I’m sure he’d have covered his eyes, too, if he could.
Apr 13
Donnie Joseph struck out the side in the 8th inning
to help secure a 6-5 win for Omaha in the Storm Chasers’ home opener.
More beautiful photos and notes to come, after I thaw out my hands and feet.
Mar 20
One Concussion Too Many: My post-concussion story
Sometimes on Twitter I make reference to my brain injury, but it occurs to me that I’ve never told the whole story. And until everyone – EVERYONE – takes concussions more seriously, people like me need to be more vocal. So here’s the story of how concussions broke me, but also how I got to the point where I could triumphantly tweet this:
Part I: “What the hell is happening to me?
The start of the whole mess didn’t feel like the start of anything of any significance. Before a family dinner at my brother’s house, I felt kind of woozy and went to the guest room to lie down for a bit. It didn’t help, and in fact that woozy feeling stayed with me for well over a year. If you’ve ever fainted before, you might know that twilighty feeling, where you’re aware that you’re about to black out, but you’re somehow too detached from consciousness to do anything about it. Starting that day in February 2011, I felt like that all the time.
That night my dad took me to an urgent care clinic. I did a bunch of balance tests and was somewhat reassured by the doctor’s pronouncement that I had not suffered a stroke. I repeated those balance tests obsessively at home, standing on one foot on a pillow for as long as I could to make sure I could still do it.
The woozy feeling was worse when I moved too suddenly, or sang too much, or walked too fast. Much worse, though, was the fact that my memory started getting slippery. If I tried to read a textbook or a blog post or the minutes from a meeting, I could recognize the individual words but failed to retain any meaning or message from them. The names of people I knew and saw every day were suddenly a mystery to me. I found myself doing that really sad “Hey….you! What’s up….pal?” thing that I imagine people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s do. Except, this was happening to me at age 22, not 82, and I had no idea why.
Mar 20
How to dress for an April game in Omaha: a PSA in the style of a blatantly obvious Lifehacker post
Sometimes, Lifehacker is useful. Other times, its staff members provide us with painfully obvious advice couched as a genius new tip. In my offseason boredom, I’ve decided to bring you some advice in the style of the latter.
When you watch a Spring Training game, or attend one, you notice that a typical fan outfit is shorts, a tank, and sandals. Don’t let reality slap you in the face when the regular season begins in Omaha on April 12.
The forecast for Omaha on Opening Day calls for a high of 64. That’s pretty nice, but if you show up to the ballpark dressed for 64 degrees, you’re going to find your teeth chattering during the later innings. To avoid freezing after the sun sets, consider checking the hourly forecast before heading to the ballpark, and dress for the temperature that’s forecast for 10 or 11 p.m., not what it is when you hop in the car.
This may seem obvious to people who go to a lot of baseball games, but this can really help you avoid being distracted by cold temps in late innings.
Mar 07
Opening Day Countdown: 27
Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 27 days left until Opening Day on April 1.
No numerical factoids today. Instead, let’s hear from new Royal Elliot Johnson’s wife Nicole. She shared her experiences as the WOTPTBNL. (Wife of the Player to be Named Later, obviously.)
Mar 04
Opening Day Countdown: 29
Falu running out of the box in Omaha...toward the Majors?
Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 29 days left until Opening Day on April 1.
29
is the number of home runs Billy Butler hit last season. It’s also the number of hits Irving Falu had in his 91 Major League plate appearances; the number of putouts Falu had on defense, and the number of runs Tim Collins and Vin Mazzaro gave up.
It was also Mike Sweeney’s jersey number. May we never forget that a healthy Sweeney was legitimately one of the best hitters in the league.
Feb 24
Opening Day Countdown: 37
Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 37 days left until Opening Day on April 1.
37
is the number of home runs it would take to set a new Royals record, still.
Here are some ex-Royals who have, at some point in their careers, hit 37 or more dingers.
Jose Bautista (twice)
Jermaine Dye
Carlos Beltran (twice, including 2004, so some of those were WITH the Royals. Ouch.)
Jay Bell
Matt Stairs
Dean Palmer
Juan Gonzalez
It’s not a long list, because hitting 37 home runs isn’t the easiest thing in the world. But is it SO hard that nobody in a franchise can do it for a quarter of a century, especially when that quarter-century contains the steroid* era?
*and other factors, obviously. I’m not a cavewoman.
Maybe this year is finally the year.
Feb 22
Opening Day Countdown
Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 39 days left until Opening Day on April 1.
39
is…a number. I don’t have any cool factoids today, so here’s a Johny Giavotella wallpaper I made for a Twitter follower. Click image to go to the full-res version.
Feb 21
Opening Day Countdown: 40
Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 40 days left until Opening Day on April 1.
40
is the number of double plays in which Chris Getz was involved on defense last season.
I’ve never sorted the Royals stats page by double plays before. It’s kind of a fun way to look back on last season. 24 different Royals were involved in turning double plays last year. Everett Teaford was the only pitcher to be a part of more than one.
Salvador Perez and Brayan Pena both turned four of them. That surprised me – I certainly remember all of Perez’s more distinctly. Apparently my memory gives very little credit to B-Pain.
Feb 18
Opening Day Countdown: 41
Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 41 days left until Opening Day on April 1.
41
was Jeremy Jeffress’ jersey number when he was a Royal, and before that, when he was in Milwaukee.
Jeffress was acquired as part of the trade that sent Zack Greinke to the Brewers. By the middle of last season, when Jeffress was back down in Omaha, I had mentally written him off as another one of those pitchers. He throws hard, and walks a lot of guys. Wooo.
He’s a Blue Jay now, so it doesn’t much matter for our purposes, but last summer I did hear a couple of scouts* talking about him one night. Both still believed that Jeffress has a career as a late-inning guy in the Majors.
*neither scout worked for the Royals or the Jays, for the record, though I don’t remember what teams they did work for.
The Jays’ site has Jeffress listed as number 33 now. I wonder if that was his preference, or if he wanted to keep 41. No Blue Jay has that number right now, so I wonder why he had it through two different teams.
I remember when Mike Moustakas made it to Omaha in 2010. Greg Holland was wearing Moustakas’s number 8 at the time, but quickly switched numbers to give Moose the 8. I asked Moose what he did to get the number from Holland, and he just laughed and swore he’d never tell. To this day, I wonder.