The “Salute to the Negro League” game at Kauffman Stadium is always one I look forward to every year. Granted, the game has lost some pageantry due to MLB no longer allowing Negro League uniforms for the Royals’ annual contest (thanks, Fanatics and Rob Manfred). Thankfully, I am not alone in thinking this move by… Read More Royals String A Familiar Tune (And Series) On ‘Salute to the Negro Leagues’ Day
It’s February! This means that for the first time since November, Royals (and Major League) baseball will be played this month. Granted, I have enjoyed the NHL, WHL (part of the Canadian Hockey League), and NBA seasons (college basketball…not so much). Still, I am ready for baseball to begin, even if it will primarily be… Read More “Reporter Jottings”: Royals Rally Review; Santander and Free Agency; NLBM Museum in February
What made Buck O’Neil so important to Kansas City is not only what he meant to baseball as a manager and player of the Kansas City Monarchs, arguably the greatest baseball team in Kansas City history, but what he means to the city itself. O’Neil was not only a true ambassador to the game, especially… Read More A compilation of the best Buck O’Neil tributes from yesterday’s Hall of Fame announcement
In a mere matter of hours, the world will be transitioning from 2020 to 2021. In many ways, it feels like 2020 has been way longer than ust 365 days, but I guess that’s what happens when a society undergoes a pandemic, and experiences all kinds of social instability. Furthermore, this baseball season was a… Read More 10 Things I’ll Remember as a Royals fan from 2020
Just last week, in the wake of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, Joe Posnanski (a former Kansas City Star columnist) hosted a podcast with Negro League Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick and Royals general manager Dayton Moore. The main topic of the excellent podcast was race and baseball, specifically African-American involvement in Major League Baseball,… Read More Imagining a Royals Baseball Academy 2.0 (with the help of the Urban Youth Academy)
Without a doubt, the current #BlackLivesMatter protests sweeping the nation have kept me from focusing on much else these past few days. Normally, my focus beyond teaching and grad school is pretty saturated on Royals baseball, and yet, I have not really cared much about the current state of baseball, even with negotiations moving a… Read More An introduction to the “African-American Royals” Project
As I perused Twitter on Sunday in the midst of a Twitter meltdown in regard to the Chiefs losing to the Texans (their second loss at home in a row…the Super Bowl hopes are not looking good now, unfortunately), I stumbled upon this idea: It will be interesting to see if the Royals and the… Read More Three reasons why #MonarchsMonday would be worthwhile at the K in 2020