Sports & Recreation >>

• Best 9/11 Tribute
  National Bodybuilding Championship
  Before all the flexing and posing started, the organizers of the National Bodybuilding Championship on September 11 invited a few members of the armed forces onto the stage for a brief ceremony to recognize the sad anniversary. The servicemen and women received medals, the audience sang along... More >>
• Best Opening Day Ever
  April 4, 2004: Royals 9, White Sox 7
  The 2004 season began ominously for the Royals. Opening-day starter Brian Anderson was hit early and often as the Chicago White Sox built a 5-1 lead, and the team still trailed 7-3 in the bottom of the ninth. But on a serene, 65-degree day in front of a sellout crowd, the Royals pulled even... More >>
• Best Sports Star
  Kay Barnes
  Kay Barnes' second term as mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, is playing out like an extended victory lap. Earlier this year, Barnes scored when voters approved a mammoth bond issue. Then, in August, Barnes triumphed again when citizens roaringly registered their endorsement of her... More >>
• Best Chief
  Tony Richardson
  We've never heard Chiefs fullback Tony Richardson complain. Never heard him whine about his paycheck. Never heard him say he should get the ball more or that the ref made a bad call or that the team's kicker shouldn't kick the ball out of bounds or that the defense should be able to force the... More >>
• Best Reason to Buy 2005 Royals Season Tickets
  Allard Baird's Midseason Steals
  When decrying misuse of the peer-to-peer music sharing system, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said, "P-to-p does not stand for permission to pilfer." But someone apparently gave Royals General Manager Allard Baird a license to commit larceny. When his team tanked, he started accumulating... More >>
• Best Rookie
  Zack Greinke
  Major League Baseball teams nowadays draft fewer pitchers straight out of high school. Pitching is such a fragile art, the thinking goes, that it's wise to let the colleges separate the healthy from the injured, the flaky from the dedicated. Every once in a while, however, a pitcher comes out of... More >>
• Best Royals Scoreboard Attraction
  Dance-Off
  Too many of the Royals' between-innings diversions rely on computer animation. Watching anthropomorphic condiments circle the bases and a baseball hop among caps three-card-monte style, one question comes to mind: Where's the heart? The dance-off, in which two randomly chosen (but usually young)... More >>
• Best College Athlete
  Brad Smith
  Because of the Maurice Clarett ruling, which prevents underclassmen from skipping out on school to pursue NFL riches, football fans can rest assured that they'll be able to watch the sport's top talents compete at the collegiate level. If Brad Smith played basketball, he probably would have... More >>
• Best You-Know-You've-Made-It-When Moment, Pro Division
  Dante Hall's Big-Time Commercial
  By the time the 2003 NFL season reached its postseason push, the Chiefs' Dante Hall had already established himself as one of the game's marquee attractions. He set an NFL record with special-teams touchdowns in four consecutive games, then showed his under-the-helmet savvy with an endearing... More >>
• Best You-Know-You've-Made-It-When Moment, College Division
  Kirk Hinrich Gets in the Game
  NCAA-team-based video games can use real college stadiums, uniforms and fight songs, but player names on jerseys are strictly forbidden. But that doesn't mean the hoopsters' images can't be used to promote the products. University of Kansas standout Kirk Hinrich appeared in one such spot for... More >>
• Best Hoop Dreams Come True
  Kareem Rush
  After two years riding pine in the NBA, Kareem Rush finally found another role with the Los Angeles Lakers: savior. Rush became the team's one-man stopgap against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, coming off the bench to go 6 for 7 from Three Point Land.... More >>
• Best Old-School Lesson
  Anthony Peeler
  When Sacramento Kings guard Anthony Peeler traded blows with the Timberwolves' Kevin Garnett in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals on May 16, Peeler -- a Paseo standout and Mizzou shooting legend -- offered the T-wolves darling and NBA endorsement playboy an ego check. It was the best... More >>
• Best Unladylike Conduct
  KU vs. MU Women's Basketball Melee
  We're not embarrassed to admit we like a good girl-fight, such as the one on January 10 at the Hearnes Center in Columbia. The women's basketball game between KU and MU was close -- KU won 55-52. It was hard to tell who started what, though MU coach Cindy Stein reportedly acknowledged that one... More >>
• Best Football Team Not Associated with the GOP
  Kansas City Blues Rugby Club
  We know there's a difference between rugby and football. But the fact that both sports involve burly men colliding with each other for the sake of an oblong ball makes us feel that rugby is football's unambitious, beer-slamming, socially awkward older brother, which, incidentally, perfectly... More >>
• Best Sports Talk Show Host
  John Renshaw
  Raised in Greensboro, North Carolina, John "The Freak" Renshaw speaks with a distinct twang. More than a Southern accent, though, separates Renshaw from Kansas City's sports-talking horde. His voice is nasal and high-pitched, a little womanly. Listening to Renshaw's show weekdays from 6 to 9... More >>
• Best Sports Radio Utility Player
  Danny Clinkscale
  Danny Clinkscale doesn't just boast a voluminous vocabulary and a droll delivery -- he's notable for his skill at many different positions. On 810's Between the Lines, he's an effectively even-keel partner for the oft-incensed Kevin Kietzman. With his play-by-play calls for the T-Bones'... More >>
• Best Q&A
  Rhonda Moss and Eric Hicks, KCSP 610
  When 61 Sports' Rhonda Moss asked Chiefs defensive end Eric Hicks last month whether the team should have added more defensive help during the offseason, it seemed like a standard setup for a rote response. Granted, the Chiefs had just suffered a brutal loss to the Carolina Panthers, but this... More >>
• Best Hotfoot
  Maurice Greene's Smokin' Shoes
  Maurice Greene might be "only" the third-fastest man in the world, but he deserves a gold medal for the year's most creative celebration. After blazing to a 9.86-second time at the Golden Spike meet on May 24, the Kansas City native yanked off his shoes as if in pain. A friend then doused the... More >>
• Best Body Builder
  Yvonne Bates
  Yvonne Bates was eight years old when her family left Cambodia; she still has nightmares about things she saw during the Vietnam War. And growing up in America wasn't easy -- she took her share of teasing and used to wish she had blond hair and blue eyes. These days, though, most of us would... More >>
• Best Samson Impression
  Pete Kelley at the Olympic Weightlifting Trials
  St. Joseph, Missouri-born Pete Kelley was ranked fourth in the nation going to the Olympic trials, held in that city's Civic Arena in front of a packed, partisan crowd. The narrow margin encompassed thousands of training hours and hundreds of hometown hopes: If he placed third at the Olympic... More >>
• Best Back Story for a Martial-Arts Instructor
  Ali Fathollahi
  Martial arts was a hobby before it was a career for Ali Fathollahi, a sixth-degree black belt who has taught Olathe cops, Sprint workers and former-Chief Marcus Allen. Before it was a hobby, martial arts helped Fathollahi acclimate to life in the United States after his family fled Iran.... More >>
• Best Place to Play Bocce
  American Sons and Daughters of Columbus
  If you learn how to play bocce from the instructions in your Restoration Hardware-issue set, you're just learning to play cricket by another name. If, however, you attend league night -- Wednesday for women, Thursday for men -- at the American Sons and Daughters of Columbus, you are becoming an... More >>
• Best Place to Walk Off the Blues
  Trolley Track Trail
  Although hammering our brain cells in a Kansas City blues bar might be the natural response to sudden misfortune, we recommend handling inner turmoil the way the Australian Aborigines did: by going for a walkabout. The 6.5 miles of the Trolley Track Trail present a highway of introspection.... More >>
• Best Place to Jog and Ponder the Nature of Infidelity
  Loose Park
  The city and the Ward Family Foundation have made Loose Park a wonderful place to walk, run, play tennis, smell roses, feed ducks and sprawl on the grass. The people watching is good, too -- even in winter. In fact, on a 30-degree Saturday, the place brings to mind a John Cheever story. A jogger... More >>
• Best Place to Jog and Daydream
  Brush Creek
  Yes, we've heard the jokes about how Brush Creek smells funny. We know that poo occasionally flows into our urban watercourse. But we still work the south side of Brush Creek by the Plaza into our exercise regimen whenever we can. We like the green vines, the midcreek water-tower fountain and... More >>
• Best Golf Course for a Quick, Cheap Round
  Minor Park
  Golfers like to pamper themselves. They buy special clothes and fancy equipment. They seek instruction. They demand finely manicured lawns. The beverage cart -- driven usually by a pretty young thing -- spares them the indignity of using a vending machine. But for some hackers, accoutrements... More >>
• Best Park for Kids
  Sheila Kemper Dietrich Park
  In today's attention-deficit-disorder-afflicted world, it takes a lot to keep a child occupied -- and even more to wear him out so he'll cooperate come bed time. That's why we love Sheila Kemper Dietrich Park. The place has everything, including the obligatory molded-plastic ramps and slides and... More >>
• Best Insect Infestation
  Powell Gardens
  Whereas most botanical gardens expend time and money on pest control, Powell Gardens openly invites entomological abnormalities, such as 25-foot ants and 200-pound grasshoppers. Like the mutant inhabitants of a petrified forest, these wooden sculptures dominate the serene landscape throughout... More >>
• Best Public Pool
  Swope Park Pool
  Swope Park Pool was dry in 2003, much as the pools at Sunnyside Park and Loose Park have been for years. But unlike the other structures, it wasn't water-free because of budget concerns or a lack of lifeguards. And it wasn't waiting out a court battle, as it did for two years in the '50s, when... More >>
• Best Dual-Purpose Facility
  Gillham Park Pool
  By day, Gillham Park Pool is an urban oasis, a free swimming hole for midtown residents. Open sporadically, with unposted hours that apparently depend on the availability of the teenage lifeguards, the pool gets so packed that only slim streams of water separate the shoulder-to-shoulder bodies.... More >>
• Best Downtown Olive Branch
  Penn Valley Park Skatepark
  Once upon a time, Queen Kay laid down her decree: There shalt be no skateboarding on city thoroughfares! Skateboarders skated anyway, with the knowledge that they were now being bad. But hark! A glimmer of light! Members of the City Planning and Development Department, neighborhood... More >>
• Best Balls
  Kansas City Dodgeball Association
  Even if Ben Stiller's Dodgeball hadn't come out this summer, it would have been a busy season for the Kansas City Dodgeball Association. But now everyone and their rubber-ball-wielding mother has challenged founder and president Dennis Bourg to a game. In addition to the usual Sunday, high-noon... More >>
• Best Place for a (Controlled) Shooting Rampage
  The Bullet Hole
  Guns are scary. Guns in a shooting range called the Bullet Hole are really sca -- oh, wait, that's not scary at all, thanks to Rick Porter, who is happy to guide the gun-shy past rows of new and used rifles and pistols (and a few rueful-looking pieces of taxidermy) to one of the Hole's 22 lanes.... More >>
• Best Place to Get Lost
  Hollis Renewal Center's Outdoor Labyrinth
  Anyone who's a fan of Black Adder or Monty Python probably believes that labyrinths existed in medieval Europe to provide comic relief -- to make a chase scene between the good guys and the bad guys more entertaining. The truth is, labyrinths were used as a spiritual tool, a way for a person to... More >>
• Best Way to Learn Something New About Kansas City
  The Historic Kansas City Foundation's Heritage Hikes
  Did you know Kansas City got its name (originally "Town of Kansas") because founders couldn't think of anything better? (They rejected "Rabbitville" and "Possumtrot.") If you'd like to learn more fascinating historical nuggets about your city but never seem to get around to borrowing that Kansas... More >>