In honor of Buddy Bell, nothing coherent comes to my mind this morning, so lets jump through some notes and get ready for tonight's epic battle between the Royals and the Angels.
-On Friday night the Royals will honor Mark Gubicza by inducting him into the Royals Hall of Fame. In the depths of the winter, I wrote a little retrospective on Gubes, that may be worth checking out.
Does anyone remember these blue hats?
-MLB is beginning a somewhat silly promotion which asks fans of each team to vote for their HomeTown Hero out of five choices. The Royals nominees are Brett, Otis, Saberhagen, Sweeney and White. I'm not sure what the point of this is, other than to bait debates among fans (which I guess is good) but it should also provide a chance for the local Sweeney-haters to unite.
-The Royals have traded Ruben Gotay to the Mets for fellow second baseman Jeff Keppinger. Ahh, a rare challenge trade involving minor league second basemen. How sweet is the Dayton Moore era?? I'm honestly not sure why the Royals gave up on Gotay quickly; but it did fit with their familiar pattern of over-advancement and the hasty long-term evaluation of a guy playing two levels above his head. Good stuff. Back in Feb' John Sickels rated Keppinger the 12th best prospect in the Mets system.
I hope the Royals blast some Rammstein in the clubhouse tonight, as I know Buddy loves his German Death Metal. They need to come out mad as hell and ready to dominate as only they can. They need to have the killer instinct, and show no mercy against the Angels... or, at least score a run.