KC Confidential

Like most of you I think almost daily about how much more I can do and accomplish in my life…

It never seems good enough, does it? All those dream we had as children that faded into life’s reality at age 30 or 40 or 50. Too often we think of what might have been. Trouble is, we don’t take the time to respect and examine what we’ve really done with our lives.

It was only yesterday, it seems, we were hoping to graduate from high school, have a girlfriend, be liked by others and leave our hometown for college and a life adventure.

Well, most of us did just that or something close, right?

I mean, had the Future Fairy told you at age 12 you’d own your own home, have a family, friends, good paying job, trips to exciting cities and enjoy ballgames, theatre – even pick up a few personal awards along the way – let alone just own a smoking hot, brand new car, wow, that would have sounded so COOL.

But that’s never enough, is it?

My gosh, had I been told at age 12, I was going to go away to Arizona, live in Los Angeles, be part of the film and TV industry, date and bed boatloads of beautiful women, become friends with worldwide, well-known celebrities and athletes, own one of America’s best known comedy clubs, a restaurant, be in the media – and oh yeah, write a book about myself, a good one – I wouldn’t have believed it.

Hey Craig, you will drive Porsches, Ferraris, and a Lotus. Damn, I would have been so excited I wouldn’t have been able to sleep.

Of course, there are bad things too; prison, family death, a broken marriage and many, many scary times.

Guess what? That kinda stuff happens to all of us in our own way, right?

I don’t mention me to try and sound cool, only as an example. Yet like most of you, it’s never enough, never good enough. In my case, if only my movie gets made and I becomes nationally known. Or the best one, I make enough money to be on easy street.

It just never ends.

We don’t know most of our readers here, obviously. I don’t anyway. But I have the feeling from the comments section that this mindset is in most of us. That we are the chosen few in the world. That we live in the greatest country ever, America. We are the top one percent earners or there abouts.

Sure, we have bills to pay but so do multi millionaires. We have our headaches and our heartaches, but so do Johnny Depp and Johnny Dare.

It’s the human condition. It’s never good enough.

We have trouble telling ourselves, "You did good, kid. In fact, you did great." 

Few of us show much emotion – maybe it wasn’t shown enough to us as kids (or adults). I sure know that feeling and I bet many of you do as well.

We all think, "Boy, if I had it all to do over." Even though we did better than O.K.

I’m trying harder now to enjoy life and not worry so much about the future. Why? Because the future for me and many of you is NOW. We’ve lived better than half of our lives – maybe two thirds – and as we grow older we begin to lose much of what being young gave us. We become more and more limited. Even when things are going well you hear, "Yeah, well you’re old. What do you know?"

And hey, that starts in your 30’s.

I just looked out my window this morning and saw how nice a day it was. How nice our city can look. Even how nice people can be to one another at times.

No, I didn’t grow up to quarterback the Chiefs, win best actor in Hollywood, or be elected to Congress.

Maybe that’s just as well. I know many of those people and Lord knows they don’t seem very happy. My favorite line has always been, "I don’t know the answer to being happy, but I know if you live to try and please others you won’t be."

Please yourself.

Hell, I think most of you have already won – you’re still here. And if read this site and comment sometimes, you must be fairly bright, so enjoy what you have – what the luck of the draw gave you.

It may be brief; it may be scary, exciting, boring but make it enjoyable. It’s your life. You and I have won, even if it ends sooner rather than later.

So just smile baby, smile.

I usually agree with Star sports columnist Sam Mellinger…

He’s done a top notch job replacing Jason Whitlock and Joe Posnanski. Today he wrote an article suggesting former Royals star Zack Greinke may one day return here. Sorry Sam, I don’t buy it.

I know you asked him recently and he mentioned he liked the city, the people, the coaches, and still had a place here. All true. However the team has the worst record in the American League and along with the Twins, and is going nowhere fast.

Zack on the other hand is fast becoming one of baseball’s best pitchers.

He’s 23-8 with the division champion Milwaukee Brewers with an ERA of 3.62 during his two year’s there. Sam also mentioned something a tad bit important about the Zack Attack when he was leaving.

THAT HE HATED OUR TEAM, THEY SUCKED, HE KNEW IT AND HE FELT THEY WOULD ALWAYS BE TERRIBLE.

So far Zack is right. So no Sam, he’s not coming back anytime soon. Maybe when his career is shot in three to six years for more money than anyone else would pay him.

If and only if his career is in the toilet or by some miracle the Royals are a first place team, which is not likely.

Oddly enough, it’s not just the pitching that keeps the Royals from competing or even mattering to anyone outside KC.

The pitching is decent, at just unde ar 4.00 ERA with the leagues overall best bullpen. But we have no hitting. A team that was suppose to hit has not one hitter that matters. AND YES, THAT INCLUDES BILLY BUTLER.

Butler has decent numbers, but come on, nobody really fears Billy’s 285 hitting and 12 homeruns.

He’s merely the best on a poor hitting, no power ball club. And yes, Eric Hosmer can blame himself for the team being in last place, again. Had he been anywhere near the hitter we expected the Royals would have won at least 6-8 more games and be competing for the division. A very weak and open division. His pals are no better.

I don’t need to do the roll call, nobody is hitting at all, nobody.

I mentioned a few weeks back that we had no All-Star.

And I got some hate comments and some give them a chance comments. Really? They still STINK and are on yet another losing streak. Likely one that will continue tonight with Zack on the mound.

No he is not coming back and nobody wants to come here.

Well, maybe a few guys in South America who just want to get into the league.

The Royals continue to be the most unimportant major sports franchise in America.

They are truly a sad joke.

NOBODY that really matters that has played here since George Brett, save Kevin Appier maybe.. I know, I know, Carlos Beltran and Johnny Damon. I mean who really even remembers they ever played in KC? I was in Puerto Rico and mentioned to the locals their guy Carlos was once a Royal.

"Oh yeah, he played there a minute," they said. And Johnny Damon never mentions KC and nobody talks about him playing here.

And when they were here they got little to almost no national attention. Not one Royals player is known outside of KC. We are never mentioned on ESPN unless we are getting beat by a team that matters or do something stupid like hitting into a triple play or maybe Alex Gordon makes a great catch.

We  DO NOT MATTER. We haven’t for decades.

When will the Royals ever be on the map again? Nobody knows. It was suppose to be this year.

THIS WAS OUR TIME…ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN FROM THE FIFTY (The Chiefs stupid ad the year they went 2-14).

With no position players above a B, Hosmer on his way to being the next Alex Gordon – decent not great – and no starters, it could be years and years from now.

But hey, it’s a nice stadium. Enjoy.

Was the Manny Pacquiao / Tim Bradley title fight fixed?

You bet. Which is not anything new in boxing, right? Remember Liston/Clay and the Phantom Punch? And the Ali/Spinks (Leon) fixed fight the first time. Ali maybe was not in on it, who knows.

WHY, YOU ASK?

Simple. As the sport gets weaker, they need to fire up the fans and force a new "bad guy" onto the scene and add a couple big money fights. You know, get people talking. All three of these fights did just that – it worked.

With Ali leaving the game in the late 70’s and nobody else truly mattering, they had to prompt him to fight one more time, to buy time to find a new savior. Until they found Larry Holmes and soon after Mike Tyson. So the fix worked.

However, this one is pure genius.

Manny may not have been in on it, nor was Bradley, or so it seems from their comments and looks after the decision. But let’s look at this closer. The AP had it 117-111 for Manny – not even close – and they were pretty much on it. The ringside fixers had it 115-113 for Bradley (one had it 115-113 for Manny).

However, according to all credible reports, Manny won in a breeze.

He hurt Bradley twice in the 4th and 5th rounds. Bradley fought close in the middle and at the end, but never had Manny in trouble or was a clear winner. You always have to take it from the champ – close goes to champ – and this wasn’t close.

"I’ve never been as ashamed of the sport of boxing as I am tonight" said promotor and manager of both fighters Bob Arum. And he may have in fact been the fixer. Arum benefits the most. Now we have a huge payday for BOTH his guys in November. Ten times the money. Bradley got $5 million and he likely never saw 50 grand before last night for one fight.

Here’s the best news: After Manny "wins back his title" – and he will – then..get this, you’ll love it…He fights Floyd Mayweather as he always planned. I figure Floyd wins, and now, this is great…MAYWEATHER FIGHTS BRADLEY FOR BIG BUCKS AGAIN and wins. Nice.

SEVERAL HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS COMING FOLKS.

And trust me, people will watch, more now than before. WHY? THE CONTROVERSY.

It’s almost as if professional boxing is going the way of professional wrestling.

Oh, for the good old days with Joe Lewis, Rocky Marciano, Ali….

You know what’s hysterical? Today these top guys make 50 times more than those guys even dreamed of. It’s not fair.

Yep, the fix is in, always has been. Kinda makes you wonder about other pro sports, huh?

Oh, yeah…

"I tried but I couldn’t beat the guy," Bradley said before the decision was read that he’d won.

End of story. Even Bradley knew he got whipped.

In the movie "Inglorious Bastards" a Nazi SS Officer explains to a French farmer why people hate Jews…

"When you see a squirrel running across your yard do you feel you must kill it? No. But if a rat comes close to you or runs across your room. Then what? Hate. You want to destroy it. Right? No real reason, we don’t feel that way about the squirrel. In fact they are basically the same animal less the nice tail. We just hate the rat. This explains the Jew. We don’t know why we hate them, we just do."

He then proceeds to have his goons kill an entire Jewish family save one little girl who escapes.

So it has gone for the Jewish people over hundreds, if not thousands of years.

Yes, Jews are by far the most accomplished group. They make up only 0.2 percent of the world’s population but have 54 percent of the world chess champions, 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureates and 31 percent of the medicine laureates.

Jews make up only 2 percent of the U.S. population but 21 percent of Ivy League students, according to journalist David Brooks. It gets better: Jews make up 38 percent of all leading philanthropists (according to Business Week) and 51 percent of the Pulitzer Prize winners for nonfiction.

People used to think Jews were good cooks, good economic managers and bad soldiers.

Israel proved them wrong.

I love it when I ask fellow Americans, "Who is our best ally, if we have to go to war say against China or North Korea? Who is our most powerful partner on the planet?"

They always look at me and don’t want to say the truth. Then out comes, "Uh, England."  No. "Uh, Canada?"

Nope. 

Then I tell them what they already knew but didn’t want to say.

It’s Israel.

In fact, the only nation Israel couldn’t defeat is the United States.

And yes, that includes Russia and China. And of course, the entire Middle East. They did that a few times already, including in the 1967 Six Day War. And we sent no troops to help.

YEAH, BUT WE GAVE THEM PLANES AND WEAPONS.

Well, we did that for many Arab nations and none of them really have much of an army or navy, thank God.

Between 1980 and 2000, Egyptians registered 77 patents in the U.S. Saudis registered 171, Israelis registered 7,652.

Jews are small, have kinky hair, are poor athletes and are cheap.

Really? Adam Sandler even did the Hanukkah Song about how that is now NOT true. Mentioning scores of handsome, funny movie stars from Paul Newman to Goldie Hawn, all Jews.

Hollywood was pretty much invented by Jews.

Are Jews cheap? Yes, in the early to mid 1900’s there was some truth to that. See, the Germans and others were killing ALL THE JEWS in Europe, so the moms and dads saved everything they had to escape to the United States.

Once here they realized their children had to be educated and go to college to survive. Jewish mothers also feared that one day Americans might kick them out or kill them like Germany did, so they were tight with a buck.

It makes sense. Fleeing was always a possibility because it always had been that way before.

Jewish people are very family oriented. Maybe more than any other group that matters. The Jewish God is not defined like Jesus or Muhammad. Jews believe God is living inside you, that he is your right arm. He is YOU.

You make your own decisions, not some spirit. There is no heaven and there is no hell.

That’s another major reason Jews are disliked by Christians.

Oh yeah, and in that pretend story about Jesus, the Jews gave him up to the Romans.

Maybe.

I always found it odd that it was the Romans who tortured Jesus, nailed him to the cross and killed him, not the Jews. Yet the Romans were the ones put in charge of the Christian Religion. THE POPE. Odd.

Today anti-semitism is much lower in America. We have other problems.

Finally, many Christians are moving away from the belief in God they once were taught.

They question more than ever the existence of a God per se. Just as the Jews always have. The two groups have moved closer together.

Jews today are often blonde, even blue eyed. They’re good, even great athletes, and yes, they even tip.

Time has killed off the European Jewish mothers and fathers. Even the old accents are gone. Maybe that’s too bad.

What a great people. What a great success story. I do not believe in God, but I do believe in the Jewish People. They are the bravest people of all.

Anyway, in the movie Inglorious Bastards, the little Jewish girl who escapes from the family being murdered grows up to run a movie house in occupied France. And she later engineers the destruction of the Nazi leaders, killing almost all of them.

Of course it’s not a true story, but in some ways maybe it is kinda true.

If you listen to Johnny Dare you probably know my girlfriend Chocolate Becky...

Make that, former girlfriend.

Anyway, her "White Devil Weekend," on The Rock is a funny, popular piece. Becky does the five minute rant each week and it’s played several times on Thursdays and Fridays. Of course, she always ends it with taking jabs at yours truly. She got the job because she called me a million times and left mean but very funny messages like, "That’s why I always hate you, you cheap ass little dick bastard. You never leave me any money. You make me drive all the way over there to pick up $10. Burn in hell, you bastard. I’m gonna get a sniper to shoot your ass."

I mean, you can’t write that kinda stuff.

By the way, I know some of you want the "little dick" part to be true, but it’s not.

Black girls are used to having well, some pretty big ones, so all white guys take that hit, even if its false. And they know it pisses us off.

In real life I went out with Becky’s beautiful sister back in the 90’s before she moved to New York. And little, cute sister Becky was just jumping for joy to step in for big sis after she left.

It was Westport 2000 so Becky became a once in awhile come-over girl.

She always meant well, but let’s just say, she’s limited – the girl can’t keep a job. Truth is, for all of the radio jokes the only black girls I dated over the past decade were Becky and Black Barbie. The rest of the women who came by were not.

Barbie’s a major beauty, Becky’s cute, but a headache.

So somehow I kind of became her guardian as well. Ten bucks here, 20 there.

"I can’t pay for my phone (tears). Help!"

So yeah, Becky became almost more of a ward than a girlfriend. And she calls me all-the-time.

It’s funny but very annoying. Of course Dare loves it and has had her on to attack me. But in her wacked out way she loves me and is just a lost soul. She’s not a bad or wicked girl, she’s just always broke and has no real family help.

GET A JOB GIRL…Damn.

Last week was one of the best. She bought a little used car from one of those fly by night dealers who sell to the needy and the poor with no credit. They charge 12 grand for a car worth 4 grand and people pay like $200 every two weeks. Then if they miss a payment the dealer picks it up and sells it again. They sell these puppies three times over and make like ten grand a car.

It’s sad, but legal.

So sometimes I lend / give Becky a few bucks to keep it up. Oh, man. I told her it had to stop, that we all have bills. That she’s not my girlfriend, not my responsibility.

So last week at 6 AM comes this call…

"Mister Glazer, this is Pastor Johnson…Can you find it in your heart to give poor little Rebecca one hundred dollars to save the girl’s car? She needs money to feed her poor puppy. The girl is starting a new job and she needs her car. The girl needs to eat. How will she feed herself? Mister Glazer, even $95 will help, sir." 

I started to say something but…

"Mister Glazer, the girl is one day gonna ride that big bus to heaven. And you could be next to her on the front seat, Mister Glazer. If only you can find it inside you to give little Rebecca $85. Can you find the $85? I can stop by today to get it. The church is covering the rest, Mister Glazer."

Then I asked, ‘Well, that’s only about 85 more dollars – how many members do you have?’

"Mister Glazer, we have just over two thousand."

And I thought, WTF did each person put in a couple pennies?

"Mister Glazer, you want to be on that bus with little Becky. Can you find it in your heart sir to leave this poor Pastor $80 today? Can you?" 

I said, STOP, I’ll leave you the one hundred, but don’t ever call me again. And I DON’T WANT TO BE ON HER BUS TO HEAVEN. I’LL TAKE THE OTHER BUS.

"But Mister Glazer, we don’t know what direction that bus will be headed sir." 

I said, THAT’S FINE – JUST ANY BUS SHE ISN’T ON. Come get the money and leave me alone….

CHOCOLATE BECKY on 98,9 THE ROCK WEEKLY.

My pain can be your laughter. Just don’t judge.

Well we haven’t done enough with the N.B.A. on this site, so here we go…

The Oklahoma Thunder have just run through quite a group of powerhouse teams. They took down last year’s NBA Champs, the Dallas Mavericks; they followed that with dropping the LA Lakers. And tonight they knocked out the San Antonio Spurs who had the NBA’s best record this season.

Maybe more impressive those three NBA giants have won 11 of the last 13 Championships. Now Oklahoma will face either the Miami Heat or Boston Celtics. A win there would make it 12 of the last 13 teams to win it all!

The way it looks, OKC will be the world champ in just a few more days.

Former Big 12 star, Kevin Durant and his co pilot Russell Westbrook are Oklahoma’s main men. They have young legs, great shooting and crazy great talent and in just two short years taken this team from nowhere to everywhere.

After trailing the Spurs 0-2, they came back and won FOUR in a row.

Remember, the Spurs had been undefeated in the playoffs up until that first loss at the hands of  the Thunder. The experts all picked San Antonio and the Miami Heat to square off in the finals. Wrong. Looks like it will be the young lions, the Thunder, fighting the old guard Boston Celtics.

In some ways this gives hope to us Kansas City fans. If the small market Oklahoma Thunder can take down all these giants, maybe, just maybe our young pro teams can follow.

Low key with a couple big stars and a great fan base can make the difference.

It can happen. Great work OKC! On their way to their first world title and I think one of many to come.