Royals Rumblings - News for May 13, 2020

Alex Gordon wants to play a lot longer, he told Lynn Worthy at the Kansas City Star:

“I feel like I still want to play at least a few more years, and I want to get back to not losing 100 games, pushing for the playoffs, stuff like that to get back to kind of what we’re talking about (the World Series runs in 2014 and 2015),” Gordon said. “There’s definitely pieces on this team, similarities that can be drawn to the ‘14 and ‘15 seasons.

“In that aspect, it’s encouraging to have that. When you get to that point, it makes it even more special when you go through these 100-loss season to have that season when you push through and start winning games and start looking at the postseason. I definitely want to get back to that one more time, at least, before I’m done. Hopefully, that’s sooner than later.”

The Royals aren’t using their jerseys right now, so some of that material was made into masks:

Last week, the Royals received 2,500 masks from Fanatics made from the same material as the jerseys the team wears. The Royals donated those masks to the University of Kansas Health System.

Cook said the masks are not medical grade but fill a need at the University of Kansas Cancer Center for patients who don’t have a mask or are riding shuttles on the campus.

The Royals also have donated food for healthcare workers this month.

At Bleeding Royal Blue, a wide-ranging reflective essay on the gaping hole where baseball should be:

Maybe this is what baseball needs. Maybe MLB needs all this chaos to go on to fix the problems that have been piling up. It has felt the last few years that the players and owners were on a collision course and the result would be changes that are needed for everyone involved.

Maybe things have to be torn down so they can be built back up again. It’s not like the game is that far away from being everything we really wish it was. There will always be flaws, ugly habits in the game that linger for years. But they always appear to right the ship.

Nicky Lopez, on helping:

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ESPN’s Jeff Passan has 20 questions about the owners vs. players battle going on regarding the 2020 MLB season, whatever that will look like.

Bill Thompson at Beyond the Box Score notes that the owners want to keep cutting away player salaries.

At NBC Sports, Craig Calcaterra hears from an infectious disease expert how the massive amounts of COVID-19 testing restarting baseball would require, would siphon scarce medical resources away from testing the public at large.

A delightful list of less-famous MLB players who have the same name as fellas like Randy Johnson.

Nightmares in locker room interviews, recounted to Daniel Brown of The Athletic.

Jeff Todd at MLB Trade Rumors goes over Washington’s history with 1st-round picks.

This profile of Chiefs WR Sammy Watkins is not at all like most profiles of wide receivers.

It sounds like the NBA, whenever it resumes, would not shut back down for a player testing positive.

Longtime LPGA pro Laura Baugh reflects on building a pro golf career with her seven (7) children in tow.

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The Strokes have a new song called ‘Ode to the Mets,’ but it belongs down here in the non-sports section because it is not about the Mets.

The show The Office, reimagined for Slack.

Walmart will give cash bonuses to employees next month: $300 for full-timers and $150 for temporary and part-time employees.

In These Times, are you getting enough Vitamin D?

In defense of AllRecipes.

More on food: Amanda Mull at The Atlantic wrote about the flour shortage.

Still more on food (I’m hungry): the least problematic food celebrity is Guy Fieri.

It’s a shame I used Goldfinger’s ‘Superman’ as a song of the day recently, because it would have paired perfectly with the news that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 are coming back.

SPEAKING OF EXCITING THINGS BEING ANNOUNCED! ‘Hamilton’ will be a part of Disney+ on July 3, which is my birthday. How kind of Lin-Manuel Miranda to arrange this gift for me.

Luxury Cucumbers. Just, Luxury Cucumbers. For celebrities only.

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Music for the day: Related to the news from LMM above. All the songs are on one playlist here.