Misc - Kansas City

One year ago today, UFR launched with a Black and Blue post (Daniel vs Reesing). 814 posts later, here we are. Of course, Brad Doolittle was a vital member of UFR for most of the last year, but Sam Mellinger is aboard now. Hopefully, he isn’t moving to Chicago anytime soon! As to what it’s been like for me over the last 12 months …

To everyone who emailed me, thanks for your patience regarding UFR. We had the site down for about 10 days to re-organize some things. Of course, as you know, Brad Doolittle has gone on to other endeavors – not the least of which is moving to the great Windy City. Replacing him on UFR will be the Star’s Sam Mellinger of Ball Star fame. Sam should provide needed humor to balance my sea of statistics. He will be posting soon. In the meantime, here are a couple other changes.

A Diamond In the RoughTonight on one of the local news sports channels – you know the kind, the 10 minute highlight show - a reporter held up a copy of the Kansas City Star story on Blaine Dalton commenting to the effect of ‘In today’s edition of the Star you will see a story on how Blaine Dalton is a viable candidate for Missouri QB. In tomorrow’s edition you will see a story on how Blaine Dalton is no longer a Missouri Tiger.’ Unlucky timing on the story? Yes, but far worse criticism by the reporter!

"Chaos is the score upon which reality is written."Reports are circulating this morning that the Arena Football League is shutting down for good. The league had previously canceled its 2009 season, ostensibly to reach a revamped collective bargaining agreement with its players and to develop a new business plan. The AFL, which seemed to be on such firm footing when it arrived in Kansas City in 2005, is yet another industry that has fallen prey to the wheezing economy. As a result, it looks like the Brigade is done after three seasons, 16 wins and 32 losses.

Watson and Nicklaus Turnberry, 1977Elementary couldn’t be farther from the fact. More like sedimentary – solid as a rock and just about as old. Tom Watson, at 59 years and 317 days is poised to become the oldest winner of a golf major by well over a decade. In fact, he’s poised to sign the greatest scorecard in golf history. I’m poised to be watching every minute of it. You should be too.

I shaved my head in honor of Tom Watson.OK, I didn't really shave my head for Tom Watson. I just was in need of a haircut and was running low on hair gel, so it just seemed simpler to cut it all off and my wife wasn't around to stop me. But maybe if Old Tom pulls it off tomorrow, I'll have someone carve 'TW" on my head.

Six years ago today, my family and I went to the Woodlands for the first (and only) time to watch the dog races. I knew nothing about the sport then and I know nothing about it now – only that a bunch of dogs run around a track at blinding speeds. It’s not very entertaining because it’s over in just a matter of seconds. No time to build drama or root for one dog to overcome another – as if you could tell which was which anyway. Compared to watching the Kentucky Derby yesterday, it is a very, very poor man’s substitute IMO.

Nice form!I plan on doing a weekly update of what is going on with the team. I’ll probably do it on Wednesday’s, but that’s not written in stone. I’m somewhat intrigued with the team this season because they have a chance to be pretty good. Their record so far is 16-10 (not exactly earth-shattering, but better than it appears because of the level of competition to date).

Which Hawk?I always find it amazing when people say if Team A beat Team B and Team B beat Team C, then Team C is better than Team A. While that may be interesting, it is also an extreme fallacy of logic. Not only does it ignore “upsets”, but it dismisses where the games were played, what time of the year it was and how good a team was playing. Besides that, it fails to factor in obvious match-up issues that vary from one team to another. Cause and effect relationships are more confusing to the some people than husband and wife relationships – and that’s saying something.

I don't know about any of you, but I'm waiting on tenterhooks for NBA trade news. Will Amare be a Bull? With Bosh be bounced? Will the Nets deal Vince? Only time will tell. While I wait, let me present my semi-regular set of links from around the Web related to area sports. If you've written something on your blog or seen something you think UFR readers would like, drop me a line, and I'll add it to the list.

Apparently, Martin and I are the only members sports media industry not at the Alex Rodriguez press conference. Thank goodness for that. Instead, let's check out my semi-regular set of links from around the Web related to area sports. If you've written something on your blog or seen something you think UFR readers would like, drop me a line, and I'll add it to the list.

A hale and hearty Sunday. My spirits are high, even though I'm battling either a sinus infection or a brain tumor. Either way, here is my semi-regular set of links from around the Web related to area sports. If you've written something on your blog or seen something you think UFR readers would like, drop me a line, and I'll add it to the list.

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This week was even more crazy than usual for me, so I've neglected UFR a little bit. Good week for it as it was relatively slow on the news side. Monday and Tuesday, I spent many hours on freelance work before putting in my shift at the paper. The result was that, on Tuesday night, I ended up sprawled out on my desk in the sports department at The Star, dead asleep. My wife, upon hearing of this incident, demanded that I take Wednesday off, at least during the day. (I worked at the paper that night.) I spent the day on the futon, drinking herbal tea and watching Star Trek. Yesterday, I squeezed out one post, but have been catching up on some neglected domestic tasks since. All of a sudden, I think I'm actually on top of things and feeling rested, to boot. So the next week, you should see a more prolific author at UFR. Kudos to Martin for keeping things lively around here. To catch up, rather than rehashing old news, I'm going to present a longer-than-usual links piece, which will give me a chance to touch upon the things I missed without getting overly redundant. On deck for me, besides attempting to document the resurgence of Mizzou basketball, I'm planning a player-by-player analysis of the Royals, which will culminate in my official team forecast. I'm going to do unit by unit reviews & to-dos for the Chiefs. And some other stuff. Back to the regular format:Here is my semi-regular set of links from around the Web related to area sports. If you've written something on your blog or seen something you think UFR readers would like, drop me a line, and I'll add it to the list.

Here is my (almost) daily set of links from around the Web related to area sports. If you've written something on your blog or seen something you think UFR readers would like, drop me a line, and I'll add it to the list.

Here is my (almost) daily set of links from around the Web related to area sports. If you've written something on your blog or seen something you think UFR readers would like, drop me a line, and I'll add it to the list.

Here is my the weekend edition of my (almost) daily set of links from around the Web related to area sports. Isn't it amazing that just over a week ago, cyberspace, television outlets, radio talkers and everyone else was abuzz with speculation about the Chiefs' coaching situation? The NFL must employee the most powerful censors in the country, because with the unofficial no-news-the-week-of-the-Super-Bowl policy in effect, Chiefs news has slowed to a trickle. It's almost easy to forget that the Chiefs don't have a freaking coach. Look for the buzz machine to pick up some serious velocity starting tomorrow.

Here is my (almost) daily set of links from around the Web related to area sports. I took a day off yesterday because I collapsed into a lifeless lump late Wednesday night and slept past noon yesterday. That happens to me every couple of weeks, a by-product of what I estimate to be at least a 90-hour a week work schedule. If you've written something on your blog or seen something you think UFR readers would like, drop me a line, and I'll add it to the list.