What happened to our favorite sports teams last night...

Sounders get tie, when they really, really needed a win - The Western Conference is absolutely stacked this year and by tying a depleted DC United team, Seattle now sits in fifth place in their conference. They needed this victory to keep pace with the other good teams and while it's super early, Seattle doesn't want to stand pat or tumble too far in the standings. DC was missing its best defender and starting goalie but the Sounders got shutout for the second straight game. Looks like after an offensive explosion to begin the season, Seattle is going to have to change some things up - mainly don't pass it to a triple-teamed Freddy Montero every time and expect something to happen?

Seattle improves to 3-1 despite Felix's less than super awesome outing - Four runs Felix? Really? Say it aint so! Good thing the Mariners offense has looked impressive in their past two games. The M's won 8-7 despite blowing a 7-1 lead they had through four innings. Felix got the win, which is slightly funny because usually when he gives up a run he can forget about picking up a W. The M's bullpen also held up which seemed absolutely WILD to me. This win comes against the woeful Oakland Athletics and now the Mariners will test their mettle against the Texas Rangers.

Chiefs lose despite what appeared to be a buzzer-beater goal - It seemed Spokane had tied it up with a second to go but... nope. The goal was waived off and Tri-City evened up the semi-final WHL playoff series with a 2-1 victory. However, the good news is that the series comes back to the Chiefs home arena for the next two games. No doubt the atmosphere will be great in this Washington rivalry.

Josh Beckett gives up five home runs, Detroit beats Boston 10-0 - In other words, I need a drink. Apparently Beckett didn't lay off the KFC and beer in the offseason or something. I'm not mad, just bitter. An 80-win season is really going to suck.

Luke Hochevar delivers for the Royals - Casey's favorite baseball team actually had a pitcher and handled the $150 million payroll of the Anaheim Angels of Shorten Your Team Name Already. Luke Hochevar allowed just two runs in six innings and the Royals notched 12 hits in a 6-3 victory.

Mariners get shut out by Greinke again

Mariners fans... did you really expect Felix to win the Cy Young Award? The AL announced their awards today and Zach Greinke of the Kansas City Royals has been named the best pitcher in the league despite (GASP!) just 16 wins.

However if you look at his ERA (2.16) you can see why the choice was made. I'd also imagine that his wins and ERA might be better if he had a better team behind him. While the Royals are Casey's team, that doesn't mean they're good or even competitive. In fact they were so bad I think Casey is thinking about reporting to Spring Training.

However when Greinke was pitching, it was an event and you knew that the other team was going to struggle with him. Just going by the eyeball test, I can see why Greinke was picked over Felix. He's damn good, but Greinke was phenomenal this season.

Another reason why the Kansas City Royals suck

I think we can all agree here that the Royals are terrible for baseball. I know it's Casey's favorite team... but come on. They're never in contention, they have the best pitcher in the league and he cant pick up any wins and they traded for the Seattle Mariners worst player.

I should write an article why the Royals suck, but it's already been done.

There was one funny piece about dollar nights at Kauffman Stadium:

Buck Nights: Think of the kind of crowd that is drawn to dollar dog, dollar soda night. "Hey kids, you don't need to worry about goin to bed hungry tonight, we're going to Buck Night." On Buck Nights you will see fewer teeth, more Stars and Bars on trucks, more jorts, more single teen moms, fewer sleeves and hear more "Whooohs!" and "Git-R-Dones" than any other nights of the year.

This cracks me up because dollar nights at the Spokane Indians ballpark is exactly the same. People will come in with bread bags and fill them up with hot dogs. No joke, some people get their monthly sustenance from dollar nights.

This is all in contrast to Mariners games, where fans show up in Jettas and eat sushi in the stands. The only time there would be a fight in the stands is if Bill Gates and Steve Jobs sat next to one another.

Epic Photo: Cat that can run faster than Ken Griffey Jr.

This cat found its way onto the field during the Kansas City Royals game against the Seattle Mariners. The KC crowd cheered louder for this little guy than for the Royals. Wow.

Kauffman Stadium fans brawl in front of kids

Saw this at Deadspin. Boy, parents are stupid.

According to police, everyone was enjoying a lovely day in Kauffman Stadium's outfield fun zone until Ronika Brooks walked in front of Erin Mela as Mela was taking a picture of her kid. Mela allegedly swore at her (Brooks says Mela directed a racial slur at her) then Mela's husband got involved, then three men may have jumped him, then he may have spit in Brooks' face ... then some kids got knocked over, so their parents joined in, and then at one point Erin Mela was definitely on the ground getting kicked in the head. Let's play two!

Then security decided not to get involved.

Royals officials said that their security office was notified of a disturbance in the new outfield experience area at 3:45 p.m. Two minutes later the call was updated to a fight in progress. The first police officers arrived at 3:49 p.m....

"It was beyond a brawl. It started out as four people, and then as kids were getting toppled, those parents came in, the women were fighting," Phipps said. "The saddest scene was a girl wrapped around mom's waist and saying, 'Please don't,' and she's throwing punches."

Here's a few things...

(1) Parents sometimes can be idiots when it comes to their kids. It's an automatic defensive mechanism or something like that. Or they're morons in the first place and shouldn't have kids.

(2) If your a parent, when does it become acceptable to fight in front of kids. Where along the line does you brain justify this?

(3) This explains the increase in violence at Chucky Cheeses.

(4) Did they get a ticket refund after they went to jail.

(5) Our local Royals fan, Casey Knopik, was not involved in the brawl.

Really, you should have to pass a test before you have kids. If you fail it, you can't have kids. I know it's socialist, fascist and wrong in every way but imagine all the stupid people out there that couldn't do things like this again.

Getting to Know the Royals

Tomorrow will mark the first game that the Kansas City Royals Luke Hochevar (anytime I hear or say his last name I feel like I have something in my throat) has appeared in the major leagues since August of 2008. He will be opposed by Trevor Cahill of the Oakland Athletics at 10:05 pm eastern time. Hochevar is a 6'5" righthander from Denver, Colorado who played college baseball for the Tennessee Volunteers. Hochevar and Casey actually have something in common, they were both crowned Prom King in High School (although I doubt Hochevar's stirred as much speculation and outrage as Casey's).

Hochevar had a very peculiar draft, or should I say three of them. He was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2002 but didn't sign and instead enrolled at Tennessee. He was drafted by the Dodgers again in 2005 and the two sides were unable to come to an agreement, for that Casey continues to thank Scott Boras to this day. This paved the way for him to enter the 2006 draft and he was selected by the Royals with the first overall selection.

Hochevar spent most of the 2008 season with the big league club going 6-12 with a 5.51 ERA in 22 appearances, all starts. He made his major league debut September 8, 2007 against the hated Yankees (booo!!). Hochevar's major league career has netted him a 6-13 record and 5.21 ERA over 26 total appearances.

The Royals made room for Hochevar by moving Sidney Ponson to the bullpen. Ponson has been very up and down this season (1-4, 5.91 ERA), he is however coming off his most impressive outing thus far when he went 7 1/3 innings and gave up only one run to...you guessed it..the Seattle Mariners. Kansas City could no longer overlook Hochevar and the amazing job he is doing for the Triple A Omaha Royals, where he has amassed a 5-0 record with a 0.90 ERA this season.

Hochevar is joining a Royals rotation that has all five pitchers aged 30 or younger and is first in the Major Leagues with a 3.45 team ERA. The average age of the starting five is 26.6 years old.

Getting to Know the Royals

With Casey recently pledging his allegiance to the Kansas City Royals I figured he should know about the American League team from the "Show-Me" state (and no Casey and Brandon it doesn't mean that). The state of Missouri got the nickname "Show-Me" from Willard Van Diver for residents self-deprecating stubbornness and devotion to simple common sense.

I figured I would focus on a quartet of players who once donned Seattle Mariners uniforms since the Royals will be hosting a brief 2 game series with the team from the Emerald City beginning today at 4:10 pm pacific time.

First up is Catcher Miguel Olivo who spent portions of the 2004 and 2005 seasons with the Mariners. In his short stay with the M's Olivo hit just .176 with 11 home runs, 32 RBI and 39 runs scored in 104 games. Olivo is a career .241 hitter with 72 home runs and a .988 fielding percentage over 8 seasons with 5 different teams (Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, Florida Marlins and the Royals). He's been with KC since the 2008 season.

Outfielder Jose Guillen has been with the Royals also since the beginning of the 2008 season when he was signed as a free agent. The sometimes volatile personality of Guillen (see his suspension by the Angels in late September of 2004) doesn't seem to be a problem....so far. Guillen spent only one season with the Mariners in 2007, a year in which he had one of his best seasons batting .290 with 23 home runs and 99 RBI, he also added 9 outfield assists. Guillen is a career .273 hitter with 189 home runs over 13 seasons with 9 different teams (Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinnati Reds, Oakland Athletics, Anaheim Angels, Washington Nationals, Seattle and KC).

The 3rd party to join the Royals by way of Seattle, also in 2008 was pitcher Horacio Ramirez. Ramirez spent the 2007 season with the Mariners and had a nightmare of a season going 8-7 with a mammoth 7.16 ERA. Ramirez is currently sporting an 8.18 ERA for the Royals after doing well last season in 15 games for them. Kansas City is Ramirez's 4th major league team (Atlanta Braves, Seattle, Chicago White Sox and KC), he had most of his success with the Braves from 2003-2006 when he went 30-22 with a 4.13 ERA. Ramirez has a career 39-34 record and 4.65 ERA.

Last but not least ultra utility man Willie Bloomquist. Willie had spent his entire major league career with the Mariners up until this year. While with Seattle Bloomquist played everywhere except catcher and pitcher. Bloomquist isn't spectacular in any one area but he has always been solid at the plate with a career .327 on base average and .267 batting average. His biggest asset is his ability to play almost any position which is very valuable for any team. In his time with Seattle Bloomquist never was an everyday player as evidenced by him never getting more than 251 at bats in a season but this year he may give the Royals no choice but to find a spot for him. So far this year Bloomquist is hitting .378 in 44 at bats with a .463 on base average, 10 runs scored and 4 stolen bases.

I hope this gives Casey some insight into his new favorite team so when he watches them he doesn't shout things like "Great catch by the left fielder!!" and "That number 8 is sure good!", he can say "Free Willie!" sorry I mean "Go Willie!" or "Bloomer just crushed that split finger fastball"

KC wins again

I'm almost postitive that after the game tonight Brandon will have a post about the Red Sox and Yankees. (BTW at the time I wrote this post, the Red Sox were spanking the Yankees 4-0)

But right now I just wanted to pat those Kansas City Royals on the back. Yes, they are my favorite team, but my oh my.

How about Zack Greinke? He won his sixth game of the season, improving to 6-0 with an ERA of 0.40. Wowza.

In the win he became the first pitcher to win six games this season and the Royal improved to 15-11 on the season with the 3-0 win over the Chicago White Sox.

While on the mound, Greinke didn't walk a batter and struck out 10. Greinke also became only the third pitcher in frachise history to win his first six games. Brett Saberhagen (1987) and Jose Lima (2003) are the other two.

This is the Kansas City Royals 40th season and what a way to start!

Sure looks like I picked a good time to be a fan. But remember, this is the Kansas City Royals. So I won't get too excited as a fan just yet.

Epic Photo: Casey's KC hat

It finally came in the mail. Yes, my Kansas City hat arrived and now I can support my new favorite team in real style.

Just take a look at the picture.

Go Royals!

KC Update

Just a little update before I go to bed.

With their 8-6 win today over the Toronto Blue Jays, the Kansas City Royals (my favorite team) took over sole possession of first place in the AL Central.

The Royals are currently 12-10 on the season and hold a 1/2 game lead over the White Sox and the Tigers.

Now I know that is nothing to get too excited about, but I've never had a baseball team to really root for before.

I'll also be starting a new weekly section about "Getting to know the Royals." This section will introduce you readers to the team as I begin to get to know them too.

Good night from us here at JustSON. See you bright and early tomorrow.

The Royal Treatment

Well it looks like Just South of North's very own Casey Knopik has started a trend. That's right everybody is hopping on the Kansas City Royals bandwagon. The Royals currently are tied in 2nd place in the American League Central division, 1 game back of the Detroit Tigers, which is as close to the lead in the division this team has been since the 1st Bush was working on starting a recession. Royalmania has gone nationwide as evidenced by Sports Illustrated featuring the star of the Royals staff, Zack Greinke, being this weeks cover boy (this of course means the Royals will go in the tank by losing 15 out of their next 18, with the Manager and GM getting fired and the city going up in flames).

By making the cover of SI Greinke has done a complete career 360. In 2002 Greinke was named Gatorade National Player of the Year and was selected in the first round of the 2002 draft. He went on to be named the Royals Minor League Pitcher of the Year and The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year in compiling a 15-4 record with a 1.96 ERA at two levels of Minor League ball. Everything looked promising for the young pitcher.

Then 2005 came along and Greinke struggled going 5-17 with a Carlos Silva-esque 5.80 ERA. The spring of 2006 was no better as Greinke left spring training for personal reasons. It turns out he was suffering from social anxiety disorder (kind of like what Casey has, which explains why he throws things at people when they talk to him). He eventually returned to the team and bounced between starting games and working out of the bullpen.

Last year Greinke again reminded the Royals organization as to why they drafted him in the first round as he rebounded from personal issues to have a solid season (13-10, 3.47 ERA). He ended 2008 with a string of 14 consecutive scoreless innings pitched. That streak of scoreless innings continued into this year when he pitched his first 24 innings without giving up a run (now get your calculators cause that equals.....38 straight?). The streak was snapped when he gave up an unearned run against the Tigers, a game in which he pitched a complete game, his second in a row.

So far this year I'd say Greinke has pitched pretty well. He is 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA, 36 strikeouts, 6 walks, 2 complete games and 1 shutout in 29 innings pitched.

This leads me to believe that maybe Casey knows something the rest of us don't? Here I thought he became a fan just because of their cool fountain and the fact that the city initials sound like his name.

By the way you can catch Zack and the rest of the Ragin' Royals in action tonight at 8:10 pm eastern time against the Toronto Blue Jays. Greinke will put his 4-0 record and spotless ERA on the line against Brian Tallet (1-0, 2.95 ERA) who is making his second start of the year.

The hunt for KC gear

Several readers and friends have told me, "Casey, that was a funny article you wrote about becoming a Kansas City Royals fan. But you're just joking right?"

The answer: No.

I've never been much of a baseball fan. I mean, I've paid attention too it cause it's a sport and I like sports, but I've never felt a strong connection to it. Not like I LOVE football of all levels from high school to pro. Baseball just didn't grab me.

For that reason I never really "claimed" a team as Brandon did with the Red Sox. Instead, I rooted for the Mariners because they were the local team. And I still hope they win, because I really enjoy it when Seattle is represented on the national stage.

Side note: How about those Hawks getting Aaron Curry? Sweet. Oh, and how about the team removing the franchise tag from Hill? Sending a message to him. I think so.

Ok, back to baseball. So yes, I am now a Kansas City fan. So much so that yesterday when I was at the mall I decided to buy a hat. I'm more of a fan of the soft hats. Twill I think they're called. As opposed to the flatbill heavier hats.

I walk into the Just Sports and start looking at the hats. The worker asks me, "Can I help you find something?"

"Yes. I'm looking for a Kansas City hat. Do you have one?"

"Yeah man. We have lots of Chiefs hats. You a fan?"

"No, I meant the Royals."

--silence as he stares at me with his mouth open--

"The Royals?" he asks.

"Yes. Do you have any hats?"

"Why the Royals?"

"I'm a fan. Do you have any hats?"

"No." he replys while rolling on the floor in laughter.

Sadly, the same events transpired at every store I went into. At Lids they didn't even know Kansas City still had an MLB team.

Oh well. When they do win the World Series oneday, I can say I was a fan when they stunk. I just hope I'm not watching that game with my great grandchildren.

Looks like I'm heading online for a hat.

Casey a KC fan

Today was talking baseball with Jeff and I decided something. That today I would become a Kansas City Royals fan. Why? Well, there are a number of reasons. Here we go.

Nobody likes them- Seriously, have you ever met a Royals fan? I have met only one in my lifetime and it was at a Cheesecake Factory in Kansas City last summer. I had to go to the city the team is from to find a fan.

Their name is my name- Ok, so the initials really are. KC. Not quite mine, but said the same.

They always stink- I've been around for 24 years now and I never remember them being even close to decent.

Someday they might be good- And when they are, I can say, I was a fan when they were terrible. A true fan. And yes, someday they will be good. Heck, look at the Mariners. They have tons of fans in that same boat.

Their stadium is cool- It's a very pretty ballpark. Kauffman Stadium's unique features include a 322-foot-wide water spectacular. The water spectacular is the largest privately funded fountain in the world. Here's the full history of the park.

If the Rays did it- Then why couldn't the Royals? From joke to champs. I see it happening. And now I can say I was a fan from when they stunk.

What would give GMs an instant heart attack

Strangely, Boston Celtics GM Danny Ainge suffered a minor heart attack the same day that it was announced that Kevin Garnett will not be playing for the Celts in the postseason.

Coincidence? Yeah probably.

However, it does bring up an interesting question, what sports disaster would be big enough to cause a GM to have a heart attack?

1. "Congrats! Isiah Thomas is now the coach of your basketball team. (Sorry Florida International)"

2. "Stephon Marbury will be playing for your already cohesive team despite his prior track record of being a selfish ball-hog. (Wait, this already happen to Ainge)"

3. "The team has been sold to George Steinbrenner and he's decided to keep you on as GM. But if you don't win a World Series, he's killing you and your family."

4. "Guess what? We're moving the team to Salt Lake City!"

5. "We actually traded your draft picks for the rights to a Broadway Musical. Something called "Disney's High School Musical."

6. "Hope you like Latrell Spreewell"

7. "Well, I was kind of hoping to cut payroll below what he Kansas City Royals are spending on their team."

8. "Hmmm, well lets just say last night was bad. It involved a mirror, A-Rod, some questionably attractive Canadian Mounties and a lightbulb. Have fun with that in the media."

9. "So what's it like being the GM of the Oakland Raiders?"

10. "Meet our new PR guy, Jose Conseco!"