Posted
by Ben Palosaari
on Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 1:16 PM
Kei Kamara: Prank winner.
Sporting Kansas City fans surely miss star forward and crowd favorite Kei Kamara. The club loaned him to the English team Norwich City before the Major League Soccer season began. And Kamara must have known Sporting fans are dying to get him back, because he burned them but good on Monday.
Kamara tweeted a photo (after the jump) of a plane ticket and indicated he would be back in Kansas City in eight hours. It was, of course, April Fools' Day. Psych.
The Royals rank as the 29th most valuable MLB team.
Posted
by Ben Palosaari
on Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 12:16 PM
The Royals aren't worth all that much.
The Royals had a blistering spring training, which might give some fans hope that this is the year they break through and, at the very least, top the .500 mark. The team's promising youthful core, though, isn't doing much to goose the team's value.
In its annual list of what Major League Baseball teams are worth, Forbes ranks the Royals at 29th. The magazine says the club is worth $457 million.
Posted
by Ben Palosaari
on Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 10:28 AM
On Monday afternoon, the University of Missouri-Kansas City announced that it had poached Louisville assistant basketball coach Kareem Richardson to be the head coach of the men's team. Well, poached might be a strong word because Richardson has spent his career hopping around from job to job.
Richardson's travels have seen him help guide some fairly high-profile programs as well as a couple of reclamation projects like UMKC. Before working under Rick Pitino at Louisville, Richardson, 38, was an assistant at Xavier on a team that went to the Sweet 16. This will be his second stint with the Roos, after spending the 2007-08 season as a UMKC assistant.
Posted
by Ben Palosaari
on Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 2:46 PM
Sluggerrrr was clearly thinking with his other wiener.
How could you, Sluggerrr? Shaken Royals fans have been trying to come to terms with a photo that surfaced over the weekend of the team's lion mascot getting a lap dance from a naked woman. This is surely the biggest betrayal of fan trust in team history.
A guy named John O'Connor tweeted the offending image (an extremely not-safe-for-work photo; look for it after the jump, if you want to sully your eyes) to Deadspin a few days ago, and the sports news site posted it Sunday. It was reportedly snapped at a bachelor party five years ago.
Dempsey will lead the Americans against Jamaica in KCK.
The road of the U.S. men's national team to the 2014 FIFA World Cup will pass through Sporting Park. It was announced yesterday that the U.S. soccer squad's final qualifying game against Jamaica will be held at Sporting Park on Friday, October 11 (the time has not been determined).
"Sporting Park has become a great venue for all fans and the U.S. National Team. The energy and noise here is unrivaled, and the atmosphere for the World Cup qualifier on October 11th will be incredible," said Sporting CEO Robb Heineman in a release.
Posted
by Ben Palosaari
on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 9:09 AM
Whatever dulls the pain, Truman.
There's no denying that it was an up-and-down season for Mizzou men's basketball. At one point, the Tigers were ranked No. 7. But they were bounced after one game in the SEC Tournament and were given a nine-seed in the NCAA Tournament. A decided meh campaign.
And that's why the Tigers' performance in a second-round game against Colorado State wasn't too surprising. The Tigers were shoved around, didn't play much defense, and their best shooters never quite caught fire.
Posted
by Ben Palosaari
on Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 10:34 AM
Is Jimmy Gobble worthy of the HOF?
What is going on with this year's voting for the Royals Hall of Fame? The museum has enshrined 24 former Royals greats (or pretty goods), and every other year the team opens voting for new members to the fans. As with all online voting, the process is prone to strange results and possible rigging. And as we noted in 2011, the HOF's standards for appearing on the ballot are woefully low.
The 2013 ballot is here, and the current vote tallies are pretty screwy. Bo Jackson, Royals legend, perhaps the only member of the team to ever be a nationwide cultural icon and subject of a recent ESPN documentary, is a distant second as of this morning. And Jimmy Gobble fans might be trying to stuff the ballot box.
Pro athletes seemingly smoke only in the movies. And even then, it's more for comedic effect (see Rhys Ifans in The Replacements) than a dramatic confession. So it's a bit shocking that Sporting KC goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen announced to MLSSoccer.com that he quit smoking on December 31, 2012. In the candid interview, Nielsen told the website that it was "never something he was proud of...that's why it's something I would sneak out to do, especially hiding it from the kids."
At the same time, he also broke up with Diet Coke. The MLS goalkeeper of the year in 2012 just gave up the two biggest vices in his life, which doesn't bode well for the Chicago Fire. Sporting KC's (1-1) home opener is Saturday at 2 p.m. against its biggest rival.
The Kansas City Chiefs have been busy since free agency began Tuesday. Today they added cornerback Sean Smith, and they finally gave the crowd what it wanted, cutting quarterback Matt Cassel.
For the past several days, it has felt like anybody who drives over to 1 Arrowhead Drive is leaving with a new contract. Donnie Avery, Mike DeVito, Dunta Robinson and Anthony Fasano have all become Chiefs in the past 72 hours. And another new face, Alex Smith, was introduced at a press conference yesterday, where he told fans that there was no place else he'd rather be. It would take a hard heart not to feel heartened. But there has been a lot of hardship over the past few years. How have you felt about the Chiefs' offseason moves to date?
Posted
by Ben Palosaari
on Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 2:01 PM
All right, Chiefs fans, it's time to quit whining and climb aboard the Alex Smith bandwagon. As expected, the Chiefs released quarterback Matt Cassel on Thursday, cementing Smith's role as the team's new starter. The team also added former Mizzou quarterback Chase Daniel as Smith's backup earlier this week.
Cassel came to the Chiefs in 2009 following a strong final season with the New England Patriots, but he mostly never lived up to his potential. His best season with the Chiefs was 2010 when he threw for 3,116 yards, 27 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. He was owed $7.5 million for the 2013 season, The Star reports. He played in nine games last year and missed some time with a concussion.
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