A highly-anticipated series of contests for regional domination between our beloved Kansas City Royals and the Denver-dwelling Colorado Rockies kicks off tonight. After enjoying a miraculous late-season surge last year, the Rockies overachieved all the way to the World Series in which they were deemed the biggest losers of 2007. The funk is still very much with them, as they have regressed well below the mean into a handful of teams worse than the Royals in 2008. Still, the Denverites have had more to crow about than Kansas Citians lately. The Broncos have won more Super Bowl titles and played in more Super Bowl games than the Kansas City Chiefs. The much younger Rockies have won a division title and an NL pennant since the strike despite the laws of physics working against them while the Royals have barely topped the .500 mark twice. The Colorado Avalanche has been a model NHL team. The once-impressive minor league Kansas City Blades went under several years ago. Denver has the better airport by far and a more active and interesting downtown, even with the opening of the Power & Light District in KC. Denverites get to enjoy the scenic Rocky mountains while Kansas Citians share their sense of community by displaying or mocking Calvin pissing on rival truckmaker logo decals and truck nutz. Kansas City can heat up this should-be-regular rivalry by winning this series for temporary regional domination against the Rockies. In the first game, Brainy Bannister will have his chance to school the CR lineup with a series of physics lessons in a real atmosphere while Jeff Francis will try to hold off the likes of (TPJ or Aviles?) and Gload without the assistance of a humidor. And, as long as Kansas City isn't quite as bad as Denver at something, there will be mild rejoicing.