JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Remember all that talk from spring training about the Royals going back to speed and defense?

I guess management sold us another Trojan Horse…Somebody forgot to tell us the team has no hitting or pitching.

This is a team that only Rex Hudler could love. Last night, for example, on the pre-game show, Rex looked into his never-foggy crystal ball and predicted the Royals were going to beat the league-leading, heavy-hitting Seattle Mariners. Over the winter, the Mariners disdained a move to speed and defense and instead opted for power hitters.

The pitching match-up was journeyman Homer Bailey for the Royals (Homer is a career 67-game winner) and Felix Hernandez, a 169-game winner, for the Mariners.

Fortunately for the Royals, Hernandez was ill and came out after one inning. Bailey was going along alright, but the turning point came with two out in the top of the fifth inning, with the Royals leading 4-2 and the Mariners having runners on second and third.

At that critical juncture, as Bailey was pitching to Domingo Santana, Hudler announced, “I think we’ve got ourselves  a good starting pitcher.”

A pitch or two later, Santana mashed a base hit to left field, and the runners on second and third came home to tie the game.

I thought to myself, “Couldn’t Hud have just waited a few more pitches before making the judgment call on Bailey?”

Homer

Manager Ned Yost sent Bailey back out to the mound to start the sixth inning. The first batter hit a home run; the second walked; and the third singled. Yost then pulled Bailey, but the party was on for the Mariners, who sent another nine batters to the plate and scored an additional seven runs.

By the time a pitcher named Scott Barlow recorded the third out for the Royals, the Mariners led 12-3.

I stopped watching after Homer gave up the game-tying hit to Santana. The final score was 13-5.

Last year, the Royals went 58 and 104, and now — at 2 and 7 — they’re on pace to lose about 120.

I know this is crazy, but I think a loss record approaching 120 might test even Rex’s unbridled enthusiasm.

**

I was sorry to read in The Star that the Tivoli Cinemas are closing. I’ve been there many times over the years, but when Patty, Brooks and I were talking about the closing last night, it occurred to the three of us we had not been to the Tivoli very much in recent years. And that’s the main reason the place is closing: Not enough people have been going.

I think the last movie I saw there was “Puzzle,” a 2018 movie about an unfulfilled housewife whose life changes dramatically after she discovers she has a facility for working jigsaw puzzles. You’re just not going to see movies like that at the mainstream theaters.

The long staircase at the Tivoli

With the demise of the Tivoli, we still have Brian Mossman’s Fine Arts theaters in Overland Park. He has the Rio at 80th and Metcalf and the Glenwood Arts theaters at the Ranch Mart Shopping Center.

But as Mossman told The Star’s Joyce Smith, the Tivoli’s closing is “just a sad day for Kansas City, for the arts.”

**

Let’s end on a happier note. The Star recently ran a wonderful guest commentary by Mindy Corporan, whose father, William Corporan, and son, Reat Underwood, were killed April 13, 2014, by a wacko outside the Jewish Community Center.

Accompanying the commentary is a video of a meeting between Mindy Corporan and Sunayana Dumala, whose husband Srinivas Kuchibhotla was killed by another wacko on Feb. 22, 2017, at a bar in Olathe.

I urge you to check out the video. The two women touchingly talk about the friendship that developed between them after Mindy reached out to Sunayana.

Sunayana and Srinivas

Sunyana says in the video that Mindy related how waves of grief would suddenly overcome her and that it was part of a natural grieving process.

“It was a comforting feeling,” Sunayana says, “that there was this one person who I can share my pain (with) and who can relate to me and who can be on my side and guide me through that process…She has become more of a special friend and mentor.”

Mindy

As Sunyana speaks, Mindy looks at Sunayana, smiling gently and nodding.

It’s a video of two strong and beautiful women — one Hindu, one Christian — coming together almost out of necessity and under incredible duress. The deeds that brought them together are among the worst that have ever occurred in our area, but it is inspiring and uplifting to see something so good come out of those deeds.

P.S. The only thing I was sorry to see in Mindy’s commentary was that she and her husband and their surviving son Lukas apparently have moved to Florida in order to help Lukas get a new start in life.