Jan 14
Chris Jaffe noted that today, at some point, it will have been one billion seconds since the start of the Royals game in which Frank White’s hand and Al Cowens’ jaw got broken. Each were hit by pitches thrown by Ed Farmer.
Thanks to Chris for digging up this strange factoid!
Jan 12
High fives for something basebally in the winter!
I got a call this afternoon from Erin with the Royals. She said that, for soooome reason, I was one of the chosen bloggerpeople for the Digital Digest contest. So, yay! Now it’s time for a side-tangent!
I haven’t written about this Digital Digest idea before, but I had mixed emotions on it. Craig at Royals Authority called it “a step in the right direction,” but doesn’t think bloggers ought to be credentialed on a regular basis. I don’t completely disagree, because press boxes are depressing and probably get worse at the highest levels of sport. But I guess if the team wants to give bloggers some kind of access, that could be a good thing.
For one, press access would give a lot of bloggers pause before making unfair criticisms of players, managers and brass. I do not think we have to always be nice, but one thing that working alongside players has reminded me is that, oh yeah, they are human beings. My goal here has always been to be truthful, but to use facts. That way, when it gets back to a player that I said something critical about his performance – and trust me, this happens – I can stand by what I’ve written.
There are innumerable Royals blogs out there. I’ve met a ton of the fans who write them, and think many do an excellent job. We really do have a superb Internet community, beyond the usual big names people usually mention. But not all Royals blogs are created equal, or similar in any way. I must admit, there are a lot of Royals blogs I don’t really keep up with, because I don’t like the name-calling, unsubstantiated claims, and other things that give bloggers a bad name.
So no, not all bloggers should have MLB press access. Some would get eaten alive, and that would make the Royals (rightfully) think twice about handing out creds in the future. It is within the team’s rights to hold fan-writers at arm’s length, even if that’s an unpopular decision. The Royals are doing a nice thing here, testing the waters of blogger access in a place where nobody’s going to drown if it goes wrong.
So anyway, with that random rant out of the way:
Do you have any questions you want me to ask Dayton Moore, Ned Yost, Billy Butler or Jeff Francoeur? Comment away, or yell at me on Twitter.
I’m pretty excited to go do this. I usually don’t go to FanFest, because it’s a 3-hour drive and I’m not really that into player autographs or whatever. I typically opt to give my place in line to people who don’t get to interact with ballplayers every day all summer. (The closest I come to that type of event is the Lincoln stop of the Caravan, which brought some shenanigans last year.) So this will be an almost entirely new experience for me as a fan, too.
Jan 11
Turn your snow into baseball tickets with the Omaha Storm Chasers:
Make your snowman, then head to the Chasers’ Facebook page to share it. Good luck!
I shouldn’t complain too much, though. The snow has bought me two extra days of freedom before I plunge into my 21-credit hour semester.
Jan 05
Looking for a way to spice up your blog? How about something to paste all over your windows so you don’t have to look at that terrible snow outside? Then have I got a deal for you!
For the low, low price of proper attribution, I give you – yes, YOU! – my entire collection of Royals pictures. What’s more, I’ve carefully tagged each and every photo so that you know exactly who’s in it. Want to see every picture I’ve taken of Kila Ka’aihue? BAM.
How about Omaha manager Mike Jirschele? POW!
Maybe you want to giggle about some awkward-looking pregame stretches. Gotcha covered there, too.
Point is, it took a lot of time to carefully tag these. Please take advantage of my Flickr’s tags page for an easy way to find (mostly) high-quality photos of many Royals players. Use them in your blog posts, FanShots, wallpapers, whatever. Just be sure to throw my name and/or a link to the original on Flickr when you do.
Enjoy!
Click image for Flickr tags page
Jan 04
I realized I hadn’t put all of my 2010 Royals photos on Flickr yet, so I went to put up this game against the Orioles from late July. And who should show up in one of the photos but suspected killer Alfredo Simon?
Dec 29
This isn’t at all self-indulgent! It’s more like a roller coaster where I’m the only person having fun!
I am a psychic!
JANUARY
Thanks to the wonders of MS Paint, I predicted what Rick Ankiel would look like as a Royal. Friends and I went to the Royals Caravan in Lincoln, and told Ryan LeFebvre about the Ryan LeFebvre Drinking Game.
FEBRUARY
I abused some advanced stats to start a steroid rumor about my dear pal Bruce Chen. It’s like ‘What Not to Wear’ for sabermetrics. Later, I launched a search for a Kyle Farnsworth fan – and I have still not found a winner!
MARCH
Not many posts, because I was bumming around the hospital where my dad was quite sick (he’s good now). That was the month that Danny Duffy quit baseball, so I measured all the reactions to that. Also, the Royals Authority Annual came out, and I was in it.
APRIL
The Omaha Royals played an EIGHTEEN-inning game. I was there. Twitter followers helped me come up with a list of players who have played on three teams in a single division. It’s quite a list! My journalism professors let me do a video about Minor Leaguers for a big grade. This is that.
MAY
I met Dayton Moore! Later, I predicted that Trey Hillman would not be fired. Later that day, he was. Later still, I did a meaty study on the plate discipline of Jordan M. Parraz (and shared a bonus cute story from the dugout).
*the ‘M’ stands for Mancakes.
JUNE
Phil Humber took a liner off his cheek. His injury was later described by a teammate as a “big ass laceration.” Boy, a hyphen would have helped there! A few days later, some idiot ran a red light and totaled my car. The PCL had an insane all-way tie for first place, which I captured for posterity.
JULY
Kila Ka’aihue got weirded out when I described him as the best hitter EVAR to a young fan. I picked on some low-hanging fruit when Scott Podsednik was traded. The trade of Ankiel and Professor Farsnworth had me aaaaalmost Trusting the Process. I also overheard the least-surprising snippet about Ankiel in the visitors’ dugout: “And Ankiel swung at every single pitch.”
July was also the month that I moved all my site stuff to this location. I do not miss blogging for a network, at all. Independence is awesome!
AUGUST
I explained in detail what my actual job is with the Omaha (formerly) Royals.
Part I
Part II
Later, Mike Moustakas made me question everything I thought I knew about team chemistry’s effect on performance. Also, I love Mike Moustakas.
Farewell, sweet lady.
SEPTEMBER
The final game at Rosenblatt Stadium happened. I dreaded the event, then experienced it. Meanwhile, at the big league level, I found that the Royals led all of the Majors in “saves per win.”
OCTOBER
My prediction of what espnW would be like was….almost perfect! Later, I got frustrated with Will Carroll for suggesting that stat geeks can’t appreciate baseball storylines. I had to say goodbye to three O(formerly)Royals: Matt Herges, Lash Lerew and Josh ‘Earl’ Rupe.
At the end of that month, I was quoted in a story by Lee Warren about the plight of Minor Leaguers.
NOVEMBER
Big month here. Keith Law helped me figure out why nobody goes to Arizona Fall League games. I was impressed that there wasn’t much dumb outcry on Facebook about the David DeJesus trade. But then there was.
On the 15th, it was announced that the Omaha Royals would now be the Omaha Storm Chasers. Obviously this was an announcement that meant a lot to me, so I shared my thoughts. Also in November, I launched an allegedly weekly feature called Five Foto Friday, which is exactly what the name suggests.
DECEMBER
Jeff Francoeur….eww. Gosh, that really happened. And here are some thoughts and scribblings about the Greinke trade.
And that’s it! Happy New Year!
Dec 28
If you, like me, miss baseball season, feel free to browse my pictures on my Flickr page. I’m pretty sure that just looking at pictures of happy summertime will make you feel warmer when you’re freezing cold!
See? Don't you feel warmer already?
Dec 27
Before that amazing thing happened in Cincinnati:
Nice standings, but not nice enough. THIS is more like it:
Yeeee-haw! Isn’t that the most beautiful little ‘z’ in the world?
Dec 25
