Spring, of all seasons most gratuitous,
Is fold of untaught flower, is race of water,
Is earth's most multiple, excited daughter
-from "Spring", Philip Larkin
Its finally starting to look like spring here in the Midwest (though it won't last) meaning that while the "student" athletes on the hardwood will dominate the Sports section for the next three weeks, its actually possible to imagine baseball being played. To this end, I hope everyone is taking in Grudz69's (with his wife's help!) posts from Surprise (here and here). Its nice to get an "on the ground" perspective after mostly following Spring Training through boxscores and hard to interpret "stories" about such and such being in great shape, looking for a new beginning, etc.
I just hope Greg Oden's studies aren't too adversely effected by all the basketball this month. Ohh wait, he's leaving school and could legitimately not attend a single class this semester. Its a damn shame that this might tarnish the stellar reputation of The Place Where Jocks Spend 1-4 Wonderful Years.
And what would March be without another clump of dirt on the grave of Justin Huber? To the extent to which feeling bad for a professional athlete isn't a supreme waste of one's stores of empathy, I feel bad for Huber. Much like those younger sons in the days of primogeniture, he's an outcast in his own society, caught in an organization that doesn't believe in him and has assiduously endeavored to never play him. For his sake, I hope the Royals just trade him, yet he may have too much value to be worth trading, especially as a cheap backup which can be stored in the minors for awhile. We always hear about the importance of character from one side of the equation (ownership), but never from the other. The Royals are content to severly limit Huber's playing time and earnings potential on the 5% chance that they need him at some point. I know its a business, but it can't only work one way, with ownership getting a moral pass while the players get ripped at every turn... For the millionth time, let me just say I hope something can be arranged that allows both parties to move on.
Meanwhile Alan Eskew continues to crank out Meche stories over at KCROYALS.com. It looks like the official site is in good hands. I only have two questions:
1. Who writes the Around the Horn in KC blog?
and...
2. Why is the Star promoting this "Adopting the Royals" blog to no end on its website? This baffles me. The guy who is writing for the blog seems nice enough and I'm glad to see more people jumping into the Royals blogosphere, but seriously, why?!?!?! There is absolutely no hook to this story, and even if there was, where was this guy in 2004? 2005? 2006? And so on. There's more buzz around the Royals than there has been in at least three years, and now you adopt them? How novel. Beyond being just random as hell and smacking of some insider/cross-promotion thing its also a bizarre (probably unintended) slight to the Royals blogosphere and its readers. Forget this site, there are some damn good Royals blogs out there (Royals Retro, Royals Authority, Royal Reflections, Royales With Cheese, The Daily Lancer and on and on...) that the choose to ignore in favor of Adopting the Royals. Does anyone have any idea why this is going on?
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