The World Series parade was something to behold, 30-years in the making, the trip down Main Street-Kansas City.

Royals fans, who dressed as empty seats for a decade and a half are back wearing their colors, cheering their team, drawing over 2.7M to the Stadium this year.

It hasn’t been an easy trip. Hated owner David Glass, poor baseball leadership, nickle and dime budgets, 17-losing seasons in an 18-year span. It takes time to fix all the wrongs, all the mistakes made, but it finally got done, and done right in Kansas City.

The Royals got there thru years of losing, following by astute drafting, complimented by key international free agent signings, and then those ‘fill in the blanks on this roster’ deals.

It wasn’t this way always in KC. The era of Dennis Leonard, Dan Quisenberry, Hal McRae, George Brett, Willie Wilson, Brett Saberhagen, Mark Gubiza was a long time ago, 30-baseball summers ago.

But out of all the losing, from 2002-to-2006, seasons of 100-100-104-and-106 losses, eventually came high draft picks, and then General Manager Dayton Moore.

All that losing begat four straight high draft picks, that panned out. Alex Gordon (2), Luke Hochevar (1), Mike Moustakos (2), Eric Hosmer (3) and Dan Duffy, were all taken as top of the first round selections, and became the cornerstone of what the Royals are at this hour, championships.

The Caribbean connection brought them World Series MVP-catcher Sal Perez, SS-Alcides Escobar, and the arms Kelvin Herrera, Yordano Ventura and Christain Colon.

Then there came the rentals, dealing other minor league prospects in packages that rented Johnny Cueto, Alex Rios, Ben Zobrist, Edinson Volquez, Wade Davis and Lorenzo Cain.

In a 24-month span, it arrived, almost simultaneously. A wild card spot and a World Series berth in 2014, a runaway first place season and now a World Series ring in 2015. A far cry from all those lousy hot-humid-bad baseball summer nights that stifled the spirt of the fans in the early 2000s.

I looked it up. The Royals payroll to win the World Series was 110M-dead middle on the MLB spending charts, ranked 15th, right next to the San Diego Padres, who spent 110M to get worse, finish lower in the standings, and never see the real October.

Look at the youth and the cross section of talent from everywhere on the Royals roster. Compare it to the Padres, impaled by bad contracts they took on, looking now at a barren farm system because they dealt so many prospects away, empty results in the international market, and reeling with age and injury.

The flashy phrase these days is ‘the Royals way’, just like a group of years ago, it was the ‘Tampa Bay blueprint’. Still to come will be the ‘Cubs Creedo’. You can call it whatever you want, when it works.

For the Padres fans, it sure looks like they screwed this thing up, and the Padres and Royals are a long way apart, more than just the 1,605 miles it takes to drive from Petco Park to Royals Stadium.

World Series ring for one…..Cracker Jacks booby prize for the other.

 

 

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The NFL trading deadline is Tuesday afternoon. It is not to be compared with Baseball’s trading deadline at the end of July, or the NHL trading deadline in February.

But the NFL is slowly starting to rethink its ways of dealing players and draft picks.

Time for the Chargers to do the same, as the season slips away, with a chance to start to stockpile extra ‘currency’ for next April’s NFL draft.

History has shown few deals at the trading deadline. The Dallas Cowboys-Minnesota Vikings 11-for-1 deal involving Herschel Walker back in the 80s was something to see. So was the late fall Eric Dickerson-Colts-Rams mid season transaction.

Of recent time, we have seen more player-for-player deals. The Seahawks, Cowboys, Patriots and Eagles have become the franchises unafraid to make trades.

The Chargers season is over. Some of the value they have on the roster they could use as chips to get draft picks to add to the likely top 5-draft choices this team might have in each round next spring.

Sure you’d be moving some popular players, but in some cases, you aren’t keeping certain players, in other cases you’d like to move players who have higher value-lower production contracts. You may take a cap hit in the process, but you admit you made a mistake, and move on. What’s worse, staying with the mistake?.

Eric Weddle has had a rock solid career here, but he won’t be back. His value is dropping, and he doesn’t deserve a pay raise from his 8M deal. Move him to a team that likely would sign him to an extension. Can you say Dallas Cowboys or New England Patriots. Get a 4th round pick that gets bumped to a 3rd when he re-signs.

Donald Butler has never been the same linebacker since his contract extension and injuries. Maybe in a different system he can recapture what he once was. He is not a 5M a year guy here. Make a call and maybe get a 5th round pick..

Danny Woodhead is so good at what he does, but what he does isn’t making much of a difference here. Find an offense that could use his skills and explosiveness and see if there’s an instant 3rd round pick out there.

Yes you’d be auctioning off the rest of the season, but you are still keeping core players like Jason Verrett, Melvin Ingram, Jerry Attaochu, Keenan Allen. You give some younger plays the chance to learn on the job and get them ready for next season.

The tandem of Tom Telesco and John Spanos have failed quarterback Philip Rivers. The drafts have been spotty. Yes there is a Melvin Gordon and others, but of the 17-picks in the Junior Spanos-Tom Terrific era, just 4-are what I’d call impact.

The free-agent signings haven’t paid rich dividends either, haunted by the Derek Cox money giveaway, and the burnt money on Orlando Franklin, amongst others.

Sure some of the younger draft picks may turn out to be talents within the next 3-years, but look at the mileage on Philip Rivers by then.

You can’t stay with this battered roster. Time to pick up currency. Multiple 3rd round picks or extra 4th round choices can be used to move up and grab additional 2nd round picks.

Sure you’re moving popular players, but what does it get you if you stay the course. A 6-win season?

Call Bill Belicheck, Pete Carroll, Chip Kelly, and others. Find out what is out there from guys who always seem to make trades and have lots of extra picks in their pocket.

Denver was involved in a deal with San Francisco, as John Elway acquired tight end Vernon Davis.   If the Broncos can be a player at the deadline, why not the Bolts?

Think outside the box, get outside of this mess, quit protecting the integrity of the (2-6) team you put together..

It’s not over, this 2015-NFL season, but it might as well be over.

The Chargers are in free-fall, crashing and burning, under the weight of ridiculous injuries, player personnel mistakes madeny  their football leaders, and suffocating under the dark cloud of the attempted move to Los Angeles.

Were it not for quarterback Philip Rivers heart and talent, the Bolts would be the Detroit Lions.

Two weeks ago, they lost at home to the lowly Raiders.  Yesterday they lost to the talent-less Baltimore Ravens, who were (1-6) coming into the game.

If it had been a throwing contest between the two stars left on the roster, Rivers-vs-Joe Flacco, it might have been interesting.  But the Chargers had to send their defense on the field, and then special teams took its turn to foul up plays along the way.

You’ve never seen anything like this.  7-Chargers went off the field in the first half with a wide variety of injuries.  A total of 12-players got dinged along the way.  The body bag count is atrocious.

Name a segment of the game, and you can find problems everywhere.  Rivers took 7-hits in the first half.  The Bolts didn’t run the ball well.  Rivers dropped two snaps.  Melvin Gordon had another fumble.

Brandon Flowers gave up big plays, as did Jason Verrett.  Bad penalties.

Jacoby Jones made bad decisions on a punt in his own territory, there was a blocked PAT, and San Diego allowed a 17-yard punt return when they needed a stop.

The problems are everywhere, the solutions are nowhere to be found.

You’d feel sorry for Mike McCoy and Frank Reich, but their stubborness has something to do with this.  You like John Pagano, but his defense cannot stop people, and for the blitzez they use that get to the QB, the tradeoff is all the big yardage plays they give up Sunday-by-Sunday.

Blame John Spanos and Tom Telesco.  They wasted alot of money on free agents, who either don’t play well, or cannot stay on the field.  The draft picks don’t have a difference maker on the field.

Another year without a playoff spot for Rivers.  And who knows if next year will be in San Diego or Los Angeles.

This is as dreary as the (1-15) season in the Ryan Leaf years.  Almost as bad as the horrors of the pre-Coryell era.

Who do you blame for all this?  Bad leadership? Bad front office? Bad coaching? Bad injuries? Bad luck.

And all we have to look forward to is next Sunday’s ‘road game-at-home’ with the Bears fans taking over the stadium.

 

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It’s truly a special event tomorrow in Kentucky, home of the sport, for the sport of kings.

 

The last time we had a Triple Crown winner, 1987, an event like this wasn’t on the calendar. Affirmed won the Derby, the Preakness at Pimlioc, and the Belmont Stakes, the 3-great races on the calendar, and that was the season, completed.

 

Now we have Breeders Cup Weekend, and this weekend it is back at Keenland, and for the first time, we have a horse going for the “Grand Slam”, winning a fourth event on horse racing’s illustrious card.

 

The Breeders Cup has grown by leaps and bounds in its two decades of existence. It is now a 13-horse race weekend, with big money prizes, totalling 26M in all. And the Breeders Cup Classic highlites the weekend Saturday afternoon, as American Pharoah goes for the imagined “Grand Slam”.

 

This has been some season for Bob Baffert’s great horse. Power victories in each of the crown jewel races. Yes the winning streak was snapped at Saratoga in the prestigious Travers Stakes. Maybe two cross country trips in a five week span, to Belmont and then upstate, took too much out of Pharoah. Maybe the wear and tear of the three jewel races, capped by the mile and a half at Belmont, took its toll.

 

But now well-rested, this 10-horse field is indeed loaded, but all the attention is on this special thoroughbred.

 

Keen Ice, who put on the power run to win at Saratoga is in the field.

Beholder, last seen beating Zenyatta at the Pacific Classic in Delmar a year ago, is here too.

So is the Belmont 2014-winner Tonalist.

 

This shapes up as a shootout and the greatest way to end as fascinating a horse racing campaign as we have ever had.

 

Pharoah capping off a spectacular individual season. Beholder having won stakes races 4-years in a row. And Tonalist and Keen Ice showing their explosive abilities.

 

We have the Grand Slam in Tennis, the Grand Slam in Golf, and how we truly have a Grand Slam event in horse racing.

 

“Down the stretch they come” capping off a really great 2015-horse racing season.

 

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It makes you just ache to read about it all over again, though I credit the author with doing a good job.
Jim Trotter, the former Union-Tribune NFL writer, who has found a special niche at ESPN, has just released his book on the life and tragedy that was Junior Seau.
A look at the player, the person, the charities, the escapades, the camradrie, the family, and the end result.
I can close my eyes and see Seau making plays all over the field. I hear the ferocity of the hits. I see the explosiveness of the runs to get to the ball carrier. I remember the emotion on the field, in the huddle, and on the sidelines.
Coaches talk about his love of all things football, his dedication to his craft, and the fun he enjoyed off the field.
The dark side was there, as a player, and obviously in post football life. We knew about his womanizing, his drinking, his gambling. But what was one going to do about it? It was his life, his decisions. Virtually everyone, from the media, to the NFL, to his football and personal family, and the police, always seemed to look the other way. I guess we will carry some guilt about that.
We didn’t know about the deterioration of his mental health, towards the end of his career, and then in his post-football life. The pain he suffered from, and the pain he inflicted on his family, wife-ex-wife Gina, and the kids.
It is evident he went ‘outside the circle’ of team doctors to get treatments for concussions. Clubs say they never knew. Someone with a medical background knew, for he was treated by others than just the Chargers-Dolphins and Patriots doctors.
The family had to know, but seemed helpless to step forward and get him help.
His inner circle of friends had to know, but did little or nothing, except to party with him, take advantage of him.
Jim Trotter has done a good job telling the across-the-board story, sad as it is, painful as it was. .
I read it and it flashbacked the book written just a couple of years ago by Jane Levy, a New York Times writer, about the deterioration of our boyhood hero, Mickey Mantle. A sad expose of his life falling into the abyss where his lifestyle ended his life.
At first I felt ‘tell all’ books were a betrayal. But maybe something good comes out of something so sad.
I guess we have to read the “Life and Death of a Football Icon”, the Seau book, much like we should probably read “The Last Boy”, the revelations about Mantle..
When the games are over, when the cheering stops, your favorite player has to go home and deal with the realities of life, injuries, family issues, money, abuses and addictions. .
You loved him on game-day, he surely stirred your football emotions. Now the book stirs up a different type of emotion, the Seau suicide and the whys and wherefores.
Jim Trotter brings it all back into focus.
I said it the day he died, and I believe it still this morning. Football was Junior Seau’s life. Football took Junior Seau’s life. And we ache in our heart because of it.

 

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