It’s been another fun week in sports. This week we cover how bad the Royals suck, my futile attempt at caring about the NBA, Russell Wilson can no longer ride, Denver Sports rankings, and getting you ready for the draft. Let’s dive in.

Royally Bad:

I did not think the Royals would be good this year. I tend to set the bar pretty low. I grew up in the 80’s when the Royals were literally competitive every year. The year after winning the series, we went 76-86. That was our worst year. If we went 76-86 now, the stadium would be packed and we would all be celebrating. But since the strike in 94, I have only ever entered 2 years with any expectations. The first was 2004. The previous year we went 83-79 to capture our first winning record in 9 years. We had a cast of young talented players. Tony Pena was a fun, energetic manager. Lima Time was in full effect. And if you were at any of the games, you likely got to experience the Lemonade guy. (If you know, you know). The following year, I thought hey this is going to be the year we finally make the playoffs again. We did not. Instead we went 58-104. This culminated arguably the most disappointing year of my sports fandom. The year really needs its own column but in 2003, the Royals had a winning record, Mizzou football had turned the corner, Mizzou basketball was ready to take the next step and the Chiefs had the best record in the NFL. 2004 would be the year…of disappointment. More to come on that in a later blog. The other year I had expectations was 2015 and we won the World Series, so that was cool. But for the most part I expect us to lose a lot and be bad. But this team is at a whole other level. After having one of the best records in Spring Ball, we now have the second worst record in baseball. The only team that is worse is a team that is trying to move out of it’s city. Apparently all things in Oakland are headed to Las Vegas. We are 4-15. We are 1-9 in our last 10. We have lost 6 in a row. We are the only team that doesn’t have at least 60 runs. Our run difference is -51. To put that in perspective, Tampa who has the best record is +83. And we can no longer use the small market excuse. Literally no one cares about the Tampa Rays. Their stadium is a dump and no one goes and they still win all the time. We are just awful. I always joke about being mathematically eliminated by the end of April. But this year, they might just pull it off. We’ve played 19 games and we are already 7 games back in our division.

Go NBA…or whatever:

As I mentioned before, I have entered my sad, sports season. Football is over. March Madness is over. The Royals suck. And I am “sports” depressed. I decided to try and remedy the situation by trying to get excited about the NBA playoffs. I’ve been checking in on all the games. I’ve watched more NBA basketball this week than I have all year. The great thing about the NBA is that you really only have to watch the last 8 minutes of games. I am trying to care about who wins and loses. But here are my top 5 problems of trying to get into the NBA Playoffs.

1. Who are these guys? I don’t know very many players. I was watching the 76ers beat Brooklyn last night and even though I was cheering for Brooklyn because I think it would be funny if they won after trading Kyrie and Durant, I literally don’t recognize one player on their team. At best I might know 3 or 4 players on any team.
2. Nothing significant happens until the 4th quarter. If the players are only going to try 25% of the time, then I am only going to care 25% of the time.
3. The teams I like are all playing each other. Kings versus Warriors in the first round? Come on. Nuggets vs T-Wolves in a battle of cities I have lived in that are not in Missouri? The team my son cheers for (the Bucks) vs the only team that LeBron has ever been on that I cheered for (the Heat)? I always liked Dwayne Wade and everyone was mad at LeBron for leaving the Cavs so I of course went against the grain and cheered for him.
4. It’s not late 80’s-90’s basketball. I’ll be honest I’d rather watch the Last Dance or a replay of an old game then watch this new stuff. Little defense is played. Everything is a foul. Last night I saw Embid take like 5 steps in different directions and scored and the announcer said great footwork by Embid. This new basketball game baffles me. Sure there are more points but at what cost? Also, there is no offense anymore. You remember the Triangle offense? Those were the days. The Warriors who I used to love to watch because they all moved around so much without the ball, don’t even run an offense anymore.
5. No one I care about, cares. I text my brother last night and said, “I’m trying to get into the NBA playoffs.” He didn’t even bother to respond. That is how much he cares. I go to work and no one is talking about the NBA. All my Facebook friends are either posting about the draft, the Cardinals or how bad the Royals are. My son is a Bucks fan, but he doesn’t really watch the games. He just plays as the Bucks on NBA 2K. My wife last night was like I want to watch some of the Avs game tonight. The night before she said, the Nuggets are playing? What round are we in? How are they doing? Her whole family is from Denver and I don’t think any of them have ever even mentioned the Nuggets. When you really don’t care about something, it is really hard to care about it by yourself.

Denver Don’t Care:

Speaking of the Nuggets, it is an interesting sports hierarchy here in the Mile High City. In Kansas City, the Royals were king in the 70’s and 80’s. Then they got bad and the Chiefs got good and it has been Chiefs, then Royals, then whichever college team you cheer for next. This makes sense. What is interesting here is that the Nuggets are always pretty good and no one cares. Here the Broncos are king, no matter how bad they are. This makes sense. They have been here forever. They have had a lot of success and even though they are bad, football is pretty much king everywhere. Next up is the Avalanche. Sure they won it last year but even before that they were #2. Maybe this stems from them winning a couple championships in 96 and 2001. But the Avs are very popular. Danielle for instance is always at least somewhat interested in how they are doing. Her and her family text back and forth about them during the playoffs. There is real interest here. Up next is the Rockies. The Rockies are historically terrible. The owner literally doesn’t care about winning. But yet, they are top 10 in attendance every year. Maybe it is the nice weather. Maybe it is all the bars right around the stadium. Maybe it is because it is right downtown. Whatever the reason, people go to Rockies games all the time. Myself included. Up next might actually be the Rapids. They are the soccer club here. I see people wearing Rapids gear. People talk about how fun the games are. Apparently it is a good time. And then finally the Nuggets. No one cares about the Nuggets. Did you know the Nuggets have made the playoffs 15 of the last 20 years? No one cares. Maybe it is because 10 out of 15 of those years they lost in the first round. As my wife said the other day, the Nuggets always choke. But still, this is a winning franchise. No one cares. This actually makes it easier to cheer for the Nuggets. But at the same time, I have lived here two different times for multiple years and never made it to a game. Maybe next year.

Russ can’t ride:

Just when you think things can’t get any lower for Russel Wilson, he goes and does something else dumb. Russ flipped his golf cart by a sand trap. Guess what the golf course is called…Arrowhead. Russ has had a rough 12 months. This time last year he was deemed the savior. “We have a great roster, all we need is a Quarterback,” is what I heard for 3 years. Then they got Russ. All of the sudden they were the best team in the division and super bowl contenders. I always defended Drew Lock, not because he was good but because he wasn’t the only problem. The whole roster was highly overrated. Now that Russ sucked, all of the sudden the roster has all these issues that no one was talking about before. They went from supposedly the best team in the division to not winning a divisional game until the last game of the year. Russ kept his “Let’s Ride” tag line way too far into the season. The whole thing was a disaster. And now here is poor Russ wrecking his golf cart. Maybe the next 12 months will be better, buddy.

Draft Day!:

This time next week we will have just experienced the first round of the NFL Draft. This is my favorite part of April. The draft used to be on the weekend. Rounds 1-3 would be on Saturday and 4-7 on Sunday. I remember going to Buffalo Wild Wings with Danielle and baby Walker. We hung out all day, watching and predicting who would get drafted next. It was a great Saturday. But as the NFL does with all things, they found a way to drag it out and make more money. So now we get round 1 on Thursday night, rounds 2-3 on Friday and rounds 4-7 on Saturday. I actually prefer the old way but I am still going to watch. I will do a 5 for 5 next week just on the first round of the draft, but here are 5 predictions for the big night.

1. Chiefs don’t pick #31. Veach does what Veach does and I bet he either trades up or trades back. If he can get a receiver in the mid to late 20’s, I bet he trades up. Otherwise, he trades back. If he trades back people will boo. But then in day 2, they will all love Veach again as he picks up a couple of steals in the draft.
2. Houston trades out of 2. They are idiots so why would they take a QB? Rumor has it, Young is going to the Panthers and Stroud is the next best dude. But Stroud has the same agent as Massage boy. Amazingly, Watson is still screwing this franchise among other things, I’m sure.
3. Detroit quickly asks all their potential draft prospects if they like to gamble.
4. The Rams decide to trade their next three first round picks for overpriced talent assuring that they will basically never have to do draft homework again.
5. The Raiders over reach and the person they pick is a bust and the Patriots draft someone that no one has ever heard of. You can count on these things pretty much every year.

Next week, I’ll be posting my top 11 baseball stadiums I have attended and reactions to the draft on Friday. Thanks for reading!