Glazer: Scribe Admits Error of His Ways, Hops on Royals Bandwagon

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Craig Glazer

c1280x720_59Eight playoff wins in a row – never been done before…

Our Kansas City Royals are UNDEFEATED. What a story. What a team. What a fan base. Everyone in Kansas City is a Royals fan now. Hell, most of the nation is wearing blue or a Royals hat or t shirt. It’s a true Cinderella Story. Longtime losers turned HUGE WINNERS.

And yes, we all know they’re going to win the World Series – they can’t be stopped.

Strange how everyone is on the wagon now, huh?

Well, everyone but me.

I can’t be on the wagon because I wrote, IT’S OVER, IT’S OVER AND IT’S OVER.

When the Royals fell to Detroit n their final couple critical chances to win the division, I wrote that maybe they’d qualify for a wild card game. Maybe.

Boy, was I wrong and boy is this town happy. Continue reading →

Posted in Craig_Glazer | Tagged , , | 43 Comments

Jack Goes Confidential: The ‘FURY’ Depicts Sheer Ferocity of War

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Jack Poessiger

fury9April, 1945…

The Allies are making their final push into Nazi Germany. Just then battle worn tank commander Wardaddy—in a terrific performance by Brad Pitt—is assigned to assist in a rescue and mission behind enemy lines.

An embattled tank battalion, heavily outnumbered and outgunned, fighting against all odds by balancing their hatred for the Nazis against the sheer power of the human spirit.

The film is called FURY and truly delivers on the pure horrors of war.

FURY is directed by writer, producer, director David Ayre of TRAINING DAY fame and engulfs the big screen with a deeply effective and often gruesome depiction of those horrific last days of World War II.

Hollywood has been shy when it comes to depicting World War II of late. Only two very impressive movies of that era filmed in halfway recent times stick with me.

One is Steven Spielberg’s SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. The other Quentin Tarantino’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.

Now there are three. but be forewarned that deeply realistic FURY isn’t an easy sit.  Continue reading →

Posted in Jack_Poessiger | 7 Comments

Hearne: Much Ado About Nothing, Baltimore Media Manufactures Controversy

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

Screen Shot 2014-10-15 at 1.36.34 PMIt was bound to happen…

After days of smashing pies in one another’s faces and chanting and waving signs reading, “We Won’t Stop,” the Baltimore media and to an arguably lesser extent its fans are starting to devolve into nitpickers and sore losers.

Case in point, today’s headline in the Baltimore Sun that reads, “Jeremy Guthrie Apologizes After Post Game T-Shirt Sparks Outrage From Orioles Fans.”

Seriously?

After three games in which one of the mightiest teams in baseball has gone down in flames to the lowly Kansas City Royals, “Charm City” gets its panties in a bunch over a pitcher they traded away two years ago wearing a T-shirt to a press conference after last night’s game that read “These O’s ain’t Royal.”

And suddenly the entire city of Baltimore is supposedly “outraged” because why? Continue reading →

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

Hearne: Star vs. Star & The Winner Is…

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

ardgz5zM_400x400It’s really quite surreal watching playoff baseball and seeing dudes with the words “Kansas City” etched across their chests….

I can’t think of any sport – with the possible exception of curling or log rolling – I’ve watched less of for the past however many years than Kansas City Royals baseball. And frankly, I know I’m far from alone.

That said, I was supremely disappointed yesterday to learn that the Royals-Orioles game had been cancelled and can’t wait to watch tonight’s game…and tomorrow’s and as many more this dream sequence allows.

And as good as the Kansas City Star‘s coverage of the team’s playoff run has been – and it’s been damn good – my curiosity got the best of me, wondering how the former Twin Towers of Kansas City sports were handling the Royals ascension. Continue reading →

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments

Calvin Sense: Will Obama’s Legacy Hurt Future Minority Presidential Candidates?

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Calvin Sense

p.txtPresident Obama’s in an unwinnable position…

He’s boxed himself into a corner from which he cannot escape. Because if he sends ground troops to fight ISIS his legacy will be destroyed and the Democratic Party will not win in the upcoming elections.  Yet to stop ISIS is going to require ground troops.

So Obama cannot beat them without American troops on the ground as fighters or advisers to some other country’s troops.  

And the problem with using another country’s troops is the Iraqi Army will not fight and I can’t see any other country supplying boots on the ground in this war.

Obama’s critics are blasting him for not sending troops to Iraq again, but they also know that he can’t because the American public wouldn’t put up with it. And those who support Obama’s position of not using troops also realize ISIS can’t be defeated without the use of US troops. Continue reading →

Posted in Calvin Sense | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments

Paul Wilson: Coming Soon to a Town Near You…Ebola

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Paul Wilson

duck and coverThis week’s news brings word that KU Med is hosting a guest…

And not just any guest, mind you, but one who could become the third person in this country diagnosed with Ebola. While the hospital refers to the patient as “low to moderate risk,” they’re paying big time attention because, let’s face it, no one knows all that much about this disease.

Ebola’s airborne, Ebola’s not airborne –  the CDC doesn’t have a clue. Continue reading →

Posted in Paul Wilson | Tagged , , | 41 Comments

Donnelly: Sporting Kansas City Clinch Playoff Berth With 2-0 Win Over Chicago

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Matthew Donnelly

USATSI_7980281_167117624_lowresIt took a little longer than usual, and at times in the middle of the season Sporting KC looked downright awful.

They struggled through a ton of injuries, including the season ending variety to Chance Myers and Ike Opara, and the career ending type to Peterson Joseph.  National team call ups also wreaked havoc with the roster, with Matt Besler, Graham Zusi, Lawrence Olum, Soony Saad and others missing extended periods of the MLS’ marathon season.

But with just three regular season games left, and a must-have playoff berth hanging in the balance, the boys in blue came up big against the visiting Chicago Fire, winning 2-0 on the strength of an 80th minute Zusi left footed bomb from about 25 yards out.

And that was after Dom Dwyer missed an early PK over the bar.  No doubt, as the game neared its end Sporting was gripping a bit. Continue reading →

Posted in Matthew_Donnelly | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

New Jack City: Travel Tips from the Inside Out

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Jack Poessiger

wttw_1343829645One of the most oft asked questions I receive as a travel agent pertains to the best time to purchase travel….

For cruises and vacation packages—both domestic and international—the further out you book, the better the price. Many suppliers offer extra ‘early bird’ booking savings.

This is especially true for vacation packages around holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break and summer getaways.

Booking air travel? That’s another story. Continue reading →

Posted in Jack Poessiger | Tagged | 1 Comment

Starbeams: Christopher Columbus, Christopher Elbow, Joe Montana

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Kelly Urich
Christopher Elbow San Francisco

Christopher Elbow
San Francisco

Happy Christopher Columbus Day.  Time to party like it’s 1499!

                                           *******

I’m hoping the Royals play the Giants so we can have an All–Christopher Elbow Chocolates World Series.

                                            ******* Continue reading →

Posted in Starbeams | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Glazer: This Year’s Royals Ape 1969 ‘Miracle Mets’

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Craig Glazer

1969MetsThe New York Mets were the laughing stock of baseball through the 1960s…

In the club’s first year in 1962 it posted  the worst regular season record since Major League baseball went to a 162 game schedule and the team never finished above second to last until.. the worst regular season record since Major League Baseball went to a 162-game schedule (two games were canceled). The team never finished better than second to last until THE MIRACLE METS of 1969.

Even their manager Casey Stengel was famous for his comments about how bad his team had been but that they would win a World Series soon. Of course, nobody believed him. The joke at the time was which would happen first, a winning season by the Mets or Apollo 11 landing on the moon. Well, both got there the same year in 1969.

This year’s Kansas City Royals may be our version of the 1969 Miracle Mets.

Maybe that’s what we should call them, the Miracle Royals. Continue reading →

Posted in Craig_Glazer | 22 Comments

Paul Wilson: Happy Columbus Day! Ripped Anybody Off Yet?

Posted on October 13, 2014 by admin

columbusAn unexpected trip to the bank this morning reminded me that it’s Columbus Day…

Upon landing on these shores, Columbus journaled, “The Indians are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone. They would make fine servants. With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do what ever we want.”

Never in the history of our nation has a wrong been committed against a people that compares to that of the American Indian.  Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 47 Comments

Sutherland: The Irony of the Great Greg Orman

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.

20140913_USD000_0In 2012, Steve Kraske, the Kansas City Star’s political correspondent, quoted approvingly from liberal authors’ James Steele and Donald Bartlett’s book, “The Betrayal of the American Dream”:

“We have created the world’s newest financial aristocracy, a class that has successfully put itself beyond the reach of government constraint and can do pretty much whatever it wants…in pursuit of its own personal gain.”  Kansas City Star, 9-21-2012

More recently, the Star has had nothing but good things to say about Greg Orman, the “Independent” candidate for the U.S. Senate this year in Kansas.(It endorsed him Sunday!)  This is a little surprising since Orman is a very wealthy man, with a net worth of upwards of $80,000,000 and an annual income of somewhere between one million and four and a half million dollars, i.e. the top tenth of the top 1%.

Orman has filed only the minimal financial disclosure required by law so it’s hard to understand the exact extent of his wealth.  It’s pretty clear, though, that by any measure he qualifies as a member of the “new financial aristocracy” that Kraske, like other writers for the Star, finds so deplorable. Continue reading →

Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr. | Tagged , , , , | 56 Comments

Hearne: Baltimore Orioles Jinxed by Fans, Celebs – Don’t Let it Happen Here

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
Jarrod+Dyson+Chicago+White+Sox+v+Kansas+City+-kZD2B0tD0Il

Jarrod Dyson “Thou shall not jinx”

Forget about not changing your socks…

If you really want the Kansas City Royals to prevail over the Baltimore Orioles and go on to win the World Series, read my lips: t’s not about the good luck charms or ritualistic behavior, it’s about not jinxing.

Take today’s front page newspaper story about baseball superstitions. It was all about Royals fans not messing with the team’s good juju by varying the everyday things they wore, did or ate. Too narcissistic, like people can merely stay the course in their lives and send the team on to victory.

Just don’t jinx them would be the better advice. Continue reading →

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

Glazer: Royals Eclipse NFL, Chiefs Off, This Week’s Picks

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
Gurley

Todd Gurley

What a week…

The Chiefs are off this week. The Royals are undefeated with four of five post season games going into extra innings – they seem to be unbeatable – team of destiny, America’s darlings.

Who knew?

Missouri catches a break with the nation’s top running back Todd Gurley out at Georgia.

Gurley ain’t’ no Johnny Football and Manzel did pretty much the same thing – signing autographs and jerseys for money – but he got away with it. Not so the Georgia superstar who is out for maybe the season for making a little dough on the side.  It’s nto fair but a fact. MU might win this one now. It should be close.

Kansas is going to lose again to OSU, what else is new? Continue reading →

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Valentine: Cognitive Dissonance & The Ebola Scare

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Mark Valentine
Original art by Mark Valentine

Original art by Mark Valentine

Cognitive dissonance is the internal, emotional conflict we feel when we believe conflicting things…

It’s a part of everyday life. We hate violence, but we love tough guys. We believe in Science but embrace Religion. We hate to be fat, yet we love ice cream. All of that was normal and personal, but now it’s expanded to a societal level that has us on a collective edge.

Watch the news.

A CDC spokesman says, “No need for fear. Ebola is very hard to catch.” Then the pictures show health care workers in HAZMAT suits. If it’s so hard to get infected, why the protective gear? In fact, over 200 health care workers have contracted the disease. Somewhere in your brain, Cognitive Dissonance rachets up a notch.

They say, “It can only be transmitted by being in contact with an Ebola patient that is symptomatic.” Then the story comes out about the latest victim who got Ebola by riding in a car that had carried an Ebola casualty. He did not ride with the dead person and the car had been disinfected before he rode in it. Cognitive Dissonance rachets up another notch.

According to the C.D.C., “the virus can survive for a few hours on dry surfaces like doorknobs and countertops and can survive for several days in puddles or other collections of body fluid.”  That would encompass every restaurant table, every public restroom and every form of public transportation. We struggle to make “No need to fear” fit into the new facts. Continue reading →

Posted in Mark Valentine | Tagged , , , , , , | 31 Comments

Leftridge: ALCS Gets Under Way Friday, or Maybe Saturday

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Brandon Leftridge

2014_alcs_logoShould the weather comply (and most meteorological types seem to think that it will NOT), the Royals will begin play Friday night against the dreaded Baltimore Orioles to determine who will represent the American League in the World Series, and who will begin their exotic vacations a little later than originally anticipated. (Or earlier than anticipated for the optimists in the crowd.)

We all know that Kansas City hasn’t been to the World Series since they beat the Cardinals in 1985. For their part, Baltimore hasn’t been in some time, either. Their last appearance—dubbed the I-95 Series—saw them beat the Philadelphia Phillies in 1983. It was their third WS trophy.

(But before we shed a tear for the Orangebirds, let us not pretend that they’ve been bereft of opportunity; this is their fourth postseason jaunt since the ’83 title. The Royals, of course, are making their first return to October baseball since they won it all.)

Anyway, this is one of those “something’s got to give” things, I guess. Continue reading →

Posted in Brandon Leftridge, Sports | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Hearne: Brownback Rides Davis’ Stripper Bust Campaign into 1st Place

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

Paul Davis Strip Mailer Inside One“I checked some of the polls this morning and, as of today, most polls show Davis is up by three to five points. The ‘What’s the Matter with Kansas?’ crowd are the base voters for Brownback. His campaign might believe they can swing a few votes but more than anything this is just a way to convince the base that they need to get out on election day and vote.”

That comment was left on KCC two short days ago by a gent named Jimmy in response to my column about the Paul Davis stripper bust story beginning to take flight.

The decade and a half old news had been percolating for a couple of weeks and no doubt the Davis camp was crossing their fingers, hoping the story would blow over.

Fat chance.

Because when I retrieved my mail earlier this week and found a four panel, full color mailer with a strip club stage, stripper poles, whorish red lighting, a remorseful pic of Davis and bold letters talking about how Davis was “caught in a ‘compromising position’ with a girl at a strip club during a drug raid,” I kinda knew he was cooked.

You know, we’ll see, but this is, after all, Kansas. Continue reading →

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | Tagged , , , , | 19 Comments

Hearne: About This Year’s Royals-Cards World Series Matchup

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

85_world_seriesIt’s way too early to contemplate a Cardinals-Royals rematch…

Or is it?

Because aside from fears of jinxing things, it’s a reasonable possibility that this year’s Kansas City Royals could end up playing the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. You know, shades of 1985.

But don’t take my word for it, let’s check with the True Believers.

“I’d be super nervous,” says KCC sports scribe Brandon Leftridge. “I teeter between both wanting nothing else, but also wanting no part of it. If it happens, and the Royals win, it’s almost like eternal bragging rights. If they lose, however, it might be the worst professional sports moment I’ve ever experienced.”

Here’s why. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Starbeams: No Sex in the City, Steroids, Vaginal Orgasms & MTV

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Kelly Urich

party 1985Everyone’s holding “Party Like It’s 1985” signs around town. For me, that means sitting around the house watching MTV with no hope of any sex.

                                                       *******

If these playoff games go any later into the night I’m going to need more steroids than the players!

                                                        *******

Same-sex marriage licenses are being issued in Johnson County.  My Grandpa says this is the result of that nude statue in the .   Continue reading →

Posted in Starbeams | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Stomper: The Glory Days of Professional Wrestling in Kansas City

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Stomper
thesz_lou2

Lou Thesz

Drift back with me now to the fall of 1964 in Kansas City… 

The country was slowly recovering from the assassination of John F. Kennedy. We were well into the presidential campaign between Lyndon Baines Johnson and conservative stalwart Barry Goldwater. Ilus Davis has just defeated Dutton Brookfield a few months earlier to become Mayor of Kansas City, succeeding the legendary H. Roe Bartle.

If you were a kid, your radio was most likely tuned to WHB 710 AM listening to new British Invaders such as The Beatles (although Billboard’s #1 song in August of 1964 was actually Dean Martin’s, “Everybody Loves Somebody”).

I was entering the 7th grade at a new school and had struck up a tenuous friendship with another kid who thought he knew all the ropes. He rode a bus downtown to Bill Neal’s Chrysler Plymouth and bought a pair of tickets to an upcoming wrestling match, but not just any wrestling match; World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz against Dick the Bruiser. He invited me to join him and I did.

Coming up on 50 years now I can still feel the calling.  Continue reading →

Posted in Stomper, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 30 Comments