KC Confidential

Having some experience in the fight game, I got to see a ton of great fights…

I worked with world champs from Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier to Roberto Duran in my Champions Forever series. And of course, I interviewed several of the champs including Ali and Frazier.

I even attended the title fight in Kingston between George Foreman and Joe Frazier.

As many of you know, I was a producer and sometimes interviewer on those videos.

With that in mind here’s my opinion of the Floyd Mayweather/Conor McGregor battle Saturday.

First of, it’s NOT A TITLE FIGHT…so that’s a big issue.

The fight is for PRIDE AND HUGE MONEY.

At 40 Floyd’s career is really pretty much over. Conor is 29 and is 21-3 including a recent LOSS to Nate Diaz a year ago last March. In fact, he submitted in that fight kinda like a TKO. So Conor unlike Floyd is NOT UNDEFEATED. Floyd is 49-0!

The odds on this fight ever coming off were large a year or so back.

Continue reading →

Most KC Royals observers concluded by mid May that they sucked…

That while they might bounce back and be average, they were not good enough to be a playoff team.  And that they should upload Eric Hosmer, Moose, Cain and other soon-to-depart stars in order to get something for them before they will leave next year.

For the record, I too was on that boat.

However, when the Royals played well in July and got back into the hunt they abandoned that strategy.

GM Dayton Moore‘s hope of a power offense with home runs came true. My God, with seven hitters with over 10 home runs. Yikes!

The problem: No pitching.

Yes, Jason Vargas for a bit, but that’s all but over now. Meanwhile the power has faded somewhat and the Royals are just an average team going nowhere again. In the end, they’re probably just  a .500 team without even even a wild card. Damn. Continue reading →

Actor Sonny Landham was one of my best friends in life…

Sonny died Thursday of heart complications. Landham lost both legs over the past two years. He was in Kentucky where his young son, Mo lives in his final days.

We spoke weekly and I knew he was nearing the end.

HIs health was beyond repair and at age 75 his acting days were well behind him. Boy did he and I have some great times in LA and KC though.

Sonny is best known for co starring in two monster hits – Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger and 48 Hours with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy.

Sonny was best known in the 80’s and 90’s as a big time movie bad guy.

Including in films like Fire Walker with Chuck Norris, Lock-up with Sly Stallone and Best of The Best with Eric Roberts.

He was a wild man on and off camera. Continue reading →

Another sad statement that the Royals are done for 2017…

The Royals bench Alex Gordon – the $72 million bust.

Gordon is finally benched, batting just .204 with almost no homers and few RBI’s..

So he gets the bench, when we could have signed World Series MVP Ben Zobrist last year. Instead KC opted for hometown hero/not…Gordon.

Alex could have been traded, but nobody wants him now.

He is a great guy with only that one giant home run in 2015 post season that made him a bigger star than he ever was, huh?

So now Eric Hosmer gone. Moose likely gone. Cain likely gone…next season.

Now what?

Hey, there’s always Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs!

A few weeks back it was just a question of if the Royals won the division or became a wild card…

That’s before KC sank like a rock to barely .500 ball with Cleveland enjoying a 4 game lead. And the written-off Minnesota Twins are tied with us at .500.

What happened?

Our starting pitching is average at best and we have no real ace on the team. Danny Duffy is back from injury but has not been very effective at 7 and 7 with an ERA of 3.48.

Meanwhile, all-star pitcher, Jason Vargas has fallen to 13-6 with an ERA of 3.40. And our other two starters are worse…Jason Hammel is 5-9 with an ERA of 4.73 and Ian Kennedy is 4-8 with an ERA of 4.83.

Now the really bad news… Continue reading →

Tyreek Hill mug shot

Seems like only yesterday the New England Patriots and Tom Brady pulled off the greatest Super Bowl comeback of all-time..

Yet on Friday the Kansas City Chiefs play their first pre season football game.

Damn, how time just zooms by…

So how do this year’s Chiefs stack up for 2017?

Las Vegas has it like this:

Super Bowl winner: New England 31-10, Cowboys 10-1, Packers 11-1, Seahawks 12-1, Steelers 12-1, Raiders 15-1, Giants 22-1, Chiefs 28-1 and Broncos 30-1!

So KC is the 8th best team in the NFL? A likely playoff team, again?

I don’t know about you, but I think we need to find some weapons for our Chiefs just to become a wild card team!

Oakland is real and could not only win the division – which they probably would have last year had their quarterback not been hurt – they could even go to Super Bowl.

And yes, Chiefs QB Alex Smith is back.

As is Spencer Ware, with no real dangerous offensive weapons outside Tyreek Hill.

Notice that I left out Travis Kelce.

Travis is good – some think All Pro – but he makes too many mistakes.

He had only four touchdowns last year…Hill was the offense with 12 TD’s.

Without Tyreek HIll the Chiefs were at best a .500 team. Continue reading →

Why does it seem like almost everyone is playing the hate game these days?

“It’s the money, Jimmy.”

That’s why.

Man, the stock market is at 22,000 today, a record and still climbing. Big business is on fire, like Apple with a recent profit of over $8 billion.

Nice, for them.

So why all the hate?

BECAUSE WE’RE THE ONES PAYING THEM.

Most folks struggle just to pay their monthly bills, let alone get ahead. A single person making $40,000 to – $50,000 a year has to live pretty lean these days just to get by.

Remember just 15 years back when a decent one bedroom apartment was say 500 bucks a month? Just an average joint.

Today that same apartment is likely $850-$1,100!

An average car used to cost about $12,00 to $17,000. A similar car today is $22,000 to $28,000.

Now its about the payments.

Car insurance has gone up and the deductibles are huge- $500 to $1,000 per damage claim.  So if it’s say $1,300 in damage you get 300 bucks to fix your car. Plus the towing service to boot.

How bout those phone bills mixed with internet and cable?

Used to be about $100 a month. Now?

Try a couple hundred for your cell phone bill and $150 and up for cable.

And don’t forget health insurance!

The list is seemingly endless.

What the hell happened? Continue reading →

For years it’s been called the Wild, Wild Westport...

Truth is, it’s only wild after about 3 am on the rare, odd weekend nights.

The inner city bad guys are out late at night looking for trouble and they often cruise the area in and around Westport.

Why? Its near where they live.

It’s been a popular entertainment district for decades and the hood people think it’s cool to do their dirty work where they’ll get attention.

Sad thing is, Westport, our most popular entertainment district over the past 50 years, gets blamed for not doing enough to prevent crime.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I was there for over 30 years with Stanford’s,

All we did then – and they still do – – is work on security day and night.

Westport has one of the best private security forces in the city and the Midwest. They have the Kansas City Police down there nightly and in force on weekend nights in the summer.

Almost all the problems go down after 3 a.m. weekend nights.

And yet anything that happens nearby is blamed on Westport. Why?

It’s a name part of town that everybody knows and media like the Kansas City Star loves to crucify them.. Continue reading →