With all this depressing talk of a sweep at the hands/claws of the the Tigers, lots of you probably have heard that this is the 25th anniversary of George Brett's famous pine tar home run off Goose Gossage.  A quick check of Google News shows a bunch of articles and clips talking about the game.

Here are a few articles that I found interesting (there are lots more):

A New York Times article

Sam Mellinger's Star article

MLB.com article which also has a video clip of the homer, Billy Martin's protest, Tim McClellan's decision, and the hullabaloo that followed.

I was four years old at the time and didn't really pay too much attention to the Royals until I watched the 1984 playoffs on a little black-and-white TV, so I have no real recollection of the incident. Does anyone here remember that game (which the Royals likely won, then lost, then won)?

As you probably know, George Carlin died yesterday, and since there wasn't a topic dedicated to him yet, I figured I'd start one.  The people on this site are often pretty funny and adept with words, so I assume many people here miss Carlin as well.

Since this is a baseball site, perhaps we should remember Carlin's contributions to sports humor. Carlin had several sports-related routines, such as the differences between baseball and football, how to improve sports such as football (leave the injured on field!  They're always talking about how it's a big war going on out there. Fine, let the Red Cross come around and pick these a**holes up. )and what is and is not a sport (Sailing is a way to get somewhere .  Riding a bus isn't a  sport, why the f*** should sailing be a sport?)

Now two of my favorite comedians are dead, Mitch Hedberg and George Carlin.  Who's next, Bob Newhart? (He's only 78, please let him live!)

When was the last time a game that wasn't opening day sold out?  I wasn't able to get tickets to last night's game (got some at the stadium for tonight, though).  I would guess that 50 - 55,000+ people wanted tickets last night.  Tonight's game is probably going to be close to selling out, too.

I remember going to games 20 years ago in the summer that would occasionally be sellouts, but a Tuesday night game in KC, wow!  Guess it's the George Brett shirts combining with the Yankees...a perfect storm?

Maybe this has been done fairly recently, but if it hasn't, I think it would be an interesting discussion. The Royals have beaten up on NL opponents for the last couple of years, and as most of us remember, were offered the chance to switch leagues about ten years ago.  

What do you think the Royals' record would be if they and the Brewers had switched places prior to the season? (I'm asking prior to this season since the Royals would still have basically the same roster as now.)

Would they be around .500, in playoff contention, as bad as now? What would the ideal "typical" batting order be (we can at least imagine Buddy Bell has one, right)?  Would our heroic manager be saner in the NL or would his lineups be even wilder?  

BB sample...May 18 at Colorado
DeJesus cf
Grudzielanek 2b
Teahen rf
Sweeney 1b
Brown lf
buck c
gordon 3b
pena ss
pitcher slot (duckworth)

Somehow this lineup seems to make sense, for the most part, especially if German was put in Grudz's spot. Gordon should probably move up now, but that wasn't bad at the time given, Gordo's struggles. Of course the lineup changed the next day, and the Royals struggled offensively.

Even with Bell, I'm thinking they could be around .500 (perhaps on the sunny side) in the NL. Seven more wins wouldn't be too far-fetched, would it?