Sports & Recreation >>

• Best Golden Parachute
  Joe Posnanski's Move to Sports Illustrated
  It's a tough time for sports journalists in Kansas City. What once was a dream job for sports-hungry youngsters now involves covering surly athletes playing for last-place teams and living in fear that the next pay cut or job loss will be theirs. This year, however, The Kansas City Star's Joe... More >>
• Best Sports Personality (4 Comments)
  Nick Wright
  Many of the microphone jockeys covering local sports are old enough to be our local pro players' grandfathers. By contrast, Nick Wright was just 22 in 2007 when he signed with 610 Sports, KC's perennial sports-talk underdog. In the spring, Wright was promoted from nighttime snooze talker to the... More >>
• Best Sports Blogger
  Rany Jazayerli
  What may have been the most disappointing team in the history of the Kansas City Royals had a eulogist when Rany Jazayerli — "dermatologist by day, baseball writer by night, pathetic Royals fan all the time" — analyzed the hope (18-11 start!) and the horror that made up the 2009... More >>
• Best Trade
  Tony Gonzalez Dealt to Atlanta
  Tony Gonzalez could have quit football and waited for the day when the Pro Football Hall of Fame called and asked for his jacket size. But the star tight end parted ways with the Chiefs instead. Gonzalez's "get mine" attitude had begun to show through his No. 88 jersey. He pouted after a game in... More >>
• Best Reason to Be Optimistic About the Royals
  The Amateur Draft
  The only piece of good news about this baseball season is that few of this year's Royals will be on the roster in 2011. And though we mourn the money squandered on the likes of Jose Guillen, Kyle Farnsworth or Mike Jacobs, some of Dayton Moore's expenditures will reap actual dividends for the... More >>
• Best Run (1 Comment)
  Hospital Hill Run
  Runner's World magazine included the Hospital Hill Run on a list of the most daunting hills in the country. For many runners, daunting is synonymous with necessary. Sure enough, Hospital Hill sold all of its slots a few days before this year's race took place in June. Punishing inclines aren't... More >>
• Best Rugby Team (1 Comment)
  The Kansas City Blues
  The Blues didn't have the best 2008-09 season. But they didn't have the worst, either. Out of five West Division 1 Northern League teams, the club ended up third, with an even record of 3-3. But one season does not a club make, and what this one lacks in victory, it makes up for in history. The... More >>
• Best Beer League
  Amateur Softball association
  Nothing scratches the itch for amateur athletics quite like softball, and the metro's Amateur Softball Association has scratched Kansas City proud. What makes the association worthy of praise — apart from that beautifully endless string of weekend games from spring through fall — is... More >>
• Best Zumba Class
  Jeanee Duval
  Zumba is the name for an aerobics class that combines many styles of dance moves, including modern, Latin, West African and hip-hop. Though no actual dance experience is required, some local studios offer a Very Serious Zumba Experience. Their members wear official Zumba gear and glare at... More >>
• Best Bowler (1 Comment)
  Ollie Harbin
  Bowling a perfect game — 300 — doesn't mean what it used to mean. To make customers feel good about rolling a few games, bowling-alley owners oil the lanes in a way that keeps balls from sliding off course. But it's still an accomplishment — especially if you're 81 years old.... More >>
• Best Dog Park
  Gregory O. Grounds Park
  One day, a group of dog lovers in and around Blue Springs met with that city's Parks and Recreation director, Roscoe Righter. The topic: an off-leash dog park. The pet owners were giving their spiel when Righter pulled out a folder and said he had been working on the idea for years. Ultimately,... More >>
• Best Bet
  $3 Craps at Isle of Capri
  Casinos build a mathematical advantage into their games. But for a few hours a day, Isle of Capri offers a wager that evens the odds. From 9 a.m. to noon seven days a week, the Isle allows bets of $3 at the craps table. (The standard minimum is $5.) A $3 bet placed on the 5 or the 9 pays $4.50,... More >>
• Best Sports Documentaries
  Metro Sports
  The pro-wrestling stars of yesteryear returned in April to Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas, for a screening of Metro Sports' documentary KC on the Mat. The film looked back on Central States Wrestling and an era that made stars out of Harley Race, Bulldog Bob Brown and Rufus R. Jones, when... More >>
• Best Broadcast Team
  FSN's Coverage of the Royals
  Baseball's season is long, but it's even longer if your team is perpetually mediocre. An announcing team's challenge is to make the season feel shorter, entertaining fans in spite of the schedule's tedium. And Royals announcers must also be entertaining when the team is depressingly shoddy. KC's... More >>
• Best Sportswriter
  Candace Buckner
  We don't see Candace Buckner's byline in The Star's sports section nearly as often as we'd like. Covering high-school sports, Buckner's columns don't get the top-of-the-page placement and the hype and glory of Jason Whitlock's, and Buckner isn't likely to leave anytime soon for a job at Sports... More >>
• Best High-School Athlete
  James White
  On April 17 at the Kansas Relays, James White, a junior at Grandview High School, jumped over a bar set at 7 feet 3-1/4 inches. His competitors stood in awe. The jump bettered the second-place finisher by an astonishing 5 inches. The state record (7 feet 1-1/4 inches) also lay in ruins by the... More >>
• Best College Athlete
  Danielle McCray
  Olathe East High School alum Danielle McCray, now a senior at the University of Kansas, didn't just earn First Team All-Big 12 honors last season, leading the women's basketball team with an average 21.6 points (ranking second in the Big 12 and eighth in the NCAA) and 7.7 rebounds per game and... More >>
• Best Pro Athlete
  Zack Greinke
  No other professional athlete in Kansas City generates a buzz like David Glass' golden goose, Zack Greinke. The Royals hurler gave hope to the long-suffering fans of the boys in powder blue that this year was going to be different. Greinke piled up wins and strikeouts with a breathtaking ERA.... More >>
• Best Coach
  Mike Anderson
  Two mediocre seasons of Mike Anderson's fast-paced basketball had Missouri Tigers fans wondering if the stink of Quin Snyder would ever come off the basketball team that Norm Stewart had made a contender. Year three for Anderson was supposed to be more of the same, with a quiet finish in the... More >>
• Best Performance by a Senior
  Tom Watson
  Kansas City's sports are at their nadir. It has been more than a decade since the Chiefs or the Royals won a playoff game, let alone a championship. Most of the time, the metro is trapped in a loop of hopeless mediocrity (or worse). But on occasion, a sport lifts our hopes high ... before... More >>