Mark Mangino will be throwing out the first pitch for the Home Opener. That is, if he doesn't eat it before hand.
CORRECTION:
I just heard that Mark Mangino AND Gary Pinkel will be throwing out the first pitch (together somehow). That is, if Mangino doesn't eat Pinkel before the game.
I just heard that Mark Mangino AND Gary Pinkel will be throwing out the first pitch (together somehow). That is, if Mangino doesn't eat Pinkel before the game.
I bet Pinkel still has that tennis visor glued to his head - wouldn't want to be blinded by the glaring sun today.
Bannister is not looking so hot so far today. The ump has a smaller than normal pitch zone, not good for a control pitcher! Jeez, I don't want to lose to the Yanks.
Yeah, Bannister is looking pretty awful so far, but he did finally manage a strikeout to end the inning with the bases loaded. Damage could have been much worse, I suppose. Still, he was up 0-2 on Posada with no one on and two outs and gave up a single, walk, single, walk, walk, scoring two runs in the process. What happened to the Bannister we saw in Detroit? He's already thrown 54 pitches in two innings. Hopefully he settles down when he comes back out.
And Tony Pena Jr. just walked. Holy hell.
Last edited by phuqueue on Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
So the $36 million man is the only Royal who didn't make it on base today. Buck and Pena also hitless, but drew walks; everyone else had two hits each. Five stolen bases on the day, three by Gathright. Hindsight being what it is, you can point at those as good decisions after all, but I'm a little concerned; this team has already run into a ton of outs on the base paths and a stolen base just isn't as valuable as the base runner you lose if he's caught. Even with the five steals, Gload ran into another out today trying to steal third.
The team did finally score more than four runs in nine innings, so that's encouraging. I know the offense needs to get better if this team is going to be respectable over the course of the full season, but honestly, with Soria on my fantasy team, I'm not too unhappy about them winning all these low scoring games.
Anyway, another save for Soria, another victory for the Royals, another powerful offensive team held to only a couple runs (although Bannister's outing was definitely shaky until he settled down a bit in the fourth and cruised through the fifth; he did pile up six strikeouts in five innings, though). It's good to see the team hang on even when their starters aren't on their A game against talented teams, though, and the bullpen had another strong outing. And hey, four strikeouts for A-Rod. For at least one game, this Yankees lineup didn't terrorize Royals pitching like it did for most of last season (ugh, and I was at Kauffman on that horrible night when Scott Elarton started against them). Hopefully Greinke will have a strong outing tomorrow.
Not impressed with Guillen so far. He seems to be another Pena Jr. they way he swings. Always swings for the fences and has horrible knowledge of the strike zone. Hopefully he will settle in during the next few games, if it goes any longer than 2 weeks with him looking like this I would start to get a little worried.
KansasCityCraka wrote:
Not impressed with Guillen so far. He seems to be another Pena Jr. they way he swings. Always swings for the fences and has horrible knowledge of the strike zone. Hopefully he will settle in during the next few games, if it goes any longer than 2 weeks with him looking like this I would start to get a little worried.
Guillen didn't get many AB's in the spring. His defense has been great so far, as long as his hitting starts to catch up in a week or so we will be ok.
Gathright has been awesome...what happens when DeJesus gets better?
"It is not to my good friend's heresy that I impute his honesty. On the contrary, 'tis his honesty that has brought upon him the character of heretic." -- Ben Franklin
mean wrote:
Gathright has been awesome...what happens when DeJesus gets better?
I really think Dejesus will be traded away before the dealine. He is of no use to us now. Gathright still needs to swing the bat pretty well for them to do that though. Dejesus doesn't have the speed Gathright does and with Hillman loving to steal bases, Gathright better fits his style. The only thing I could see Dejesus not being traded for, is if he starts smashing balls and producing more HR's.
Today the Royals had a man on second, with no outs 3 seperate times.
Just got back from the game and I am happy to report that the scoreboard is even more impressive than advertised. It is a true HD screen. I couldn't stop staring at it the entire game. They are showing the players avg, obp, slugging, OPS as well as their last several AB. There is so much information on the board that it is almost overwhelming, but if you are a big stats/sports fan, it is awesome. I didn't bring a good camera because of the rain but here's a phone pic. The weather sucked. Cold, wet and windy. Most of the upper deck seemed to clear out after the 5th. Great game. Good to see Bannister battle and stick it out for 5.
Last edited by MightyKC on Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington ... I'm asking you to believe in yours." - Barack Obama
I was all over the city during the game today! From the KC Live! courtyard, to the Plaza, to the Sports Complex, I saw it all!
The fountains are blue. The fans were wearing blue. And after being in cold for 3+ hours, the fans turned blue! :P Everywhere you looked in Kansas City, you saw Royal Blue, Powder Blue, Jayhawk Blue, and even some Brigade Blue!
To put it simply, Kansas City looked a lot like this today:
I'm not ready to freak out on Guillen just yet, but he better get his act together. It won't take the KC fans long to turn against him. His throw to home early in the game was just sad.
The stadium is going to really turn out awesome I think. It will be fun to watch it change over the season.
AllThingsKC wrote:
I was all over the city during the game today! From the KC Live! courtyard, to the Plaza, to the Sports Complex, I saw it all!
The fountains are blue. The fans were wearing blue. And after being in cold for 3+ hours, the fans turned blue! Everywhere you looked in Kansas City, you saw Royal Blue, Powder Blue, Jayhawk Blue, and even some Brigade Blue!
To put it simply, Kansas City looked a lot like this today:
Whats with all of the retro-Padres fans in the Crossroads?
One thing that is always missing in any discussion of what is a good sports town is this type of thing. The Diamondbacks had their home opener yesterday, and if you didn't open the sports page, there would be nothing to let you know. No red Tuesday, nobody was wearing red, let alone D-backs stuff, beyond those who regularly do. There was no buzz, nobody taking off work, nothing.
phxcat wrote:
One thing that is always missing in any discussion of what is a good sports town is this type of thing. The Diamondbacks had their home opener yesterday, and if you didn't open the sports page, there would be nothing to let you know. No red Tuesday, nobody was wearing red, let alone D-backs stuff, beyond those who regularly do. There was no buzz, nobody taking off work, nothing.
Why is that?
phxcat wrote:
Whats with all of the retro-Padres fans in the Crossroads?
What's really weird is that all of those retro-Padres fans were from Arizona!
AllThingsKC wrote:Here are some pics from the P&L District during the game. The place was packed!!! &&&
The weather wasn't cooperating much, just dreary, damp, cold. I think the fact that that many folks did show up is something in itself actually, if it had been a really nice day I could see it being a decent crowd. I've already heard some friends talking about heading down to watch a Royals game in the district.
KC Region is all part of the same animal regardless of state and county lines.
Think on the Regional scale.
](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
Everywhere you looked in Kansas City, you saw Royal Blue, Powder Blue, Jayhawk Blue, and even some Brigade Blue!
