The battle for fourth place continues tonight in Cleveland. Sorta ironic timing for this series, as I spent most of the summer in Cleveland and got married there on the 16th.

Unfortunately, the Royals just missed me, or me them...

The Royals are 4-4 against the Tribe in 2008.

Longtime readers will note that I'm something of a radio geek. While the Royals have one of the largest and most geographically interesting radio networks, they certainly aren't alone. With the Continental U.S. nearly saturated with Major League Baseball and hundreds of thousands of radio stations large and small there are scores of curious and interesting couplings that have popped up. Here are a few that I have found:

Sikeston, Missouri (KRHW AM-1520)/ Los Angeles Dodgers: The Dodger Radio Network isn't quite the regional giant that it once was - although two affiliates remain as far east as New Mexico -- as a once wide-open West has been pretty much claimed, if not over-claimed by newer franchises like the Padres, Angels, Mariners, D'Backs and Rockies. Just this year however, the Dodgers added an affiliate in Sikeston, Missouri, thanks to the emergence of hometown boy Blake DeWitt. Located south of Cape Girardeau, Sikeston is a minor Dodger outpost in Cardinals Country. Over the years, we've seen a number of hometown affiliates pop up like this and in a way they are the least interesting type of interesting radio affiliates.

Marshfield, Missouri (KMRF AM-1510): The White Sox have some notable Missouri boys on their roster (Crede, Buerhle) but as far as I can tell none of them are from Marshfield, a town of 5700 outside of Springfield. If there isn't a hometown boy connection, then this would truly be one of the oddest radio affiliates in the United States, considering that the White Sox have a geographically tiny fanbase and that Marshfield is a random dot in Missouri, and one far west of the northeastern portion of the state that could have some Sox fans. To say nothing of the fact of the clear fact that, even if we assume not everyone might not be a Cardinals fan, there's the little fact of the Royals. If anyone knows more about this, I'd love to hear from you.

Hilo, HI (KPUA AM-670)/ San Fransisco Giants: The Hilo affiliate is even more interesting than the Giants station in Honolulu. Everyone knows about the wide-ranging Mariner network, but I was surprised to see the Giants with such a large foothold in the Sandwich Islands. You show up in Hilo, and you've made a commitment. Unbeknownst to everyone on the mainland, Hawaii is the site of an epic battle between the Giants and the Mariners.

Ashland, WI (WATW AM-1400) Milwaukee Brewers: The Brewers have a pretty boring radio network by Midwestern standards, as they have no out of state affiliates. None in Iowa, none in Minnesota, none in the UP of Michigan, none in Illinois. Nope, just Wisconsin. In a way, its a pretty damning indication of just how few Brewers fans there probably are (as a Royals fan, I should talk). Still, within the confines of Wisconsin and standards of the Brewers Radio Network, Ashland represents the faraway. Three hundred and fifty miles from Milwaukee, Ashland sits on the southern shore of Lake Superior and is home to less than 10,000 people. Savor her loyalty Milwaukee.

Mt. Carmel, IL (WVMA AM-1360) / Cincinnati Reds: While a Reds affiliate in Indiana might be more expected, the lone affiliate in Illinois sticks out like David Eckstein in the weightroom. Once a radio giant in the strange, hard to define region of the upper South/eastern Midwest/Appalachian area that is the Reds stronghold, Cincinnati's radio network has shrunk drastically from its seventies heyday. Mt. Carmel is about as far from Chicago as it is from Cincy (about 250 miles), although its actually much closer to St. Louis (150 miles) than either C-behemoth.

Hermosillo, Mexico (XEHOS AM-1540)/ Arizona Diamondbacks: The D'backs have carved out a nice little radio network in a short time, making strong inroads east into New Mexico, a state which has long been quietly loyal to the Dodgers and, in certain pockets, the Texas Rangers. Five New Mexico affiliates are nothing compared to having one in Old Mexico. Part of Arizona's three-city Spanish Radio Network, Hermosillo is the only Mexican city to be listed as an official network affiliate, though numerous teams can be heard across the border. The capital of the Mexican state of Sonora, Hermosillo is home to over 700,000 people and is roughly two hours inland from the border at Nogales.

Springville, New York (WSPQ AM-1330)/ Toronto Blue Jays: The Jays' lone American affiliate, Springville is an interesting sister affiliate to Hermosillo in a way. Overall, the Jays Network can be thought of as really two networks in one: a core in Ontario that functions like a standard regional model, along with a wider set of major Canadian cities, in line with their status as Canada's team. Thus, Jays games can be heard from Vancouver, B.C. to Halifax, Nova Scotia. While Springville is in upstate New York, nestled as it is in Buffalo's MSA, it isn't quite the rural hamlet one might expect to be selling out to the Canadians. For what its worth, the now defunct Montreal Expos once had affiliates in New Hampshire, Vermont and New York.

Omaha, NE (KOZN AM-1620)/ Chicago Cubs: This one hurts. Sure, the Cubs have established themselves as Red Sox-East and built up a huge, self-obsessed fanbase and scores of annoying fans who invade road ballparks and who venerate a tiny ancient stadium and declare themselves lovable losers despite a huge payroll. I can accept all that. But a radio affiliate in Omaha? I double-checked this one, and reference to the Cubs is all over the KOZN website. Having lived in parts of Indiana and Iowa that were solidly part of the Cubdom, I have come to fear all things Cubbie Blue. Moreover, the continuing strength of the Cub brand in Iowa and, potentially Nebraska, is a serious blow to the Royals, who are already fighting a losing battle with the Cardinals on the eastern front as well.

I'm leaving for my honeymoon (Ireland, mainly the West and the Aran Islands) in about an hour, and just wanted to remind everyone that the site is in your hands over the next 10 days.

All the Game Threads are pre-programmed to appear at the right times (though if we have a rainout or something...) and I've also mixed in a few extra stories that will appear magically later this week.

NHZ and NYRoyal will be moderating the site as well in my absence, so essentially, if I wasn't mentioning it right now, many people would not even notice the change.

The wedding was on Saturday and somehow both Mary and I managed not to faint or mess up things too badly, and it seemed like everything at the reception etc. went well and that, most importantly, people were having fun. (The first stop of the bachelor party on Thursday was the Indians-Orioles game, which was also fun and completely random.) Yesterday, my return to semi-normal life began with checking the Royals score and seeing that Banny had been lit up for ten runs and didn't escape the second inning. Yikes.

Peace out and go Royals,

Will

Who is the greatest Kansas State baseball player in Major League history?

For my money, it would probably have to be Ted Power, no?

Within the wider subculture of broadcast jockdom, each sport has its own little accents and memes. When you watch a football game the camera inevitably finds the most insane looking fans, people with no shirt and lots of body paint looking fierce and properly deranged. When you watch a basketball game, the camera shows hotties in the stands and any celebrities in the first row. And baseball... baseball games are a non stop montage of children. Children eating cotton candy, children eating hot dogs, children holding gigantic gloves.

To a lager extent than football and basketball, baseball likes to pretend its a nineteenth century pasttime, all Field of Dreams mauldin romanticism, summer nights with white people and fireworks. Although baseball has a much larger pseudo-intellectual and poetic infrastructure than other American sports, that structure is anti-intellectual, which leads to strange ironies like George Will and Buzz Bissinger types devoting reams of purple prose and highfalutin language to basically saying the game is a simple thing of hunches and grit, in tune with America's mythical pastoral heritage. Thus, although football is much more a game of brute effort and testosterone, Moneyball-esque thinking, analysis and a simple willingness to be innovative has been much more at home in football culture.

Related to this is the strange way that generic baseball sqwarkers talk, which tends to gravitate towards a psuedo-Southern accent (as opposed to football speak, which is all Rust Belt).  One little phrase I've noticed quite frequently this summer, from television to radio, from live games to highlights, from local to national broadcasts, is "some kind of".  

Derek Jeter is some kind of player.

Those Angels have turned in to some kind of baseball team.

Cliff Lee is on some kind of roll right now.

Importantly, you've got to say "some kind of" like "summm kinda" as in "Albert Pujols is summm kinda anchor for that Cardinals lineup."

If you think about it, its a strange phrase. On one hand, it works as an understatement, with the speaker saying "some kind of" instead of the "awesome" or "impressive" or "powerful" or whatever. Understatement is already the height of wit on ESPN, and is especially favored by the NFL types like Trey Wingo. Watch NFL Live any random time, a variation of "that Peyton Manning guy, he's a little good". There's an element of that in "some kind of", but that isn't the whole story. No, you might also say "some kind of" because Jeter's clutchness is actually so magnificent that you legitimately cannot describe it in human language. Or, at least in the humble language of any self-respecting baseball man, who is just a simple fellow of course, who just likes mowing his yard and feeding kids homemade ice cream and following the hunches of the manager.

Curiously, the most egregious abusers of "some kind of" are the latest scions of the broadcasting dynasties: Joe Buck, Chip Caray and Thom Brennamen. All three have their strengths and weakness I suppose, but also represent perfectly how the awe-shucks anti-intellectualism that pervades the sport also serves those who already have a natural foot inside the door of the industry.

Royals fans however, are some kind of lucky that Denny Matthews isn't a part of this trend.

Royal legend Terry Shumpert (stats) was born on this day back in 1966.

Amazingly, Shumpert played in fourteen big league seasons, yet never made a million dollars in a year.

He will always be a true Royal however.

The Yankees are desperate for wins, the Royals are just desperate.

The Royals are 4-3 against the Yankees this year.

As a side note, I get married tomorrow, so I won't be around for the game thread tonight.

Your pitching matchup is Davies (4.66 ERA) v. Carrasco (2.57 ERA).

As I've stated before, Carrasco was always one of my favorite Royals back when he was one of ours. In my memory he was always bouncing back and forth between Omaha and KC, mixing in DL-trips along the way. Still, whether he was starting or working out of the 'pen, he was never terrible, which from 03-05 was enough to stand out. (His ERA+s in KC: 03: 102; 04:99; 05:92.)

Hochevar (5.54 ERA) v. Buehrle (3.94 ERA)

The Royals have already faced Buehrle three times this season (5.30 ERA). It seems like more.

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