A few columns ago we wrote that the Royals were nearing the “do or die” time. That time of the season when the management of a ball club must decide whether they are going to give up on the current season and trade away some of their better players that will become free agents next year or decide to keep them for a pennant run and go out and make a trade for a few key players that will assist in that pennant run. This week the Royals’ Brass pushed the “Do It” button.
On Monday the Royals stuffed more shells in the shotgun as they acquired three pitchers from the San Diego Padres, getting starter Trevor Cahill, closer Brandon Maurer and reliever Ryan Buchter. The Royals gave up- cash and a minor league infielder along with sometime starter Travis Wood who has failed to impress after some solid years with the Chicago Cubs.
Thus our Boys- In- Blue bolstered their rotation and bullpen in one easy swap with the struggling Padres. Kind of reminds one of those late-season trades that the Yankees made famous a few decades ago as they would continually raid the Kansas City Athletics for talent to make a stretch run for the pennant. Former Yankee star, and Larned resident, Ralph Terry was involved in a couple of those trades as the “Bronx Bombers” made yet another run at a World Series title!
Let’s hope this works out as well for our Royals as those long-ago trades did for the Yankees.
— 100-degree temperatures don’t make one think about football BUT it should. Professional teams are reporting for camp this week. College campuses will be busy in a week or so and high school football, well, it’s NOT that far away!
— There is a lot of interesting stuff coming our way in the high school season just ahead. Did you know that the KSHSAA has eliminated the “blind side” block? No longer will it be legal for the unsuspecting player to be jogging down the field and get leveled from the side by someone he didn’t see. Good move? Probably from a safety standpoint BUT can you imagine how controversial those calls are going to be?
— In the Central Kansas League, ultra-successful coach Clint Rider of Hesston has moved on to take over the coaching duties at Blue Valley Northwest. He was 36-9 at Hesston with some deep playoff runs so that causes some doubt at for the Swather hopeful. Will their winning ways continue?
Perennial power Andale has a new coach, Dylan Schmidt. The Indians are used to playoff appearances but new coaching sometimes changes things.
— Cimarron, a playoff team last year that was upset by the resurgent Larned Indians also has a new coach, Greg Koenig. Koenig replaces Chuck Dirks. Koenig was 93-30 at Beloit so he’s all about winning! Ellsworth, a Larned opponent, has a new coach in Josh Homolka. Homolka is a Claflin graduate who played at Kansas and has had several college coaching jobs. Last season he was the safeties coach at Northern Illinois. Finally, Nick Garcia has called it quits after 11 seasons at St.John. The Tigers struggled to a 4-23 record the past three seasons as a lot of their better athletes chose not to play football.
— How about this? Have you ever seen an umpire that was so bad that you were sure he was drunk? It happened in Alabama. In Priceville, Alabama, police say Derek Bryant was arrested with one inning left in a junior varsity game when officials smelled alcohol on his breath.
I bet it was when he called “STRIKE FOUR” that they noticed!
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
