
May 16
Buddy Hudson, first black basketball player at Oklahoma, dies at 75 in KC
Harold “Buddy” Hudson, the first black basketball player at the University of Oklahoma, died Tuesday of a heart attack in Kansas City. He was 75.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Harold “Buddy” Hudson, the first black basketball player at the University of Oklahoma, died Tuesday of a heart attack in Kansas City. He was 75.

Sam Mellinger looked at Royals catcher Salvy Perez's OPS+, which says Perez is off to a slightly better start offensively than ahem Joe Mauer. Now, obviously this doesnt mean Perez is going to win batting titles and lead the league in batting, on-base and slugging someday like Mauer has. But it is a strong point that his bat is coming along much faster than most scouts thought.

Everybody loves the big pitching matchups your ace faces their ace but those games are toss-ups, and either team could win. Then there are the games you should win and cant afford to lose; not if youre going to put together a winning record. This was a game the Royals should have won and did. Beating up on bad teams is what good teams do.

The Chiefs have signed fullback Braden Wilson of Kansas State, the second of the team’s two sixth-round draft picks. Wilson is the fourth of Kansas City’s eight selections to sign with the club.

A seven-run third inning and an eight-run lead and, still, it seemed like the Royals had to hang on all night Wednesday before securing a 9-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Fred White, who teamed with Denny Matthews as the Royals’ primary broadcast team from 1973 to 1998, died Wednesday of complications from melanoma. His death came one day after he officially retired from the Royals following a 40-year association with the club. He was 76.

Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe made some bold predictions Wednesday as the Chiefs continued their offseason program at their Truman Sports Complex practice facility.
Reigning MLS All-Star and goalkeeper of the year Jimmy Nielsen of Sporting Kansas City opens up about his gambling addiction as well as his professional soccer career in a new autobiography, which Ascend Books released this week.
Huskies blank Shawnee Mission West 7-0 in the first game and shut out SM East 4-0 in the Northeast Region 2 championship game.
Cruz Pedregon owns his own Funny Car team. He tunes the car himself as the crew chief. And then he races the Snap-on Tools Toyota down the drag strip.

Outfielder Bubba Starling left his Low-A team in Lexington on Wednesday and traveled to Kansas City, where he may have Lasik surgery. Starling said he has had trouble seeing the ball at night.
Like everyone else, Kansas State basketball coach Bruce Weber’s expectations for next season dropped when Angel Rodriguez transferred to Miami.
Four golfers with ties to the Kansas City area are set to play in the HP Byron Nelson Championship starting today in Irving, Texas.
William Chrisman High School senior Nieka Wheeler is a basketball player who was featured in many scouting reports in the recently completed season. She led the Bears in scoring and rebounding, averaging 18.3 points and 10.1 rebounds per game.
When asked to analyze her girls' track team before the season, Liberty High School coach Pam Koch replied confidently that the spring could feature one of the school's better squads in her 16-year coaching tenure.
Kansas State has played a nonconference basketball game at the Sprint Center in each of the past six years, but that streak is unlikely to continue.

People are calling Andrew Wiggins the best high school basketball talent since Lebron James. Over the next year, depending in part on how Wiggins does at KU, you will hear that line be twisted into "The Next LeBron" or "as good as LeBron" or maybe even "better than LeBron." And Sam Mellinger hopes we can all shout down whomever says that.
Isaac Kreuer, a 6-10 front liner from Kansas City, signed with the UMKC basketball team, the school announced Wednesday.
Hall of Famer George Brett, who turned 60 on Wednesday, played his entire 21-year baseball career with the Royals, and he's still very much involved with the team. The Royals drafted him in 1971, he hit .390 in 1980, had a little trouble with pine tar in 1983, won the World Series in 1985 and was inducted into the Hall in 1999.

Going into the Angels game, Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie had a string of 18 starts without a loss but that was snapped Tuesday night as the Royals fell 6-2. But he did throw seven innings. When a starting pitcher does not have his best stuff but hangs in there and finds a way to give his team innings, he may not help his team win that night, but he gives them a better shot at winning the next night.

Albert Pujols, Howie Kendrick, Josh Hamilton and Mike Trout each homered as the Los Angeles Angels beat the Royals 6-2 on Tuesday night in Anaheim, Calif., ending Kansas City starter Jeremy Guthries club-record streak of non-losing starts at 18.

Andrew Wiggins, the consensus No. 1 college basketball recruit in the country, announced Tuesday morning he will attend Kansas, picking the Jayhawks over three other finalists, Kentucky, Florida State and North Carolina.
Think about what KU basketball coach Bill Self pulled off Tuesday in landing consensus No. 1 recruit Andrew Wiggins. The 6-foot-7 Canadian star had long been linked with Florida State (where his parents played basketball) and Kentucky (where John Calipari collects five-star recruits like garden gnomes). Those schools have been in on him for years, building relationships and dreams long before Wiggins became the presumed No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.

All was good for Branden Albert in his long-awaited return to Chiefs camp Tuesday. His arrival was hailed by his coaches and teammates, and as the Chiefs continued their offseason practice, Albert took his spot at starting left tackle as he had been promised.
Broadcaster Fred White, who became an icon with the Royals over the last 40 years, announced his retirement Tuesday from the organization because of what the club characterized in a news release as recent health issues.

The latest lineup tweak Tuesday by Royals manager Ned Yost positioned Lorenzo Cain at the top of the order for the first time this season. “On days when (Jarrod) Dyson doesn’t play, I’ve got to have a No. 1 hitter,” Yost said. “For me right now, Cain is as good as anybody to give a look at.”
It’s not often that a highly recruited high school football player cancels a campus visit to Michigan and then commits to Kansas. But that’s what Kyron Watson, a 6-foot, 226-pound linebacker, did on Tuesday.
Senior finishes strong and shares title with Vianney junior. Hawklets finish second, while Park Hill South is sixth.

Cornerback Finis Stribling IV, who became Missouris ninth verbal commitment for the Class of 2014 on Monday, is the second defensive back in the 2014 class to commit to Missouri, joining East St. Louis safety Greg Taylor. Stribling is also the second prospect from Tennessee to commit, joining two-star receiver Thomas Richard from Nashville.

When word came that Kansas was the college choice of Andrew Wiggins, the 6-foot-7 forward from Huntington Prep in West Virginia who is considered the nation’s top college basketball prospect, Jayhawks coach Bill Self had scored the biggest recruiting victory of his decade-long KU tenure. But Wiggins also ranks among some of the biggest gets in KU history.
It appears as if free agent Akeem Jordan will get first crack at the vacant inside linebacker position in the Chiefs defense. Jordan played alongside Pro Bowler Derrick Johnson with the first-unit defense when the Chiefs conducted their first full-squad practice of the offseason Tuesday.
Kansas will play at Florida, West Virginia will play at Missouri and Mississippi will play at Kansas State this fall in the inaugural Big 12/SEC men’s basketball challenge.

Lacrosse is still a club sport at the high school level across Kansas City. Just don’t be fooled into thinking that it hasn’t arrived, or that it doesn’t have staying power.

On Monday night, the Royals slapped around a team that is currently 14-24 with a .368 winning percentage. The pitcher they beat, Joe Blanton, woke up this morning with an 0-7 record and a 6.46 ERA. Im not writing this to belittle Monday's win far from it. That was just the kind of game the Royals need to win to get where they want to go. But the Royals may not have done anything more to improve their performance than playing a worse team.
Missouri will be building a new softball stadium. Associate athletic director Tim Hickman confirmed over the weekend the building is now in the schools plans, though no site has been determined. He expects the stadium to cost in the neighborhood of $15 million.