KU in Final Four... Royals 3 and 0....

University of Kansas in the Final Four

Well, Kansas basketball has made it to the Final Four this year. What a ride! Oh, and the ride is not over! It is hard to believe that just a few short months ago the Kansas Football team was going up against Missouri in a huge game and then made it to a bowl game and won. The fun continues with the University of Kansas going up against the North Carolina Tarheels. A re-match of KU's coach (for 15 years) Roy Williams against Bill Self (currently five years).

I am so excited for Saturday to get here to watch the game. Talking to my Kansas friends I feel the excitement from them too. My KSU fans, well, not so much. In fact, even though their coach asked them to they are not showing it yet to us Kansas fans... that being to cheer for all Big Twelve teams. One of my friends parents is not even going to watch the game because Kansas is playing. Anyway, enough about that.... It is going to be a fun game. The FINAL FOUR and Kansas is playing against North Carolina.

I recall when I was growing up and Larry Brown was the coach. I remember Ted Owens before that and going to the games with hardly anyone in Allen Fieldhouse. The most we had to cheer for were the custodians as they swept the floor between halves. Me, all of eight something years old. I was lucky enough to be born into a family that had season tickets when Ted Owens was the coach of Kansas and to still have tickets when Larry Brown took over. This year celebrates twenty years since the University of Kansas won the 1988 national championship. Those were great years with Larry Brown. He left us after he won the title and we took in a unknown coach from North Carolina. Roy Williams gave us fifteen great years of great, fast, entertaining, and fun basketball. My family continued to have season tickets well into the Roy Williams era.

Roy's boys were fun to watch. Much like the North Carolina team is today. They ran the ball and played hard (aka Jerod Hasse). My Dad still talks about the Roy Williams type of ball and how much he likes it.... because it was so fast! Bill Self does not run the team as fast as Roy, but obviously Self is doing a great job at the University of Kansas.

If you have not heard, there are rumors about Self leaving KU to go back to Oklahoma State to coach the Cowboys. Does it seem like deju vu when Williams was our coach and was tempted, and then finally left, for North Carolina? Well, it should because it happened at almost the same time. Oh, that's right! It actually happened to Williams by North Carolina after we made it to the championship game. Williams heard about it in the post game interview from a woman interviewing him after they won the Final Four in 2003. OK, if Self leaves Kansas to go to OSU, yes, it will be difficult, but I think that Kansas will get another quality coach and we will not lose a lot. Do I hope that Self remains at Kansas and coaches us for another twenty years? Yes, absolutely!

I do know that this Saturday is going to be a lot of fun to watch four quality teams match up against one another. Four teams that have been number one during the course of the season. Four teams that score a lot of points and play incredible and entertaining basketball. Go Hawks!


Kansas City Royals Baseball

The Royals beat the Detroit Tigers today 4 to 1. They swept Detroit to start the season. Wow! What a way to start the season and beat a team that spent millions on their team. My excitement for the Royals continues to grow. My enthusiasm for Trey Hillman also continues to grow. Tomorrow they start a series with Cleveland and then home to Kansas City on Tuesday for the home opener against the New York Yankees. Oh, how nice it would be to be at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday for that home opener. How nice it would be to start the season with another 9 - 0 start like we did a few years back.

We had great pitching the last three games for KC. Our bats have also been producing which we did not have last year. Overall, I am pleased with the start of the season. How could I not be pleased?

I was listening to the Yankees game on XM this evening and the radio announcer talked about the Royals and how they won. He went on to say how "funny it is how fans of bad teams get excited when their team wins three games". "Like it is football or something" he said. I think he was putting us KC fans down simply because his teams gets paid so much more. Or, is it because the Yankees are in the hunt for a Word Series each year? Well, have they won the World Series recently with all of those millions? Nope! Then shut up!

The Royals play tomorrow night against Cleveland at 7:05. It will be fun to see how they do in this series and hopefully this sweep will not be their only one of the season. Go Royals!

It has been a while... but lots of things have been happening....

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything. This post will be slightly different from previous posts because I have a lot of items to mention. I will try to start making regular posts once again. I do enjoy writing about various events and posting them here. I have received some interesting comments about what I have posted, so I hope others are finding this at least somewhat entertaining.

Basketball

• The Kansas Jayhawks have been playing well since they beat the Texas Longhorns 84 - 74 in the Big Twelve Championship game. Since March 16, they have advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tourney. Winning with scores of 85 - 61 (over PRST), 75 - 56 (over UNLV), and 72 - 57 (over Villinova). They now have a date set for Sunday, March 30 to play Davidson.
  
• A win for the Jayhawks and they advance to the Final Four for the first time in a lot of tries. A loss, and Bill Self is left with a disappointing season of not making it to the Big Dance.
  
• I am feeling good about the Jayhawks at this time of year. We are playing well and the team seems to be focused on what they need to do to win. Last night in their win against Vill, I was concerned because we kept letting Vill. back into the game. When watching North Carolina play I do not see NC let their opponents back into the game; they put them away and do not look back. Kansas has a problem of losing focus in games where they have a large lead and it allows their opponent to get back in the game.
  
• As far as my brackets go... Well, I have no shot of winning any of the seven or so brackets that I created. Three of which I am completely out of except that I still have Kansas in them to win the whole thing. Wow, a whole 100 points to win that in those brackets.
  
• Kansas State's Beasley and Walker... What is going to happen to them? Will they be around next season? The odds say no for Beasley. If he is smart, he will not be in the Little Apple next year. Already athletes are announcing for the NBA draft, but so far there has not been any mention about Beasley being part of that draft. Only speculation about why he should do it. Walker, well, I heard that he has to talk to his people to make the decision about going pro. From what I saw from Walker this year, he should stay another year to drop weight and sharpen his skills (and attitude). If Beasley and Walker leave for the NBA, what will Kansas State be left with for a basketball team next year? Will it be worth the gamble they did on intense coach? Time will tell and it is going to be interesting to see who is around next year for the Wildcats.

Baseball

• Baseball season has officially started. It started earlier this week in Japan during the early hours here in the United States. The Kansas City Royals are about to finish up their Spring Training "season" with one of their best records in my recent history. They play their last game today against the Brewers (they are losing currently 2 - 3 in top of the 8th). Their record for Spring Training is 16 and 13. Hey, they are over 500 for Spring Training and I am hoping that can continue into the regular season.
  
• I still feel excitement about this team managed by Trey Hillman. He had what local sports radio shows referred to as unusual management style during Spring Training, but I think what he did was needed to knock some sense into this team. If you did not hear about it, Trey called the whole team on the field at the end of a loss about half-way through the ST season. He basically chewed them out in front of the opposing team and fans. I heard 610 and 810 sports radio talking saying that he should not have done this sort of thing and that it is something that would be done with a little league team. Well, I think it was needed and obviously he has the team producing because I do not think we have been over 500 in Spring Training for as long as I can remember.
  
• The season kicks off on Monday at Detroit with a 12:05 start. Gil Meche will pitch the first game of the season for the Royals. Lets try and get off to a good start just like we did in Spring Training.
  
• This morning I participated in my last live draft for the 2008 Fantasy Baseball season. I have five teams going into this season. It is going to be fun watching all of my leagues and making sure I have starters playing each day. My of my friends did not want to participate in fantasy baseball because it does require so much more work than fantasy football. But, I think it is fun and keeps it interesting to have fantasy teams. Let the fun begin!

Car and Ticket Update

• Carrie and I once again are a two car family. We went out about two weeks ago and purchased a Honda Accord 2008. When we first looked at the '08 Accords, we did not like them at all. Well, that has since changed and we love this car more than we did the '07 Accord that was wrecked. A lot of things were changed in the new '08 Accords including the arm wrest that we did not like in the previous car; it would slide forward when coming to a stop. The new one locks in two places and works much better. The new car also includes a MP3 jack which is nice to have and not have to worry about listening to our MP3 players using radio stations. Overall, we like the new car a lot and we got a much better APR on this car than we had on the previous '07 Accord.
  
• Carrie and I went to try and battle the ticket that she was issued for the wreck on February 6. Oh, that was interesting! This was Carrie's second trip to the courthouse and my first. The first time Carrie went to set our date for March 27 where we thought we would talk to the judge and hopefully get out of the ticket. Nope! Instead, we sat with about thirty other people all getting out of similar tickets (many worse than simply a ticket for wrecking). There were interesting people in the courtroom as you would expect. One guy had a hat on and a policewoman asked him to remove it. The guy mumbled something that involved a curse word and than did not hear the policewoman asking him what he had said. Carrie and I looked at each other and mouthed "Oh My God!". Later we realized that the guy was actually deaf, but that did not excuse him for being a dumb ass and not removing his hat when it was requested. So, we get to go back for a April 22 court date where apparently we get to represent ourselves and try to get out of the ticket. I plan on stopping by the Washburn Law School to try and get some assistance with the process because neither Carrie or I have any idea what we are doing. So, we will work on building our case and hopefully get out of a ticket on April 22.
  
• I will see if I can get a picture taken of our new car and posted on here in the next week or so.

Well, a lot has happened since my last post back on March 16 (see Wow! Big Twelve Championship Game and NCAA Tourney). Hopefully in another short week or two there will be a lot more to post about regarding basketball, baseball, and a ticket that we manage to remove from our record.

Have a great weekend and a great week!

Wow! Big Twelve Championchip Game and NCAA Tourney

Kansas played a great game to win the Championship game against Texas today.  Brandon Rush was solid improving his status for a NBA pick hitting 6 of 9 from three point range with nineteen points.  A overall balanced attack from Kansas once again in their win.  Chalmers had 30 points today.  Kansas looked good in both the first and second half which was good to see for a team that has not played great in both halves for the past half dozen games.

 

Of course following the Big Twelve Championship game was the NCAA tournament selection and that found Kansas a number one seed in the Midwest along with five other Big Twelve teams.  Kansas State did get into the tournament and they are paired in the Midwest which is fitting.  Being in the Midwest means that there could be a rubber match to decide the winner of the Kansas State vs. Kansas games of the regular season.  We did lose out on seeing a rematch between these two teams during the Big Twelve tournament. 

 

If you have not yet joined the NCAA tourney, drop me a note via a comment on this post and I will send you the information.  You have until Thursday to get your entry created and your picks selected.  See you in the Big Dance... the best time of the year!

 

Another Day... Another Win for the Royals!

Kansas won today 4 - 3 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Kansas City improved to 5 - 3 in Spring Training.  Can you believe it?  OK, seriously, when did this last happen that KC actually won games in Spring Training?  I do not recall a time when they were winning in Spring Training.  Can someone tell me when the last time they were over 500 before the season started?  I know it does not matter, but still it makes a fan happy after having losing seasons the past few years.  Oh, I should also point out that the Royals are on a four game winning streak. 

 

What I feel good about is that the Royals are producing with the bat in Spring Training.  They have posted high scores many of the games and while they did not score a lot of runs today, they hit two homeruns.  Billy Butler and Ryan Shealy hit solo homeruns in the game today.  It was Ryan Shealy's second homer of the spring and it was Butler's first homerun.  Both of which are promising if those trends can continue into the regular season.

 

OK, I need to settle down and remind myself that this is Spring Training.  This is a trend I am telling myself over and over since we started winning in this not-so-important Spring Training "season".  Oh, but it feels so good to see that the Kansas City Royals are 5 and 3 in Spring Training.  It gives me hope that following them this Summer will not feel like a waste of time when the end of the season arrives and they are just a few games shy of 100 losses.

 

I can hardly wait for the Royals to start appearing on television.  I heard that Fox picked up their broadcasts this year, so hopefully we will see a lot more games this year.  Basically, Fox picked up the Royals Television Network (RTN) from what I read.  I have not heard officially that this was taking place, but hopefully it means that their games will be available no matter where I am visiting.  Previously, RTN was only available in certain areas and through certain cable companies.  Of course Cox and Sunflower both carried the games and that will continue.  It is simply that before RTN had to be fit in on other non-sports channels; now the games will be on Fox Sports Network as far as I can tell.  More information on this later when I go and look for it.

 

KC plays again tomorrow at 2:05 pm CST against Colorado.  We will wait to see how they play tomorrow.

 

Go Royals!

 

Royals Go to 4-3 in Spring Training

The Royals win another day in Spring Training.  They improve to 4-3 on the short Spring Training season.  They won today over San Fran 3 - 1.  Another good day of hit production and the picthing appears to have held through nine innings.  Actually, the Giant got their only run in the bottom of the eigth inning, so that is not bad at all.  The bases were loaded and only one run was let through.  That is not bad at all!

 

I did not have a chance to check who they play tomorrow.  I still continue to be excited for them to start the season.  I did read a good article on Alex Gordon who was supposed to have a great rookie season last year (see:  Gordon Attempting to Put Difficult Rookie Season Behind Him) and ended up struggling.  He is expecting great things from himself this year and so far it appears that it might just happen.

 

I know, I cannot get excited about Spring Training, but I just cannot help it.  Lets go Royals!

 

Kansas State Wow!

Kansas State tried to lose the game late.  I just finished watching the game and thought that they were going to blow it and let Colorado win the game (see Kansas State Has Problems) that I posted with six minutes left in the game.  It was not a pretty finish to the game when KSU had a double digit lead in the first half.

 

Granted, Colorado has something to prove and was not going to roll over and give up.  I did not think that it was going to end with a six point different (78-72 KSU).  I thought it was going to be at least a double digit win for the Wildcats.

 

The Wildcats have work to do in their next road game against Iowa State on Saturday.  Iowa State is in second to last place of the Big Twelve, but you can bet it will not be a cake walk.  Another win is needed for KSU to make a strong case for making it to the tournament.

 

Kansas City Spring Training Day Six

OK... OK... I know that Spring Training does not amount to a hill of beans.  However, I am once again excited for the season to start with another win by Kansas City today against the Colorado Rockies.  Kansas City is now 3-3 in Spring Training games with another impressive scoring drive winning 11 - 5.

 

The Royals play tomorrow at 2:05 against San Francisco.  Not even half-way through the spring training games, but again I am feeling excited about this team.  I have only had a chance to listen to two of their spring training games; I hope that the run production carries on through into the the regular season.  I believe I have stated this in earlier posts.  However, I think back to last season and recall losing games because we do not have the run production.

 

Could it be that we finally get rid of Mike Sweeney and we start being productive?  Mike was on the Royals team for the past twelve years and it was time to move on.  Back in February, Mike struck a deal with a minor league team (see Mike Sweeney reaches minor league deal with A's).  After being injury prone the past five seasons, Mike "DH" Sweeney has left the Kansas City Royals.

 

Maybe it is a new manager that is energetic that is helping this team to be productive.  I am not sure!  I do know that I am excited for the regular season to start and see how this team does this year.