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Around the Kingdom: Aaron Crow, Josh Willingham, Cairo Santos, Tyler Lockett

By John Viril

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Sep 11, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals relief pitcher

Aaron Crow

(43) delivers a pitch in the eighth inning against the Boston Red Sox at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

The Kansas City Royals are now 1 win (or 1 Seattle loss) away from clinching a wild card spot after defeating the White Sox 6-3 on Thursday night.

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Twenty-nine years.

That’s a long frigging time to wait for a playoff run.

I guess a lot of bloggers (including me) owe Dayton Moore an apology for blasting him over the Wil Myers trade. Of course, a baseball GM is in real trouble if no one blasts him over his moves, because that means apathy has set in and he is all but doomed.

While the Royals are all but certain to lose James Shields in free agency this winter, I guess a coin-flip game is worth it—even if they lose. Getting a 29-year-old monkey off your back is an undeniably significant achievement.

The Chiefs got some good news about Jamaal Charles, and bad news about Mike Catapano this week. Charles is practicing, and likely to play Monday against the Patriots. Meanwhile, DE Mike Catapano was placed on injured reserve as he continues to suffer from some unnamed (non-football) illness that has plagued him since training camp. This is too bad, since Catapano reported in July after gaining 20 pounds and looking mean.

The Guiness Book of World Records people will be in Arrowhead Monday night as the Chiefs attempt to reclaim the loudest outdoor stadium title from Seattle.

The Missouri Tigers will shuffle their offensive line after getting upset by Indiana on Saturday—which caused them to fall out of the top. 25.

The news is better at Kansas State, where WR Tyler Lockett was named as a semi-finalist for the Campbell Trophy—which, in common parlance, is known as the “Academic Heisman”.

KANSAS CITY ROYALS

  • Rany on the Royals – Aaron Crow is not a good pitcher and contemplates his apology to Dayton Moore over the James Shields trade:

"You may have read this on this blog before, but if you haven’t: AARON CROW ISN’T A GOOD PITCHER. Ned Yost keeps trying to prove otherwise, and he keeps getting burned. I don’t think Crow is one of the 25 best players on this team, and I think you can make a very strong case that he should not be on the Royals’ playoff roster. And I’m damn sure that he has no business in being used in any fashion other than as a mop-up man or as a human victory cigar in a 10-1 game."

  • Royals Authority – retrospective on about clinching the Royals first division title in 1976:

"“The first would always be the best.” Seems fitting now we are two generations removed from that moment. There are plenty of Royals fans who have never experienced anything like what was described above. I’m trying really hard here to not take anything for granted. So let’s enjoy the weekend. And hope the 2014 Royals give us a moment like that."

"Josh Willingham has told Twins beat writer Mike Bernadino that he plans to retire at the end of the season. Willingham, age 35, is still a productive player, hitting .218/.349/.401 with 14 HR 40 RBI in 361 plate appearances this year, but has suffered from back and groin injuries that have kept him out of the lineup recently. The Royals acquired Willingham from Minnesota for pitcher Jason Adam back on August 11. Since joining the Royals, he has hit .243/.361/.400 with 2 HR 6 RBI in 83 plate appearances."

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

"Obviously at this point we’re just hoping that Catapano gets healthy. Forget about football — whatever the illness is, it’s serious to sideline him for an entire year. Here’s to hoping Catapano makes a return to the field at some point after this season."

KANSAS STATE WILDCATS

  • KStateSports.com – Tyler Lockert makes the semi-finals for the Campbell Trophy:

"Lockett, one of 62 semifinalists from the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), is the first K-State candidate for the award since Tysyn Hartman was a finalist in 2011. The award recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation and hold requirements of candidates to be a senior or graduate student in their final year of eligibility, have a GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale, have outstanding football ability as a first team player or significant contributor and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship."

MISSOURI TIGERS

"The offensive line played poorly against a less than stellar Indiana defensive unit. Mauk took a few too many big hits than the coaching staff would like while struggling to open holes for running backs Russell Hansbrough and Marcus Murphy."

There you have it KC fans, the news Around the Kingdom.

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