KC ROYALS SCREWING UP OTHERS' SEASONS KC Sports & Fitness October 2008 By John Landsberg It was like a horrible flashback to my childhood in Cleveland. (Okay, technically I grew up in a Cleveland suburb. If I had actually lived in Cleveland I probably would have been shot by now.) The flashback occurred last month when our beloved baseball bums, the Kansas City Royals, put together a winning streak to conclude the season.It was painful. My nightmares returned. The Cleveland Indians did that kind of thing virtually every year of my youth. The Indians were September butt-kickers. No team was safe playing us. We would crush teams hoping for playoff berths and ruin their seasons. We were the new and improved Indians! What happened every season with the Indians now occurs with the Royals. The team sucks all year, but then starts to bring up players from the minors who start hitting because the other teams have done little scouting on them. Without scouting reports our pitchers were world beaters. As the season winds down, veteran players realize they had better improve their performance if they want a better contract next year. Better yet they might have a chance to get traded to a good team that might play for something worthwhile in October. With the hitters it was the classic, �I went three-for-four. By the way did anyone get the final score?�It is every man for himself. Here�s some advice for youngsters reading this column: What a lousy team like the Royals does in final weeks of the season is meaningless.It does not �build for next year.� Most of the yahoos on the team will be gone. A brief winning streak does help the team�s Marketing Dept. sell tickets for next season since they can sell a message of �hope.�Don�t believe it or you will have flashbacks the rest of your life.You�ve been warned. *** It was laughable. Some college presidents, congressmen, coaches and athletic directors had �urged� the NCAA to limit (or ban) alcohol ads from telecasts of NCAA events. It was tokenism at its finest. Limits on alcohol ads could have threatened the size of the rights fee the NCAA generates from that and other telecasts, potentially impacting scholarship money and school revenues. The chances of that happening are about the same as Mark Mangino avoiding a buffet table. *** A friend recently read a comment on a Web site that said the KC Chiefs suck so bad this year that a good college team like USC or even Missouri could probably beat them. He was upset, and I agreed with him. There are different levels of �suckism� in sports. Sure the Chiefs suck, but the team is still comprised of the absolute best players from college teams. In other words, with luck the Chiefs would probably win most of their games against the top college teams. *** It was a minor thing for most folks, but to me it showed the absolute greed at some colleges to try and get every single penny from students and alums. The University of Kansas was willing to kill a tradition of its steam whistle blowing to announce the end of classes each day.The tradition dated back to 1912. The reason?School officials figured it cost about $5. every time it blew.Over a year that cost an astounding $3,000! $3,000?The school relented after several people protested the planned change and said it will keep the tradition. While school officials felt the whistle cost was too much they didn�t blink when Coach Mark Mangino demanded $90,000 worth of trees be planted to hide his practice facility.
What the heck, the students will barely notice it in their next tuition increase.
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