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Around the Kingdom: Ben Zobrist, Brandon Flowers, Andy Reid, Jordan Clarkson

By John Viril

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Jul 7, 2014; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Rays second baseman

Ben Zobrist

(18) at bat against the Kansas City Royals at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Salvador Perez started for the American League at catcher in Tuesday’s All-Star game, while Kansas City Royals reliever Greg Holland pitched a scoreless 7th inning in the A.L’s 5-3 win at Target Field in Minneapolis. Alex Gordon was also named to the team but did not play due to a wrist injury.

Perez went hitless in his his one at bat while Holland looked like his normal, dominant self. It’s good to see Royals All-Stars who both belong in the game and perform well. Those things haven’t always been true in the fairly recent past.

David Glass commented that this was not a “make or break” season for Dayton Moore. However, the vote of confidence only happens when a manager or GM is in trouble. Many times it ends up being the kiss of death.

If the Royals don’t make the playoffs, we’ll see if Glass was just quelling public heat on his team, or if he really meant what he said. We will also find out if the Royals are truly “committed” to making the playoffs this season by what they do to improve the club with the trading deadline looming.

Sporting KC suffered through a couple of frustrating travel days due to flight cancellations. The incident tells us that soccer still has quite a ways to go in this country, because the major sports leagues all fly charters to avoid such problems. MLS is still flying commercial.

For NBA rookies that fell outside the 1st round, summer league games are an important step in making an NBA roster. Right now, Missouri grad—and L.A. Laker 2nd round draft choice—Jordan Clarkson is seizing his opportunity by tearing up the Las Vegas Summer League.

KANSAS CITY ROYALS

  • Kings of Kauffman – David Hill picks his all-tome Royals All-Star team, part 1 and part 2
  • Royals Review – Tyler Drenon considers trading for Ben Zobrist:

"Well, I don’t know about you, but I would. Dozier has looked great in the first 150 games or so. It would be fantastic if he continued to improve and made his way to Triple-A, and then continued to improve and earned a promotion to the majors, and then continued to improve enough to stay in the majors, and perhaps, maybe someday be half as good as Ben Zobrist."

"A few years into this new playoff scheme, teams haven’t figured how to manage the second Wild Card. It inevitably creates an illusion of “being in the thick” of the race. It’s rare when five teams create separation between themselves and the rest of the league. What it does is creates a logjam of teams, jockeying for a single position, inert at the trading deadline, and mortgaging the future for a present where the odds are stacked against them."

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

"On Tuesday, Flowers said that he’s the NFL’s best corner — which obviously isn’t true, but hey, if you don’t think you’re the best, what’s the point of playing? — and also that he chose the Chargers over the 49ers for revenge (via a Tweet from — I’m sorry — Skip Bayless). That’s not revenge against the 49ers per se, but rather revenge against the Kansas City Chiefs, the team that released him."

SPORTING KC

"A group of 13 players and a trainer flew to New York, but only after a four-hour delay. Then they boarded a plane for Columbus … and waited on the tarmac for three hours before that flight was canceled.So the players all found hotel rooms for the night and came back to the LaGuardia this morning, where their flight was canceled again."

MISSOURI TIGERS

  • MUTIGERS.com – Jordan Clarkson continues to perform in the Las Vegas Summer League:

"“I think Clarkson has great explosiveness going to the basket. He has a tremendous pull-up jumper,” Lakers’ Associate Head Coach Mark Madsen told ESPN LA. “But the thing about Jordan Clarkson is he’s always at the right place at the right time. And we saw that on the tip-in."

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

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/the-full-90/article731048.html#storylink=cpy

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