While we consider how much Steve Larud will be like Jason LaRue

It is college football's championship saturday and I thought that it might warm our hearts to have a prediction contest about who the league champions will be from the following games.  Have fun!

1) Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh

2) Alabama vs. Florida

3) West Virginia vs. Rutgers

4) Houston vs. East Carolina

5) Georgia Tech vs. Clemson

6) Texas vs. Nebraska

Tie breaker:  in the Kanza Bowl, being played this afternoon in beautiful Topeka, KS

7) University of Nebraska-Omaha vs. West Texas A&M

I don't remember seeing anything like this on RR, so here goes.  Please vote on your feelings for the World Series.  I don't think anyone could describe it as being compelling here in the Midwest, but I am interested in people's perspectives.  Do they root for a team because of love or hate?  Are they interested in this Series since it involves to East Coast teams who won't even cross overhead here in the Midwest?  Am I  at 75 words yet?  Apparently not.  Here goes:

I thought it would be a good idea to post an update for the Race for the K, the race for who on the team will end up with the most K's at the end of the season.  Of course, Xaq should win going away, but the interesting race is for second place.  Gil was almost a shoe-in before he started breaking down and Mike "Swing Away" Jacobs is now in second place.  Mark Teahen is making a strong move with a swingtastic set of games right before the break.  I predict a close race right until the end and this will keep me interested for the rest of the season.

Player        K’s
Zack        129
Gil            81
Jacobs     82 (257 AB’s)
Miggy       75 (225 AB’s)
Teabag    71 (313 AB’s)
Banny      62

The Royals have an interesting situation that I am calling the Race for the K.  It pits K monster Zack Greinke, K getter Gil Meche, and surprising K getter Brian Bannister vs. the hack-tastic line-up of regular players.  As of tonight, here is how the race stands.

Player        K’s
Zack        129
Gil            81
Jacobs     78 (247 AB’s)
Miggy       73 (213 AB’s)
Teabag    66 (296 AB’s)
Banny      55

I think Jacobs and Miggy will breeze past Gil.  Zack is probably out of reach.  Teahen is trying his best to catch up.  Is this an indication of the hacktastic approach or an inability of our pitchers to strike people out?

Wednesday, the Royals played an evening game, so Mrs. Buddyball and I spent the day doing some sightseeing things in Phoenix, with a plan to return to the hotel in time for a swim and time to leave early for the game to walk around the complex and purchase some new Royal gear for Buddyball.  So, at about 3:30, just as we were thinking about getting ready to leave poolside, the fire alarms go off in our hotel.  People started pouring out of the hotel and 9 firetrucks showed up, along with other various emergency vehicles.  There was a fire in a utility room on the 4th floor, but this meant that nobody could get into the hotel.  We sat there, watching time tick on by and weren't able to get in until 5:30.  Fortunately nobody got hurt and nobody's stuff was damaged, it just smelled smokey and there was a little water damage in some of the rooms.  We avoided all of that.  However, with traffic at that time of day, we didn't get to the game until the bottom of the 2nd, we missed the good Xaq pitching.   However, not all was lost.  We got to see TPJ gound out with runners in scoring position (twice).  The third inning we saw  the sequence that Mellinger described in his recent post.  The ball that got by him that was ruled a hit was a bad play by him and a bad call by the scorer.  He took a step or two to his right and it went right under his glove.  I would have expected more of an effort for someone fighting for a position on the club.  The official error was a nice effort to get to the ball, but the throw was pretty far off.  I don't know if it affected Xaq, or if he was tired, or if he was experimenting, but it went to hell pretty quickly.  He was still throwing 93-94 heaters with good control.  Anyway, after he was done, he walked out to the bullpen to leave.  Our seats were in section 121 and we were in the second row, on the aisle.  He stopped 10 feet from us to sign some autographs and a crowd quickly formed.  He was very nice to do it, continued to sign even though the inning had started and looked up to make sure he got everyone.  I was totally unprepared for this, and when he was almost done, he was looking around like he would still sign something, so I pulled out my ticket and he signed that.  I was glad I thought of that because a little girl who was sitting behind me saw me do this and she did the same thing.  She was panicking a bit about not having anything to sign.  I can't emphasize how conscientious he was about doing this.  Most other players just walked on by. 

Other notes:  I continue to be impressed by Teahen and Buck.  They are hitting well.  Jacobs seems to be in control in the infield.  He makes the calls on popups and goes out to the mound on all visits from the dugout.  I like Hamulack.  He seems to have good stuff and he's got those George Brett high socks.

I like Surprise stadium better than the brand new Camelback Road stadium.  The field looks to be just as nice, but the atmosphere seems better for the Royals and the scoreboard is 1,000 x's better.  At Camelback, no radar gun, no  info on players, almost like a high school scoreboard.  Surprising that the Dodgers or ChiSox would settle for that.  Also, they charge $5 to park there, no charge at the Royals stadium.  Also, they have a better selection of beers.  I had a Stella.

After sitting in the bright sun, beating on the back of my head and neck this afternoon, I have the following observations/comments.

Gil Meche > Bartolo Colon:  Meche looked great for 3 innings.  He was pitching with good pace, keeping the Sox hitters off balance, and getting lots of groundouts.  The fourth was a different deal.  He looked like he still had good stuff, but wasn't locating pitches well.  It really looked like he lost his focus.  Maybe the big lead is responsible.  Bartolo Colon was just awful.

Teahen was awesome.  His homer was a no-doubter and he had other hits.  He was making good contact.  Even more, though, Buddyball had forgotten how strong his arm was.  He had a couple of lasers from right field today.  He had a very good day.

It was good to see the lefty-heavy lineup continued to hit left pitching.

Mitch Maier's homer was a rocket shot.  It cleared the fence and the berm in right field.  He really couldn't have hit the ball any better or harder.

Billy Butler has two forgetable at bats.  First a weak grounder that he really didn't run out and then he looked bad in striking out in his second at bat.  Maybe it was the heat and the fact that the game was pretty much out of reach.

Kyle Farnsworth throws the ball fast, but pitches really s-l-o-w-l-y.  The whole pace of the game came down when he came in.

I actually saw TPJ take a ball!

I have never seen a Royals team take so many walks.  OBP monsters!

Mrs. Buddyball and I will be driving to Sedona tomorrow, but will watch the battle for Grass Creek on Wednesday.

I recently celebrated my birthday and received one of the best presents in memory.  It is right up there with my Richie Ashburn model left-handed baseball glove I received as a  youngster.  I opened up an envelope and there were two plane tickets to Phoenix for me and my wife, reservations for three nights in the Glendale Hampton Inn, and two sets of tickets for Royals games - March 16 against the ChiSox (at their stadium) and March 18 against the Mariners in Surprise.  I will get to see the preview of the Battle for Grass Creek!  This was a wonderful surprise and now I will need to go back and look at old posts as to what to do when visiting Phoenix.  Any new ideas?