Is there any doubt that, in the Midlands, more people have watched more games in this World Series than all summer combined? The World Series brings out even the most casual of fans. I hope they don’t get spit on!
What a spitting show! Baseball players spit and chew and dig in the dirt and...and...well, scratch, stall and waste time. Is that going on in other sports?
Football players beat their chests and scream and strut and dance and then do their chest bumps when something good happens. But they don’t spit.
Basketball players scowl and scream and glare at their opponents after a dunk like a bunch of Banty roosters. But they don’t spit.
Soccer players run around in circles and jump into each others’ arms and hug and scream. But they don’t spit.
Hockey players? They just fight. They have no teeth. They have flat crooked noses and they swing their hockey sticks in the air. But they don’t spit.
The World Series is now, of course, history. I just wonder who got the job of mopping up all of that spit?
                                     
Do you know where the Kansas City Royals got their name? They are named after the famous livestock show, the American Royal now in its’ 115th year.
The American Royal got its’ start in a tent in the Kansas City Stockyards in 1899 as a Hereford show. Horses were added in 1905, and in 1949 the first rodeo debuted.
In 1980 the American Royal World Series of Barbecue brought a smoke-filled sky to the 54 acres of the historic Stockyards District. It is now the largest barbecue contest in the world with over 500 teams competing annually.
So, the next time someone says, “How ‘bout those Royals?” they may be talking about a bucking bull or a barbecued rib, not a baseball team. Isn’t it great to have them both?
                                            
CHALK TALK: It is a night game but expect the Wildcats to light things up Saturday. K-State 34, Oklahoma State 17.
Former KU coach Larry Brown is the only coach to have won both an NCAA title (KU in 1988) and an NBA title (Detroit in 2004).
Can Larned beat Pratt by 15 or more points? That’s what it will take for the Indians to get in the playoffs. Pratt is favored but we like the Tribe. Larned 20, Pratt 14.
A lot of coaches say, “There’s no ‘I’ in ‘Team’ but Michael Jordan says, ‘Yeah, but there is an ‘I’ in ‘Win’”.
Great Bend needs a win over Salina South to get into the playoffs. Probably not going to happen. South a threat to win it all. South 40, Great Bend 17.
It could get ugly in North Carolina as the NCAA digs deeper and deeper into the Tar Heels academic improprieties for athletes. ‘Ole Roy is being awfully quiet about it.
Clint Bowen’s defense gets a test as the Jayhawks are at Baylor and the Bears are desperate to regain respect. Baylor too much. 44-21.
Hoisington? Ho, hum. They steamroll another opponent. Cardinals 45, Lyons 7.

Charles Tabler is a contributing writer from Larned.