Random thoughts....

The Missouri Tigers softball team pushed their record to 37-5 following a sweep of the double header against SLU on Wednesday night.  The Tigers, currently ranked 8th in the nation have now won 10 games in a row as they took down St Louis U. 5-1 and 7-4.  Kristin Nottelmann threw a complete game in the nightcap to move her record to 13-1 giving up 1 run and 6 hits, but also issuing 6 walks.  That would be troubling if it weren't for the fact that she's going to continue to be the number 2 pitcher behind Chelsea Thomas.  The Tigers head to Lincoln this weekend to battle Lady Hick Nation in a conference match up, one of the last meetings between the 2 schools as members of the Big XII as Big Red Fan will soon be driving their combines to such locations as Ann Arbor, Columbus and Happy Valley.  Adios hayseeds.

Speaking of Nebraska, former Husker Alex Gordon appears to finally be fulfilling the promise that Royals fans dreamed of when he was picked 2nd overall in the 2005 MLB draft.  AG is currently hitting .351 with 27 hits in 77 plate appearances and 14 RBI's and a home run.  It appears that moving Gordon from 3rd base to left field helped his concentration at the plate as well as the extra time he put in last winter working with Royals hitting coach Kevin Seitzer.  Whatever has changed this year, it's been a welcome sight for the Royals.  Yes, they have a lot of high profile rookies sitting in the minors, but Gordon, along with DH Billy Butler are a couple of hold overs that have plenty of upside and hopefully add some stability as guys like Hosmer, Moustakas and Montgomery make their way to the show. 

And continuing with baseball, MLB is taking over the day to day operations of the Los Angeles Dodgers from owner Frank McCourt, currently in financial trouble due to his divorce from hell from soon to be ex-wife Jamie.  Not content with the problems with his ex, it appears that McCourt will sue MLB in an effort to regain control of his team.  McCourt recently took a 30 million dollar loan from Fox to cover expenses into the next month and also may be having to answer some questions from the IRS about unpaid taxes on 145 million dollars they allegedly took from the team.  The attack on the San Francisco fan opening weekend, that left Bryan Stow in a medically induced coma also brings security measures into question.  This isn't exactly unprecedented as MLB took over the Montreal Expos from Jeffrey Loria until buyers could be found that moved the team to Washington.  However, the Dodgers are one of MLB's crown jewels.  It's probably going to get a lot messier before it ends and is an excellent argument for the marital pre-nup.

So far, it's been a beautiful spring

I'm not really talking about the weather, although that's picked up nicely also.  But Kansas City in the spring isn't usually something you look forward to if you're a sports fan.  It's almost the middle of April, about the time when you can realistically count the Royals out of the pennant race.  But when the boys in blue won 9-5 over the Detroit Tigers Sunday it moved the Royals record to 6-3.  I know there's only about 153 games to go, and more than likely the team will begin to swoon sooner than later, but if you don't mind, I'm going to enjoy this for a bit and do a little day dreaming about baseball in October.  After all, it's only been 26 years.

Outside of Kyle Davies, the starting pitching hasn't been terrible.  Hochevar went 7 pretty solid innings today following 6 innings by Bruce Chen yesterday.  The bullpen has been solid all season and the hitting has been timely.  Wilson Betemit let the charge yesterday, going 4 for 4 with a walk.  Cabrera, Francoeur and Escobar added 2 hits each and Luke Hochevar went 7 innings, giving up 4 runs and no walks.  He did give up 3 homers but otherwise it was a good effort.  The Royals have Monday off before starting a series in the Twin Cities against the slow starting Minnesota Twins.  Royals fans are dying for something to get excited about and right now the team is giving them reason to cheer.  Now if we'll just fill up the ball park for them.

Another reason to smile, especially if your a Missouri fan is the performance of the Tigers softball team.  The lady Tigers moved to 32-5 with a sweep of the Texa A&M Aggies Sunday by a score of 3-0.  Chelsae Thomas moved to 17-3 for the season with a complete game, allowing 4 hits while giving up 1 walk and striking out 9.  Rhea Taylor came out of her slump with 2 hits.  The Tigers are now 7-1 in conference and are a legitimate threat for a long run in post season play.  Yep, if you're living in Western Missouri, it's a good spring indeed.  If you'd like to read about these and other stories in depth, by some great journalists stop by my web site and hop over to current events, and let me know what you think.   

Women's softball picking up steam.

I know I said I was going to talk about men's basketball but really, you can't write about the end of a season if you aren't sure you still have a coach after it's ended.  I think that Mike Anderson is staying at Missouri, but I certainly wouldn't bet the mortgage on it.  And frankly, you don't, under any circumstances pay him more than you're paying Gary Pinkel, who's won 48 games in the last 5 seasons.  You just don't.  It's a tight rope that Mike Alden is walking here and seeing that it's the third year in a row he's had to walk it, I imagine he's getting pretty damn tired of it.  Mike Anderson has done a lot of things right, but I'm not going to pay him like you would a Bill Self, Roy Williams or Coach K yet.  I imagine if you were privy to Alden he'd tell you there are a million things he'd rather be doing than going through rumors every year that his basketball coach is being pursued by others with open check books.

One thing I know he'd like to talk about right now is the women's softball team and their coach Ehren Earleywine.  The Lady Tigers currently sit at 21-3 and on a 18 game winning streak.  After the 3-3 start which was made up of mostly warm weather teams while the Tigers were forced into training inside, they've been on fire.  The conference season will be starting soon and we'll get a better look at how the ladies stack up against some pretty good competition.  But the pre-season hopes of a conference title and a long run in the college softball world series look possible once again.

Chelsea Thomas and Kristin Nottelmann are both appearing to be unhittable right now and the Tigers are averaging over 6 runs a game with Ashley Fleming, Rhea Taylor, Jenna Marston and Nicole Hudson leading the way.  It's going to be really interesting to watch from this point, as the team at this point appears to be serious contenders to go all the way with their balance and youth.  And while I'm not that big a softball fan, it's a hell of a lot more fun to talk about than basketball.     

Missouri Tigers softball opens the season ranked 7th in the nation.

I realize that softball isn't one of the sports that gets many fans pulse racing.  It's way down the list from football, men's basketball, or baseball for that matter.  However, head coach Ehren Earleywine has built quite a successful program since his hiring in 2006.  Last season the Tigers won a school record 51 games and went to their 2nd consecutive college world series.  They finished ranked 8th in the nation.   This season the Tigers open the season with a # 7 national ranking and picked to finish 2nd in the Big XII behind defending champion Oklahoma.  Once again, 1981 graduate Phil Bradley returns as a volunteer assistant.  Nothing wrong with getting a guy that spent 8 years in the major leagues, including being voted to the all star team to work with the ladies for free.

Star pitcher Chelsae Thomas returns this year following a medical red shirt to give Mizzou a great 1-2 punch on the mound with junior Kristin Nottelmann who won 24 games last year while striking out 165 and an ERA of 1.25 in league play.  The offense is led by catcher Megan Christopher, Ashley Fleming, Marla Schweisberger and Rhea Taylor.  The recruiting class looks strong adding such players as Brianna Corwin from Kansas City, Taylor Duplechain from Pearland, TX, Maddison Ruggesberg from Davenport, IA and Mackenzie Sykes from Blue Springs.

The Lady Tigers opener is just around the corner as the Black & Gold game will be played on February 12th.  They'll travel to a warmer venue on February 18th when they travel to San Diego for the San Diego Classic tournament, followed by another trip to Tampa for the USF tournament.  The home opener is March 2nd with a double header against Drake University and the conference season begins on March 23rd when they travel to lawrence to face the lady beaks.  I'm not trying to sell anyone on this being the same sort of experience as Saturday afternoons at Faurot, but this is a team that can absolutely challenge for a national championship this year and they deserve some support.  I know I plan on making it out for a game or two and hope to see you there.