday night will be tough going up against Texas Tech. The Big 12 league is wide open this year and it is tough to win on the road so hoping we show up and ready to play Monday night.

Ok, back to the hype for the big game tonight. I shared the picture of my Kansas City Chiefs shoes that I am wearing for today. I actually got the shoes early in 2023, so it will be fun to wear them today for the Super Bowl. Looking forward to taco bar we are doing this evening for the watch party.

Have a great rest of your Sunday and a great week. Go Chiefs!

Washburn Basketball, Movies, Weather, and NFL in this Update to Start the 2024 Year

Carrie and John at Washburn Game

Carrie and I attended our third game of the season. We have missed a number of early games in the season, but hope to make the remaining games of the season. With traveling, holidays, etc., we were unable to make games earlier in the season. We had a great time on Saturday. Washburn came away with the win. We attended the Washburn game on Thursday too and we won that game too.

While we were at the game, we decided we are going to attend one of the home track meets Washburn plays through January. I have never been to a track meet although I have watched them online, so I am looking forward to attending our first track meet at our very own Indoor Athletic Facility on the Washburn University campus.

Friday night, we stayed home and enjoyed watching movies. During the holiday break, we watched a movie, or two, every night. There were a few we did not get to, so we watched on Friday night. We were able to watch The Holdovers and it was fantastic! We watched The Holdovers on Peacock, but I know it is playing at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS. Worth checking out as the whole cast did a great job. From the same director who did Sideways (2004), Alexander Payne put together a good story that was heartwarming and brought tears to my eyes. After watching The Holdovers, we decided we would watch Sideways as it had been a long time since we had seen Sideways. Fun low key Friday night for us.

Trees and Lights in the Snow

Friday also brought our second snow to Topeka. It was not supposed to amount to much, but it did snow all day long and left the trees and shrubs looking pretty. A wet snow that covered trees, so Carrie snapped a picture of our trees and lit up snowman in front of our house as it was pretty. The forecast is for significant snow fall Monday through Tuesday, so we will see what happens. 

This is the last weekend of the regular season for the NFL. Many teams are playing backup players to save their starters for the playoffs which includes the Kansas City Chiefs who are not starting Mahomes and others to keep them fresh for the postseason. So I am looking forward to watching football all afternoon although Carrie is not thrilled as she will be happy when the season is over and no more football. 

A wondering ramble of topics for this week. Short week last week with New Years Day on Monday, but it was back to work. It was a good productive work week. I hope your year started out well and I will talk to you soon.

Share My Fantasy Football Career, Discuss Other Fantasy Sports I play, and Other Ramblings

Fantasy sports are fun... well, most of the time. It is amazing how quickly a "good" season can change. In one of my fantasy football leagues, I was leading the division and had won a series of games in a row. The past three weeks, I am on a losing skid. I dropped from leading the division to third place in my division. At this rate, I have a chance of barely getting into the playoffs with two weeks left in the regular season for fantasy football.

The Chiefs Kingdom league I have been an owner since 2016. It is a great time as we do a live draft in-person at the start of the season. I have not won this league yet, but I have had some good seasons. This year, I was progressing with a good team and suddenly the wheels fell off and I am not sure where I will end up. We have had different league owners win over the years and the past two years for the first time we had a repeat winner. This league is a lot of fun and banter is shared between owners.

The Beer Gut league, I have been a member since 2011. This league has shrunk and grown over the years from ten teams back up to twelve teams. There have been multi-owner winners in this league. I won the league in 2014 and 2017. We had our first three-time winner with the 2022 season with that league owner winning 2012, 2015, and 2022. The league has been around a while, so it is not surprising that we have multi-owner winners.

I also enjoy playing fantasy baseball, but I have really struggled through the years in fantasy baseball. I enjoy both but I have had better "luck" in fantasy football. I am hoping to get my first win in Chiefs Kingdom this year, but it does require luck to make it to the playoffs and win. The years I won in Beer Gut I did not think I had a chance those years and some how managed to the playoffs and win in the playoffs to win the league. It all takes a lot of luck no matter what and all we can do is hope we put the correct players in the game to be active to earn us points.

Football and baseball are the only fantasy sports that I play. Even when my team is not doing well, I enjoy the process. 

Have a great rest of your day and a wonderful weekend...

Pig Skin Pick 'em Ready for 2016-2017 Season... Enter Today!

The NFL season starts on September 8. Once again this year, the ESPN Pig Skin Pick 'em will be running week after week during the regular NFL season. Create your entry now to be ready to enter your picks. Then do not forget to enter your picks each week throughout the season.

The password for the league is haverty and the name of the league is Maybe This Season. Feel free to share with others as the more people we have in the pick 'em the more fun it is for everyone. Each person can enter up to two entries.

It is free to play the Pig Skin Pick 'em and you might win prizes from ESPN for playing. Enjoy the season!

Where Have I Been and What Have I Been Up To?

OK, so, this will start the process of me blogging again. I enjoyed it so much when I was doing it on a regular basis. I got into somewhat of a rut just posting about sports. While that will probably play into a lot of what I post about, I do plan on posting on a variety of other topics as well.



The last time I posted anything of content was Sunday, April 26. It was the weekend after the Spring Faculty/Staff golf tourney. What a great time! So much time and things have passed since the April day. I will try to recount some of those items in this long over do update.



The faculty/staff tournament back in April helped to kick off me playing golf. I had planned to play a lot of golf over the Summer and I feel good about the amount of golf I have played. July was the month I played the most golf. One week right before my birthday, I played 36 on one day, 27 on another, and 18 on one day. It as great!



I have also taken a lot of golf lessons. I received golf lessons from the Shirrons' last Christmas and I started to use those in June. I was having a problem with my right wrist hurting when I would play, but I took a lesson with Joey at the club and he helped me to the over swing I was doing and instead not take the club back as far. This helped my wrist a great deal. Now, I have having problems with my right elbow. I know, odd! So, I scheduled another lesson for September 1 with Joey for another lesson. He is going to watch my swing to see if he can figure out why my elbow would be hurting. It hurts to the point where after playing golf I cannot open doors, lift a glass of water, etc. This goes on for days and at this point is preventing me from playing much golf. Still, I love the game, the process, and the experience of playing a round of golf.



The Summer also brought the start of Men's League at Shawnee Country Club. I managed to put a team together for Men's League this year. It was a lot of fun and September 3 is the last day for the league. We did not win, but we had a lot of fun! It is so much fun playing each Wednesday with a different group of guys, drinking beer, talking, and then eating dinner afterwards. The experience is great and I encourage it for anyone. The women's group has been trying to get Carrie to play for two years, but Carrie still needs to get clubs and learn the game. I think she would enjoy it just as I do if given the chance.



This is our third year of belonging to Shawnee Country Club (SCC). For two years, my handicap has been above the mens maximum handicap, so I had a 37.7L handicap. Ouch! The "L" indicates that it is above the mens maximum handicap and it is a local handicap. Well, finally, after three years I am finally below the maximum and I am at 33.9. Ah, much better!



June was a fun month playing golf with my brother Tim. We had a great time playing in the SCC Member Guest Tournament. Tim and Jennifer stayed at our house for the weekend. We had a great time! While Tim and I did not win, we did have a good time! We smoked cigars just about every day (and night). We had a lot of beers! We also had a lot of good conversation! I plan to do it again next year. It was just good to have my big bro staying with me at my house. It was great to be able to get up and go to the golf course with my brother to play golf and know that all we would be doing for three days was play golf and be together. While Tim and I were playing golf, Carrie and Jennifer were able to spend time together too. They had fun shopping, going to lunch, and just lounging around the house doing nothing. We all had a fun time the last night, Saturday, with dancing and a full dinner. SCC did a great job with the event. It as my first of many and I was already planning at the end of the week to do it again next year. Good times!

July 4 weekend found us over at Robin and Scotts'. We had a great July 4 weekend. It was nice and long with the forth falling on a Friday. We actually saw someone light a firework in their hand and set it off. Later, Mike D, had to go to the emergency room to see if he fingers were broken. Nah, they were just badly bruised and still bleeding. The best part of the night was watching Scott and Carrie dance in the fireworks.

I am jumping around a bit, but after so much time what can you expect? We move into August and it gets extremely busy at work. Move in week for residential living, upgrade for MyWashburn, and working with new faculty, staff, and students as they start to use Washburn systems. It is now about to turn to September and things remain busy at work. The kind of busy where the day is ending and it feels like it just began. The types of days where you have to make it a point to get your lunch in or you will miss it completely. The only good thing is that the days pass by so fast you barely realize you have been slammed the whole day.

Turning to September also takes us into the start of college and NFL football. The Washburn Ichabods played their first game of the season yesterday. They played the Colorado School of Mines and kicked their butt 27 - 7. Good way to start the season. Carrie and I will miss the first home game next weekend as we will be down in Arkansas to visit family that we are meeting down there. We will make it to the September 12 game and it should be fun as it is a night game.

Well, I realized I forgot to mention anything that happened in May. I do not recall at this time what happened that month. If I happen to think of anything, I will be sure to post it. Other than that, rest assured that I am going to try and post a update at least once a week. I am going to set a reminder task so I get reminded of it each week.

Now, we begin the slow descent into the winter months. What a odd Summer it has been. We went to the lake on Friday and about froze in the water. Odd! We had a fun time and hope to be able to get out to the lake once more before winter hits.

Until I write again... Have a great week and I will be back on next week!