Bradford Lee

Over the past week, we’ve all read multiple accounts of the last Athletics game in Oakland. In a nutshell, it’s been a colossal mess, a mess that could have and should have been avoided. In World War II parlance, it’s FUBAR.

With the Royals and Yankees squaring off in the playoffs for the first time since 1980 (how is that possible??) I thought it might be fun to take a walk down memory lane. Depending on your age, it could be traumatic.

That was fun, wasn’t it? Isn’t that what we’re trying to convince ourselves? That the 2024 season was a blast? In a lot of ways, it was. I mean think about it, they went from 106 losses in 2023 to 86 wins and a playoff berth in 2024. What’s not to like about that?

You know it when it happens.

When I was a child we lived in Concordia, Kansas, and every November 11 the city would have a Veterans Day parade. In those days it was still called Armistice Day. This memory has always stuck with me for several reasons. There would be a football game that day which my father would take me to. Those were the first football games I ever attended and sparked my love for the sport.

Baseball internet stuff

Tired of watching football and eating turkey? I’m not yet, but I’m getting there. While were waiting for the hot stove to heat up, here is another round of obscure baseball trivia.

First, my apologies to our female readers. I’m not talking about traditional firemen. You know, like the hunky dudes of Fire Station #8 or any other station in the metro area. Those brave men (and many women) who don those bulky suits and race around the city to the closest fire or accident when they’re not making spicy calendars. No, the firemen I’m talking about are the pitchers of the Royals who would come in when the game was on the line and throw three or four innings. Eventually, this position morphed into two different roles: the setup man and the closer.

Al Fitzmorris, one of the last original Royals, passed away on December 4 th after a battle with cancer. Fitzmorris was signed by the White Sox as a free agent in 1966, as an outfielder. He made the switch to pitcher in 1967, thinking it would be a faster path to the majors. The Royals selected him with their 40th selection in the expansion draft. He started the 1969 season in Omaha, but had a cup of coffee late that summer, making his major league debut on September 8, 1969.

The internet remains an endless source of strange stuff: a firehose of information, disinformation, entertainment and opinions. I read through a lot of the sports stuff that pops up on my feed, for better or worse. Most of it is just someone’s opinion. You see something like the ten best players in NBA history and if Wilt Chamberlain isn’t on the list, you know the writer must have been born after the year 2000. Or this dandy which I saw recently - top ten guitarists of all time. Number five was Taylor Swift. I used to be heavily involved in music in my younger days and I can guarantee you with my life that Taylor Swift is not the fifth-best guitar player of all time. In fact, I doubt that she’s even in the top 50 and probably not in the top 100. Who writes this stuff?