Sports: Score! >>

• Best Athlete
  Maurice Greene
  Kansas City has had its share of sports stars. Chiefs QB Len Dawson, Royals all-star George Brett and golfer Tom Watson probably head the list. But when it comes to raw athletic ability, there's nothing more pure than the 100-meter dash, an Olympic event that lasts 10 seconds. It's the grown-up... More >>
• Best Team Player
  Tony Richardson
  Oh, the glory of a running-back controversy. Last season, Priest Holmes was on his way to another freakishly great season when he popped his knee. In stepped the sometimes-grumbling backup Larry Johnson, and the team's vaunted offense didn't skip a beat. Which makes us wonder who the key player... More >>
• Best Chief
  Willie Roaf
  To see Chiefs offensive lineman Willie Roaf walk from the sidelines to the huddle is like watching an oversized war veteran march in a Veterans Day parade with a metal plate in his leg. He leans his great bulk to one side and then the other and hardly bends his knees. But after the snap, when... More >>
• Best Royal
  Ambiorix Burgos
  Royals relief pitcher Ambiorix Burgos made a hell of a first impression. On May 8, not three weeks after he was called up from the Royals' AA farm team in Wichita, the 21-year-old was brought in to face the Baltimore Orioles with the bases loaded and only one out in the seventh inning. The... More >>
• Best T-Bone
  Rick Prieto
  Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's approach, documented in the best-selling book Moneyball, turned "a walk is as good as a hit" from an often-ignored aphorism into gospel. One of its most faithful proponents at any level of baseball is T-Bones centerfielder Rick Prieto, who boosted his... More >>
• Best Wizard
  Preki
  The Wizards' Preki has had a rough couple of seasons, but he's proved he can persevere. He's 42 years old -- a relic in the world of professional soccer, which now offers multimillion-dollar sponsorships to teenage kickers. His stats in 2004 were dismal: two surgeries, zero goals. At the same... More >>
• Best Race Car Driver
  Carl Edwards
  This season, 26-year-old Carl Edwards is getting more track time than most NASCAR drivers, speeding through full schedules in the Busch and Cup series, the sport's two pre-eminent leagues. The Columbia, Missouri, native owes much of that success to good showings in front of his hometown crowd at... More >>
• Best College Athlete
  Christian Moody
  The Jayhawks' Christian Moody is not, as proclaimed by overzealous announcer Billy Packer, the best walk-on player in college basketball history. (That would be Jeff Hornacek.) He wasn't even the best walk-on in his own conference last year, with Texas Tech's Ronald Ross taking that honor. That... More >>
• Best Female Athlete, Team Sport
  Josi Lima
  Unlike her near-namesake Jose Lima of the Kansas City Royals, Brazilian-born Kansas Jayhawk Josi Lima is having an outstanding year. The 6-foot senior earned Newcomer of the Year honors in 2002, when she also scored the first of her three All Big 12 mentions. In 2005, she might graduate to... More >>
• Best Female Athlete, Individual Performance
  Alisha Robinson, Missouri Tigers
  Many sports enthusiasts appreciate gymnastics only when medals are on the line, but the University of Missouri-Columbia draws impressive crowds to its meets even during non-Olympic years. Its annual Cat Classic is the eighth-best-attended gymnastics event in the nation, and Alicia Robinson has... More >>
• Best Coach
  Rich Zvosec
  Rich Zvosec's fourth year leading the UMKC Kangaroos started miserably. The team went 0-7. But in January, the 'Roos got their act together and ripped off an 11-game winning streak. Excitement buzzed around the program, culminating when more than 7,000 people found their way to Municipal... More >>
• Best Throwback Athlete
  Matt Stairs
  The Royals' Matt Stairs might be the only player in the league that steroid testers could exonerate without requiring a sample. That's partly because of his physique (5-feet-9 inches tall, 215 pounds) and partly because that's not the way "the Professional Hitter" does business. Stairs eschews... More >>
• Best Sports Role Model
  Wayne Simien
  Former Jayhawks forward Wayne Simien became the state's most notable export after the Miami Heat selected him in the first round of the draft this summer. He exemplifies the idea that homegrown athletes should finish college before jumping to the pros. The 6-foot-9-inch baller workshopped his... More >>
• Best Former Chief
  Christian Okoye
  The most mellifluous phrase in Chiefs history is "Christian Okoye, the Nigerian Nightmare, from Azusa Pacific." Okoye, a 6-foot-3-inch, 260-pound battering ram, didn't touch a football until age 23, but he retired as the Chiefs' all-time leading rusher, a two-time Pro Bowler enshrined in the... More >>
• Best Former Royal
  Frank White
  During the 1970s and '80s, Royals second baseman Frank White gave inspiration to Little Leaguers who weren't the best hitters or the fastest. White found a way to get a glove on almost every ball hit to the right side of the infield, however fast it skipped off the slick AstroTurf. Over 18... More >>
• Best Reason for a Royals Fan to Have Hope
  Young Bucks in the Bullpen
  The Royals resemble the Majors' own Bad News Bears, so it makes sense that the team thrives when it reduces matchups to Little League-regulation, six-inning affairs. For example, in the game that ended the squad's awful losing streak, starting pitcher Mike Wood trusted his slim lead to... More >>
• Best Reason for a Chiefs Fan to Have Hope
  Draft-Day Defense
  The 2003 Chiefs were so unfathomably atrocious on defense that management apparently decided that the law of averages would ensure improvement, even without roster moves. Last year's team defied convention, engaging in another seasonlong struggle with missed tackles, coverage lapses, dropped... More >>
• Best Defense
  Dogfightin' Dames
  Over the past year, the Kansas City Roller Warriors' Bionics and Dogfightin' Dames have revived the sport of roller derby in Kansas City. And they did it with a sly smile. The cheerleaders? Drag queens. The scorekeeper? A dude in a bunny costume. Halftime entertainment? Break dancers and belly... More >>
• Best Expression of the KU-MU rivalry
  The Run on Bucknell T-Shirts
  Pennsylvania's Bucknell University, with its low-seeded team of Potsies and Ralph Malphs, pulled off an improbable upset when it edged out mighty Kansas in the first round of the 2005 NCAA men's basketball tournament. For many Missouri fans, who experienced a basketball season marked by various... More >>
• Best Free Sporting Event
  Maple Woods Community College Baseball
  Of the Major League Baseball players who went to junior colleges, none are more famous than Albert Pujols, who mashed for a season at Maple Woods Community College in the Northland before the St. Louis Cardinals drafted him. Maple Woods may not produce another star as bright as Pujols, but... More >>
• Best Sports Venue
  Municipal Auditorium
  Built in the 1930s, Municipal Auditorium is like a natural beauty who needs little makeup. Recent renovations to the art-deco landmark in downtown Kansas City cost a mere $3.8 million. The city got a nice return on its investment in 2005; the 9,782-seat facility hosted the Big 12 women's... More >>
• Best Sports Bar
  810 Zone
  Flashy and vast, 810 Zone isn't a community-oriented bar, the kind of hole in the wall where neighborhood regulars exult in collective vicarious triumph while watching the same game on numerous televisions. Instead, it's the only destination for metro-area sports fans with unorthodox... More >>
• Best Sports Talk Show
  Between the Lines With Kevin Kietzman
  Kevin Kietzman, host of Between the Lines on WHB 810, had a good year. Last November, Sports Illustrated mentioned him in a roundup of the country's most significant sports-talk shows. Then, in March, his afternoon-drive rival, Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock, pulled a Jack Paar and... More >>
• Best Announcer
  Ryan Lefebvre
  The Royals have lost at least 100 games in three of the last four seasons. So for the team's broadcasters, maintaining an appropriate level of enthusiasm is a challenge. Radio voice Ryan Lefebvre finds just the right balance: He's upbeat without sounding oblivious to the horror. The son of a... More >>
• Best Sports Blog
  Rob and Rany on the Royals
  The best analysis of Kansas City's (allegedly) Major League Baseball club appears at Rob and Rany on the Royals, a blog written by a couple of expats who keep in touch with their favorite team via satellite: Rob Neyer, a Bill James protˇgˇ who grew up in this area but now contributes to ESPN... More >>