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

I was struggling to come up with a third topic of interest today when the Kansas City Royals came through for me.

So here is that breaking news, along with a couple of other stories that caught my attention.

:: Mercifully, the Royals have traded Jorge Soler, one of the most annoying baseball players I’ve ever seen. This afternoon, less than an hour before the 3 p.m. trading deadline, the Royals sent Soler to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for minor-league pitching prospect.

One reason I’ve watched so few Royals’ games this year (besides the fact that they’re very bad) is that it pains me to watch Soler. Not only is he a terrible hitter (batting average .192, which is less than two hits for every 10 at-bats) but, as I’ve said before, it looks to me like he’s not very interested. He has zero intensity, makes an adventure out of playing the outfield and, then, of course, there’s his ridiculous insistence on keeping his back left pants pocket turned inside out. He’s bush league all the way, and it’s great that we won’t have to watch him any longer.

We can all be thankful that Soler’s bat got hot the last week or so and that he hit a bunch of home runs. Had that not happened, no team probably would have been tempted. Before today, I thought majority owner John Sherman would very likely fire General Manager Dayton Moore at season’s end. That still could happen, but at least this is an admission by Moore that the acquisition of Soler from the Chicago Cubs in 2016 (for Wade Davis) was a huge mistake. Although Moore and Royals’ fans are catching a break with Soler’s departure, it might be too late for Moore.

:: While waiting in a doctor’s office this morning, I was reading a New York Times story about former Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick having been charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 1974. Suddenly, a line brought me to a halt. The line was: “Mr. McCarrick, who now lives in Missouri, was charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person age 14 or over and is expected to appear for arraignment on Sept. 3.”

Now you know what startled me: the 91-year-old McCarrick lives lives among us in Missouri. I put down the paper and quickly began Googling McCarrick and Missouri. A few stories in, I found a USA Today story that said McCarrick lives at the St. John Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, MO. Next, I Googlemapped Dittmer and found that it’s about 30 miles southwest of St. Louis…At least he’s not in our area!

The USA Today story said the renewal center was a home for “troubled priests” and “clerics who have committed sexual abuse.” It said eight registered sex offenders live at the center. A story I read later on the BishopAccountability.org website referred to the center as “Club Ped” and said it is run by an order of Catholic priests called the Servants of the Paraclete.

Now, McCarrick was a high-profile pedophile before these criminal charges were brought, having been expelled from the priesthood in 2019. Yet, here he is living in Missouri, with the church still providing him room and board and a nice lifestyle. The website said, “Residents enjoy an outdoor Jacuzzi, hiking trails, picnic tables, basketball hoops, satellite TV, maid service and cooking staff.”

That just makes you sick, doesn’t it? All I can say is that if you ever get a solicitation from the Servants of the Paraclete, put it straight into the recycling.

:: I don’t write about or read The Star very much these day because, like Soler, it’s bad and annoying.

In recent days, though, I found myself scouring the website for news and commentary about the ground-breaking story of Texas and Oklahoma jumping from the Big 12 (actually 10) to the superpower SEC. The sports side of the paper has eroded slower than the news side, and I thought columnists Vahe Gregorian and Sam Mellinger, or at least longtime college reporter Blair Kerkhoff, would bring some enlightenment. Hasn’t happened. To the best of my knowledge, neither Gregorian nor Mellinger has devoted a column to it, and I’ve only seen one Kerkhoff story on the subject.

Picking up the slack has been Kellis Robinett, who covers K-State for The Star. And his stuff hasn’t been particularly insightful.

The most authoritative reports I’ve seen have come from Dennis Dodd, a former Star sports reporter, who has been with the CBS Sports since 1998. From The Star, I remember Dodd as an intense young man with a head of black hair. Now he’s mellowed and, like me, is bald. (Funny how it’s shocking for me to see his bald head but not for me to see mine.)

Dodd, who still lives in the KC area, says he thinks the Longhorns and Sooners will join the SEC by the year 2023, even though they are contracted to stay through 2024-’25. He says he expects the two teams to be met with “a lot of rancor and a lot of bitterness” when they go up against the remaining Big 12 teams in sporting contests before they depart. “The more they play in this conference, the uglier it’s going to get,” he said.

And as for the Big 12, he’s not bullish on its future as a stand-alone conference. “I think the dominoes are going to start falling quickly,” he said.

…That’s it for today, readers. Have a nice weekend, slow down on the roads and pray for rain.