First, thanks to you repeat visitors for continuing to read the dated posts on this blog.
Believe me, you haven’t wasted your time because I will soon be conducting a quiz over the last two months’ of posts. The winner — hold on now — will get free tickets to the truck and tractor pull finals at the Missouri State Fair!
(That’s assuming the winner doesn’t mind 99-degree temperatures and 88 percent relative humidity. That’s almost a given, seeing as how the “pull” finals are Monday, Aug. 11.)
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But on with the shew…And are you lucky! Today, I’ve assembled a dynamite slide show. So, sit down, pop open a cool beverage (can’t go wrong with a Mexican Coke) and fix your eyes on the big screen.
Click, click…Here’s the most casual-looking Kansas City Royal, Alex Gordon, sliding into home plate Monday night and blowing a bubble in mid-slide…Folks, you can’t teach that stuff; Gordo truly is The Natural.
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Click, click…Here’s Martin Kaymer, the German who won the U.S. Open Golf tournament by eight strokes, after holing a par putt on No. 18 to close out the victory at Pinehurst, NC, on Sunday. (I attended the first two rounds of the tournament, last Thursday and Friday, and got to see Kaymer and many of the other pros up close.)
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Click, click…Here is, without question, one of the biggest turds who ever came through Kansas City. John Covington won everybody over as the prospective savior of the Kansas City School District, then suddenly and inexplicably left us in the lurch to take a job in Michigan…Is it any surprise that he has now quit the job he jumped to? In a statement, Covington said he was bailing to care for his ailing mother in Alabama and start a consulting business. I can’t wait for the next Covington report, which will probably go something like this: His mother died while he was on a fishing trip and he’s decided to leave the consulting business to build Habitat for Humanity houses.
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Click, click…Here’s another guy who should be in the Kansas City Charlatans Hall of Fame. A court has ruled that yet another Clay Chastain light-rail proposal should go on a Kansas City election ballot…Now, I ask you: How can anyone take seriously anything that this blowhard has to offer for the city he abandoned several years ago. Keep your medicine-man show in Virginia, Clay!
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Click, click…Here are a group of people excitedly awaiting Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s announcement of yet another tax redu….Oh, wait. I stand corrected. It’s soccer fans at the Power & Light District celebrating the U.S. team’s victory World Cup over Ghana Monday night.
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Click, click…Here’s a General Motors ignition switch…Boy, am I glad I switched to Fords!
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Click, click…Here’s Stacy Lewis, one of America’s best hopes to win the U.S. Women’s Open. The tournament is this week, and it’s being played at Pinehurst No. 2, the same course where the men competed this past weekend. It’s a first: Back to back men’s and women’s opens at the same course…This photo was taken just after Lewis won last year’s Women’s British Open championship. (P.S. Stacy is one of many top women pros scheduled to compete next week in the Walmart Northwest Arkansas Championship just down I-49 in Rogers.)
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
If only you had tickets to see Florida Georgia Line, I might be interested…I grew up driving tractors in 90 degree heat, don’t need to live that again!
I see that they’re playing on Wednesday, the 13th…Is Marissa making you take her?
…I do have a ticket to see Martina McBride Sept. 6 in Wabash, IN, and I wouldn’t give that ticket up for anything. I saw her in Salina on opening night of her current tour. She and her throwback band, complete with horn section and Motown-type backup singers, were tremndous.
What’s a tractor?
Well, let’s see…I think I can best describe it as a piece of farm machinery chews up a lot of dirt. Don’t ask me why…
Oh sure, screw around watching golf when you promised to move on after that last failed post. Where are my pictures of the US World Cup Soccer Team? If you get on the plane now you should be able to catch Sunday’s game against Portugal. This is cutting edge stuff. Golf, not so much.
I think Hearne’s covering the World Cup, John…
I will also point out that that failed post was about horse racing, a marginalized sport, I readily concede…I thought a little baseball and golf might get a more stirring reaction.
Your posts are still coming to old email address, not new one: ridgeshannon@gmail.com
After watching soccer I find it almost impossible to watch baseball anymore.
Oh, by the way, The Pitch has a nice piece on the airport out today.
Here’s a link to that Pitch article, written by Steve Vockrodt, one of at least two very good reporters on that staff.
It’s an interesting story but, to me, not the “gotcha” that Vockrodt tries to portray it. (Be sure to read the comments.)