Most Deserving All-Star Candidate From Each American League Team

Most Deserving All-Star Candidate From Each Team: AL Edition   Baltimore: Manny Machado While Mark Trumbo is enjoying a bounce back season and currently leading the American League in homers, Manny Machado has been one of the best players in the MLB this season. He’s hitting .325, good for fourth in the American League, and […]

The Sunday Notes: Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016

So, 2015 is now a permanent part of our history as 2016 will take baseball shape this week when we find out who the writers voted into the Hall of Fame. If you will allow me this time around, instead of giving you a few links to read I thought I would share a few thoughts […]

The Sunday Notes: World Series Leftovers Edition

As the street cleaners of Kansas City swept away the joyous mess left behind by nearly 800,000 fans, the 2015 Major League Baseball season officially ended. With qualifying offers made to soon-to-be free agents and a battery of options declined or accepted, the hot stove season is upon us again. Between now and mid-March, more than a few trees and hard drives will be filled with stories on how certain signings will vault their team into championship contention, only to look silly by mid-May. As sure as the swallows return to Capistrano, the consensus “winner” of the off-season World Series will watch next October […]

2015 World Series Notes

The Kansas City Royals are champions for the first time in thirty years. Can you believe it? Wait, I’m channeling Joe Castiglione above. Still, what a great postseason run by the Royals. No deficit was too big and, in return, they wore teams out. When they needed starting pitching, Johnny Cueto tosses a two-hitter. Down […]

The Sunday Notes: 2015 World Series

Now that we have enjoyed baseball’s playoff appetizer, it is time for the main course, the 2015 World Series. The plucky Kansas City Royals host the New York Mets starting Tuesday night at Kaufman Stadium in what we hope to be a classic matchup. No deficit is too large for the Royals, who pound out hit after hit. […]

A Portrait of Ron Washington in 1989, at the End of His Playing Career

In 1989, David Lamb spent the summer rambling around the U.S. in his RV, watching minor league baseball games as he traveled. A couple years later, he published a book, Stolen Season, about his journey. Lamb caught up with Ron Washington in Tucson, where the future Rangers manager was playing shortstop, mostly, for the Houston […]

Touring The Bases With…Greg Pryor

A two-time All-American at Florida Southern College from 1969-70, Greg Pryor became the first FSC Moccasin to make it to the major leagues when he debuted for the Texas Rangers on June 4, 1976.  Pryor was a sixth round draft pick of the Washington Senators in 1971 and spent parts of six seasons in the […]

Fox’s 3 Consecutive Walk-Offs May Be a First, But Albers’ Brilliant Debut Shares Top Billing

It does not happen this way often when two ultra-heroic events divide attention about deadline time.  When it does, one deals. Jake Fox made the first bid for attention when the Somerset, NJ (Atlantic League) designated hitter collected walk-off hits in three consecutive games.  We do not know if it has ever been done before, […]

Second Half Help

They aren’t all prospects but they all could help you in one way or another. Here is one player from each team worth picking up for the 2nd half of the season. Note: All players are 30% owned or less in Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball Arizona Diamondbacks - 3B Matt Davidson – The Futures Game MVP […]

Baseball Notes for April 22, 2013

Other sports like football and basketball may have infringed on the popularity of baseball over the years, but make no mistake about it, the game is still America’s National Pastime. Baseball personifies Amercianism and is often seen as an example of what is right and good in the country. While that may be a Pollyanna […]

Hitters Fail the Quiz

Hey baseball fans! Sorry I haven’t posted in about five days. Anyway, I have a one question “quiz” for you. Who has the best mustache in Royals relief history, other than Al Hrabosky? The answer is, of course, Dan Quisenberry! Quisenberry played for the Royals, Cardinals, and Giants from 1979-1990. As a reliever, he was feared throughout […]

White Sox Opening Day: 39 Degrees and Billion-Dollar Burgers

The Chicago White Sox opened the 2013 season on Monday by beating the Kansas City Royals, 1-0, at U. S. Cellular Field in front of an announced crowd of 39,000 people. In other words, there were one thousand people in the ballpark for every degree in the air. The high temperature in Chicago for the […]

Orioles Emphasize Scouting Independent Leagues And It Is So Evident in Their Minor League Camp

The best place for an Independent Baseball fan to hang out this month—at least aside from a major league spring training site where many a hopeful is playing—might be at the Buck O’Neil Baseball Complex on the south side of Sarasota, FL. At one time, this same site hosted the Kansas City Royals’ innovative Baseball […]

Chatting with the Royals’ Christian Colon

A long spate of losing seasons has put the Kansas City Royals in the position of drafting high in the MLB drafts over the past two-plus decades. However, it has only been recently that the organization has been recognized for accumulating one of the best collections of prospects in the game, with the hope that […]

Touring the Bases With Buddy Biancalana

Buddy Biancalana was a first round draft pick of the Kansas City Royals in 1978 who went on to have a major league career as a middle infielder. Used primarily as a utility player, Buddy had his greatest success was in the 1985 World Series when he played in all seven games and hit .278, […]

Crowning Achievement: The Man Behind the Kansas City Royals’ Logo

At Kauffman Stadium not long ago, someone introduced Shannon Manning to a fan and his young son.  The boy had never heard of Manning and couldn’t understand why he was supposed to be so impressed.  The father just pointed to his kid’s Royals cap and explained wryly, “Without this fellow, your hat would just be […]

Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Good Fries

When the team you root for is left home during October the true frustration of a sub-par season begins to painfully nip at your toes and whisper profanities into your ear.  That’s because watching good teams fight for the crown in the playoffs makes one realize just how bad – and uncontending – your team […]

Belated 2011 MLB Predictions

Yes, folks, the 2011 MLB season is underway.  Rosters have changed and managers have changed; Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens HAVEN’T changed.  Here’s how they’ll finish: AL EAST Boston Red Sox N.Y. Yankees T.B. Rays Baltimore Orioles Toronto Blue Jays AL CENTRAL Chicago White Sox Minnesota Twins Detroit Tigers Kansas City Royals Cleveland Indians AL WEST Texas […]

Clearing The Bases: Closers

The old axiom when it comes to relief pitchers, is never pay for saves.  I follow this mantra somewhat, especially in mixed leagues, but in NL or AL only leagues I want to have one solid closer.  I don’t like to spend a big part of my budget on more than one, but I want […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL Central – Kansas City Royals

Royals Designated Hitter Billy Butler Kansas City Royals (2010 record: 67-95) Kansas City is one more year away from beginning their slow, inexorable climb up the standings. While Royals fans have heard similar promises for years, their patience is finally (mercifully) about to pay off. GM Dayton Moore and his front office staff have developed […]

Bigger Than the Game: Bo, Boz, The Punky QB and How the ’80s Created the Modern Athlete

In a span of 366 days, four players changed the landscape of sports as we know it. Without the use of a hot tub time machine, author Michael Weinreb takes us back to 1986 in Bigger Than the Game: Bo, Boz, The Punky QB and How the ’80s Created the Modern Athlete, a remarkable study […]

Touring The Bases With…Brent Mayne

Catcher Brent Mayne was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the first round (#13 overall) of the 1989 amateur draft and made his major league debut only a year later, rapping an RBI single off Twins pitcher Scott Erickson in his first major league at-bat.  Mayne spent 15 seasons in the big leagues with […]

Roy Firestone to Appear on Seamheads Podcast

Join Steve Lenox and Mike Lynch on “What’s On Second: The Seamheads.com Radio Hour” every Monday from 9:00-10:00 PM Eastern as they discuss the goings on in Major and Minor League Baseball. This week’s guests are Roy Firestone, a seven-time Emmy Award-winning and seven-time cable ACE Award-winning host, interviewer, narrator, writer, and producer. As the […]

Touring The Bases With…Kristyne A. Haver

Kristyne A. Haver CPA, is the Controller for the Reading Phillies located in Reading, Pennsylvania.  They have been an Affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies since 1967.  They are in the Eastern League. SEAMHEADS: What does your job consist of?  What are your responsibilities? KRISTYNE: My job title is Controller.  Mainly, I’m in charge of all […]

Former MLB Hurler Dick Drago to Appear on “What’s On Second” Podcast

Former Major League hurler Dick Drago will appear on “What’s On Second: The Seamheads.com Radio Hour” on Monday, May 17 at 11:00 PM Eastern (8:00 Pacific).  Drago began his major league career with the expansion Kansas City Royals in 1969 after spending four years in the Detroit Tigers’ minor league system, where he went 50-41 […]

So Long Mr. Harwell, you will be missed

  It was late September, 2002.  I had a busy week scheduled.  Fly out to Kansas City, MO to do a broadcast with the Kansas City Royals and return home and get married on that Saturday.  My first big league broadcast.  The Royals invited the announcers from some of their minor league affiliates to come […]

It Could Have Been So Much Worse

Joe Posnanski wrote this week about the release of full economic data on the business of baseball by Forbes Magazine.  I can barely balance a check book and maybe gate receipts, market valuations and operating revenues confuse me more than I know, but they look to be telling a fascinating story.  It’s about how major league […]

A Passion For Pitching

As a teenager Doug White was an all-star—”an average player for my age but above average for the area where I played”—but he wanted to improve his game so he attended the Doyle Baseball School after his Freshman year of high school and, through a long-toss program he learned from the instructors, added more than […]