Not Unbelievable; Just Pathetic

You cannot call it unbelievable. They've done it before. And in so many ways. The only word is "pathetic".

The Royals blew yet another big lead in the ninth, losing to the Yankees 8-7. The Royals were up, 7-3, going into the ninth. Reliever Jeremy Affeldt threw away a potentially game-ending double-play ball. Then it just began to snow ball; hit after hit and the Royals went down. Per the Star:

It probably wasn’t the Royals’ worst loss. Probably.

It’s hard to top Aug. 9, when the Indians wiped out a five-run deficit in the ninth by scoring 11 times at Kauffman Stadium. There was also an 8-3 lead in the ninth that slipped away May 27 in Los Angeles, when the Angels forced extra innings before winning 9-8.

But this was bad.

And with that history, you cannot call it unbelievable. Just Pathetic.

Equity In Athletics

This is fascinating site and has a TON of information.

I did some messing around with it this afternoon and it's fairly revealing:

Football	Revenues	Expenses	Net	Rank Rev.	Rank Net
Baylor	$6,202,948	$7,769,732	($1,566,784)	12	12
Colorado	$23,061,208	$9,690,074	$13,371,134	5	5
Iowa State	$10,660,310	$7,212,400	$3,447,910	10	9
Kansas	$9,361,531	$7,723,233	$1,638,298	11	10
Kansas State	$20,529,001	$11,408,393	$9,120,608	6	6
Missouri	$15,062,869	$6,884,992	$8,177,877	8	7
Nebraska	$30,231,643	$12,954,126	$17,277,517	4	4
Oklahoma	$34,293,061	$13,728,435	$20,564,626	2	3
Oklahoma State	$16,670,801	$8,764,015	$7,906,786	7	8
Texas	$47,556,281	$12,948,131	$34,608,150	1	1
Texas Tech	$14,079,284	$15,316,778	($1,237,494)	9	11
Texas A&M	$31,103,827	$9,819,342	$21,284,485	3	2
Men's
Basketball	Revenues	Expenses	Net	Rank Rev.	Rank Net
Baylor	$1,567,394	$1,963,299	($395,905)	12	11
Colorado	$2,880,577	$2,846,287	$34,290	10	10
Iowa State	$4,384,504	$4,026,109	$358,395	7	9
Kansas	$10,349,813	$3,936,863	$6,412,950	2	2
Kansas State	$3,067,953	$2,581,074	$486,879	9	8
Missouri	$6,810,339	$3,393,502	$3,416,837	5	4
Nebraska	$2,342,927	$2,816,900	($473,973)	11	12
Oklahoma	$6,052,531	$3,107,466	$2,945,065	6	5
Oklahoma State	$8,034,921	$4,229,224	$3,805,697	3	3
Texas	$11,655,379	$4,632,376	$7,023,003	1	1
Texas Tech	$7,063,436	$6,169,532	$893,904	4	6
Texas A&M	$3,362,369	$2,848,339	$514,030	8	7
Women's
Basketball	Revenues	Expenses	Net	Rank Rev.	Rank Net
Baylor	$1,529,120	$1,915,358	($386,238)	3	1
Colorado	$600,542	$2,066,404	($1,465,862)	6	9
Iowa State	$998,013	$1,742,542	($744,529)	5	2
Kansas	$105,715	$2,701,509	($2,595,794)	12	11
Kansas State	$1,031,786	$1,932,277	($900,491)	4	3
Missouri	$178,129	$1,506,141	($1,328,012)	11	8
Nebraska	$376,720	$1,686,407	($1,309,687)	8	7
Oklahoma	$599,562	$1,625,576	($1,026,014)	7	5
Oklahoma State	$222,810	$1,356,627	($1,133,817)	10	6
Texas	$2,436,337	$3,427,824	($991,487)	1	4
Texas Tech	$2,271,815	$5,174,852	($2,903,037)	2	12
Texas A&M	$272,054	$2,048,699	($1,776,645)	9	10

As in major-league sports, those that spend the most, do the best, almost without qualification. One and two in revenue in football: Texas and Oklahoma. One and two in basketball: Texas and Kansas.

These stats are telling, I believe. There are a few anomolies: A&M ranks third in revenue and second in net from football, but they've sucked for quite a while. Kansas State has been medicore in football revenue, yet, until recently, they've been at the top of the heap in the North. The rest though pretty much follow the patter.

It's a Record, Baby! We Suck!

It's official. The Royals suck. I mean really suck. Like a Hoover powered by a scramjet. Thirteen losses in a row, eclipsing the team record set in 1997.

Royals manager Buddy Bell kept the clubhouse closed for 30 minutes after the loss.

``When they got the four runs, we can't stop playing,'' Bell said. ``We've got to keep playing. The nature of the game is to keep going. I didn't think the focus was there at the end after they got the four runs. That can't happen. I'm kind of running out of answers.''

Should just keep the clubhouse permanently closed. The answer, Buddy, is that we just ain't any good.

Doh!

3 Wives Greet British Man After Surgery

The Record Tying Royals

Let's Go Royals, Let's Go All the Way. One more loss and we set the record!!!

Just Sickening

I can't bear to watch them anymore. Blow 'em up. They're terrible. The Royals were up 7-2 in the top of the ninth, at home, against Cleveland and gave up 11 runs, four of them unearned. My God.

As the Star put it, "It was an astonishingly complete and absolute collapse."

Never, in the 37-year history of the franchise, in over 5,800 games, has the team given up 11 runs in the ninth inning.

"This is the worst," first baseman Mike Sweeney said, "I've ever been through in my 10 or 11 years here. The absolute worst. I don't ever remember anything like this. This was a heart-breaking loss."

It was worse than that. At one point in the ninth they were up 7-6, with 2 outs, with a man on first, when Cleveland pinch-hitter, Jeff Liefer lofted a high fly ball to left.

"When I first hit it," Liefer said, "I thought it might have a chance. I saw him settle under it and was like, 'Darn it.'"

Not to worry, Jeff. The Royals have left fielder Chip Ambres out there. The ball clanged off of his glove. Cleveland second baseman Ronnie Belliard scored from first with the tying run. Two other errors, by shortstop Angel Berroa and right fielder Emil Brown, led to three other unearned runs.

MacDougal inherited a 7-2 lead when he entered the game in the ninth. He had not allowed more than two runs in any of his previous 49 appearances. . . .

MacDougal immediately gave up doubles to Blake and Grady Sizemore before Coco Crisp lined an RBI single. That closed the margin to 7-4.

MacDougal struck out Peralta but surrendered a double to Travis Hafner that sent Crisp to third. Victor Martinez then punched an RBI single into right. Crisp scored; Hafner stopped at third. Belliard hit a pop into short center that Berroa missed for his second error of the game. This one allowed Hafner to score. But Berroa recovered in time to retire pinch-runner Ramon Vazquez on a force at second base.

Still, the Indians were now within one run at 7-6.

That's when Liefer, batting for Ben Broussard, hit a fly into the left-field corner that Ambres reached with no problem. The error allowed Belliard to score the tying run. Liefer wound up on second.

---

The Indians sent 14 hitters to the plate against closer Mike MacDougal and Jimmy Gobble. They collected eight hits, including six against MacDougal, 2-4. Those eight hits included four doubles and a homer.

The Indians had four doubles against MacDougal before Gobble served up a three-run homer to Jhonny Peralta that capped the scoring.

Just Sickening.

Yu-Mex

You've heard of Tex-Mex, but probably never Yu-Mex. In 1948, when Tito broke with Stalin, he had to find films other than Soviet films. The obvious solution? Mexican films!!!! What?!? That's right, Tito started showing Mexican films in lieu of Soviet films and they became wildly popular in Yugoslavia. According to the website,

Emilio Fernández's Un Día de vida (1950) became so immensely popular that the old people in the former republics of Yugoslavia even today regard it as surely one of the most well known films in the world ever made although in truth it is probably unknown in every other country, even Mexican web pages don't mention it much. The Mexican influence spread to all of the popular culture: fake Mexican bands were forming and their records still can be found at the flea markets nowadays.

Ok, This Is Harsh

You know that a relationship is at an end when your girlfirend starts beating you with your own prosthetic ABC12.com: leg

He tried to get away, but says she followed him out the door, still hitting him with the leg. "She tried to kill me," Gale said. I've known her for years," he said, thinking that she is frustrated with their relationship. "Probably because I won't commit... I'm not sure."

Ya think?!?

A Bad Day All Around

Ok, so you're awakened by a burglar. Bad for you, bad for the burglar.

But you find a knife and chase the burglar out of your house and down the street. Good for you, bad for the burglar.

You chase him into an alley and start stabbing him. Good for you, really bad for the burglar.

Some construction workers see this going on and try to break up the fight. They start wailing on you with a shovel. Bad for you, good for the burglar.

The burglar gets up, runs to his car and drives away. Bad for you, good for the burglar.

The burglar only gets a few blocks and crashes into a house. He dies at the scene and you're taken to the hospital with critical injuries.

A Bad Day All Around.

Thinning the Herd

I mean, come on. This is too funny. A Grandview woman fell out of her car on the highway when she opened her door while not wearing a seat belt to spit.

Robbin Doolin, 31, of Grandview suffered serious injuries in the 8 a.m. accident in the Triangle. She was recovering at a hospital Friday night, where she declined to comment. . . Driving her purple Chevrolet Malibu north on U.S. 71, Doolin was approaching the eastbound Interstate 470 ramp when she opened her door, police said. 'I leaned out to spit and I leaned too far,' she later told an officer. Another motorist looking in her rearview mirror saw Doolin’s car hit a guardrail and saw Doolin tumbling across the pavement. Doolin then hopped up — to the amazement of witnesses — and chased her car, which careened down an embankment toward a construction site. The car was moving too fast. Doolin could not catch up.

One has to wonder: exactly what did she have in her mouth? [Links added]