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Weekend Rumblings - News for August 15, 2015
Mike Sweeney will be inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame today, deservedly so. Sweeney's success came at an unfortunate time in Royals history, but he is remembered fondly.
“He treated the parking lot attendant the same way he treated Mr. Glass,” Lefebvre says. “It wasn’t phony.”
There is one other story, one that came during Sweeney’s final year in Kansas City. It was 2007, the year Zack Greinke had returned to baseball. In the previous years, Sweeney says, he and Greinke had enjoyed many long talks about baseball and life, often through tears. But this time, Greinke, in his classic fashion, had a message for Sweeney.
“Mike, you’ve had an incredible career,” Greinke said. “But I wonder how incredible a career you would have if you were selfish.”
Here are some stories of the Royals Baby Boom from last October.
Eric and Heidi, a 32-year-old nurse at Children’s Mercy Hospital, wanted a little sister for sons Kaden, 13, and Brody, 6. They conceived right off the bat and decided to name her Everly Royal, a nod to the team’s “Forever Royal” slogan. Everly’s wardrobe includes Royals blue headbands, KC onesies and booties decorated with tiny gold crowns.
It’s too soon to tell whether the excitement surrounding the Royals’ historic postseason run resulted in a local baby boom. Kansas and Missouri birth numbers for July 2015 — the month most 2014 World Series babies were born — won’t be final until next year. North Kansas City Hospital and St. Luke’s hospitals haven’t seen an increase in births.
But in July, Shawnee Mission Birth Center, which delivered more babies last year than any other hospital in the metro area, logged 473 births, breaking the old record of 456 births in a single month.
Craig Brown discusses the Royals' bullpen disasters of late, but isn't terribly worried.
After 111 consecutive wins when leading after seven innings, the Royals now have back to back losses when leading after seven. Sometimes, the Baseball Gods decide to take something back. The Royals bullpen has been a huge reason they are in the position they currently occupy. It’s vitally important to their success. We had to have known that at some point, it was going to falter. And because they have been rolling for so long, any failure was going to be uncomfortable and brutal. It’s amazing they were able to lock down so many wins for so long.
Should we have seen the Royals success coming, asks Rob Neyer? Specifically, Mike Moustakas?
Does this tell us anything about Moustakas' future? Well, it might tell us something. We must always acknowledge the limits of our knowledge, let alone the knowledge that might be contained within a four-column table. But it's been popularly reported that Moustakas' improvement earlier this season was due to an adjustment he made in spring training: going from pull-happy to happy to take pitches the opposite way. So maybe it's not a coincidence that he's not been getting many of those opposite-field hits lately and he's just above the Mendoza Line since the All-Star break.
Other items of interest
Hollywood has a serious problem with stereotyping people who play video games.
Is lab-grown meat the future of food?
President Obama's new playlist at Spotify is extremely important for the music streaming company.
This Times expose paints a stressful picture of working at Amazon.
Disney's D23 Expo is happening, and they have discussed the future of their animated movies.
Weekend classic
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of two or so composers when you think of 'clasical' music. The good news is that Mozart's music actually is from the classical period, so that association is accurate. This symphony, Mozart's 40th, was completed in 1788.
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