Mellinger Minutes: maskless at The K, Royals stabilize (?), Chiefs worries ... and UFOs
The Royals are dropping their mask mandate for vaccinated fans, and there’s part of me that doesn’t want to write about it because *gestures at everything* ... but there’s a bigger part of that is filled with joy.
There are too many of us who mark too much of life through sports, and we all understand the Royals are doing the same thing a lot of businesses are doing after the CDC loosened its recommendations last week.
Target, Costco, Trader Joe’s, Walmart and Starbucks are some of the major merchants no longer requiring masks for vaccinated customers. I’m still trying to figure out which local businesses are staying strict. It’s sometimes hard to tell.
But anyway, opening Kauffman Stadium like this feels particularly meaningful. Baseball. Hope. Smiles. Conversation. All of that.
To be honest, this probably could have been done earlier. We’re on the honor system, so there’s no way to know who’s vaccinated and who’s not, but the science says outdoor spread is very unlikely. During the Royals’ last homestand, it was fairly obvious that the Royals weren’t enforcing masks with any vigor.
Some of this has to be a business decision. More people will buy tickets if they don’t have to sit in the sun with a mask on for three hours, but I also think it’s fair to say that sports have generally been at the front with signs of progress.
The NWSL was the first American pro sports league to return last June, at a time when many Americans had canceled travel. Major League Baseball, MLS, the NBA and NHL followed soon after. MLS and some NFL teams — including the Chiefs — allowed fans back before many schools had reopened.
Each stitch of progress can feel weird or even dangerous to some, but these moves have been vetted by public health experts. There is no definitive or great answer to any of it, but as long as we can stay informed and make our own choices then what’s wrong with that?
Having fans back instead of cardboard cutouts is great, but there’s still something off about trying to enjoy a ballgame with a friend while wearing a mask.
This is one more step toward whatever the next normal will look like, and it’s coming as the teams in Wyandotte County — Sporting KC, KC NWSL and the Monarchs — have adjusted their mask policies and gone to full capacity (or will soon).
We’re not all the way back yet. Not particularly close, really. You can see that in stadium staff that will remain masked, and in how teams will continue to protect players from interacting with fans and media. In many stadiums, the first few rows of seats are kept empty, sometimes with protective plastic shields.
But this is progress. This is closer to how we’re supposed to live. It’ll be nice to see your faces again.
This week’s eating recommendation is the crab and chorizo fried rice at Extra Virgin, and the reading recommendation is John Branch on claiming the summit without reaching the top.
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OK. That’s all my begging. For now.
Well, yeah. The issue hasn’t been the record. The issue has been the path to this record.
I’ve told you guys before that I might be crazy for this, but I genuinely still think the Royals can be a good team. It’s the same stuff we’ve been saying, but they have a lot of good pieces, including some who’ve underperformed, and if they can get the bullpen figured out — more on this soon — they can play with anyone.
The biggest concern is the bullpen depth, which is part of why I’ve been talking about the need for more innings from the rotation, and the danger in Matheny’s tendency to use a lot of relievers.
This is a nuanced thing, because one of his strengths is a hyper focus on winning each game, and it’s just impossible to do both — you can’t be solely focused on today while also planning for tomorrow.
The Royals had some bad breaks conspire against them this weekend with some bullpen injuries and seven games in six days while trying to dig their way out of what turned into an 11-game losing streak.
So, assuming Josh Staumont (two days in a row and three of four) and Scott Barlow (two days in a row) were both unavailable, Matheny’s choice may have come down to Davis or Jake Brentz. With Tim Anderson and the top of the order due up, it’s not indefensible to use a right-handed pitcher with loads of experience in those situations.
The Royals still have a path to meaningful September baseball. The offense can be better than it’s been, and they’ll add talent with Adalberto Mondesi, Bobby Witt Jr., and others. We might see Jackson Kowar. The Royals have a lot of arms.
But the margins are small, particularly with the bullpen, and we’re seeing that lately. At least at the moment they just don’t have enough healthy and dependable relievers to cover a stretch of tight games.
The good news is that this isn’t an unexpected issue, and that they should be getting some guys back.
The bad news is that this shouldn’t be a team that goes 13 days between wins.
Those of us who still believe the Royals can compete into September do not have a good explanation for that one.
I know this is an oversimplification, but watch how much better the Royals get when Mondesi returns:
They’ll go from starting one of the league’s worst defensive shortstops to one of the best, plus potentially improve defensively at second base while injecting speed and power to the lineup.
That’s a significant upgrade. Then, if you want to dream a little — and let’s keep perspective about this, because he’s not going to be a superstar on Day 1 — you can think about what this will look like when Witt Jr. is up:
Merrifield, 2B
Santana, 1B
Perez, C
Soler, DH
Benintendi, LF
Dozier, RF
Witt, 3B
Taylor, CF
Mondesi, SS
The Royals will probably bat Mondesi higher than that, and I don’t love that this particular lineup has three right-handed hitters in a row, so feel free to move the pieces around but that’s got some potential and you’d still have some depth.
The quickest way for the Royals to improve might be for the starters to go deeper in games. In this stretch of seven games, the Royals required more than 4 innings from the bullpen three times — and that was with two of those games being just seven innings.
If the starters can more consistently get to at LEAST five and hopefully six innings, then everything behind them lines up a lot easier. I think you’d be surprised how quickly things could improve.
This is all easier said than done, but the good news is that between Kowar, Zimmer, Hahn, Bolanos, Jonathan Bowlan, Alec Marsh and perhaps some others the Royals have guys with big league talent that are currently not on the active roster for one reason or another.
The solutions exist in-house, but at the risk of saying something you’ve heard me say too often already, the margins are small and the 11-game losing streak will hang on their necks all summer.
If you’re the Twittering type, there’s an interesting follow called Ump Scorecards. They track every home plate umpire every game, judging them against the league average for misses and accuracy, with notable misses, well, noted.
What you’ll see is that most games are pretty good. Umpires have a difficult job, and they have specific and world class training for it. As a group they are good enough at their job that calling a wickedly nasty 92 mph slider that’s 2 inches off the plate a strike counts as a notable error.
But baseball is hard, and not just for the players, so you’ll see some bad misses and inconsistencies that show up in the data.
My general view is that none of this is new. There are complaints about officiating every year in every sport at every level.
Watch this fall: I bet you’ll find a story somewhere asking if this is the worst that NFL officiating has ever been.
My view is that we just have better technology than ever. We have more ways to quantify the misses, and we’re never looking at the correct calls.
The frustrating part for a fan is when we see that a call has been missed, but it stands on the field. We should never have more information than the humans involved.
Officials can blow calls, and swing games, and particularly in baseball the umpires have too much power. At a minimum the replay center should be run independently, and there should be a higher level of accountability when the performance isn’t up to reasonable standards.
But I also believe that as a society we both exaggerate and contribute to the problems in officiating.
We contribute to them by blasting officials with impunity, starting in youth sports. Nobody ever shakes an official’s hand for a particularly good game. Instead, we have people giving up their time for not much compensation and an earful of grief from self-righteous (and often drunk) fans.
Why would anyone choose that profession? And how could anyone believe we’re getting the best when this is how we treat those we have?
We exaggerate the problems in much the same way, blowing out of proportion the missed calls. Umpires are easy to blame. It’s harder to acknowledge that a pitcher who should not have been in the game in that situation predictably went double-sac bunt-single-HBP-single-wild pitch for the L.
Again: We need more accountability.
But that accountability should go both ways, because if and when we get to the point that umpires have to more publicly answer tough questions and face consequences, then we should also get to the point that complaining about correct calls brings accountability and consequences.
Let’s do one more about officiating…
The answer to all three of these questions is yes.
Yes, there is value, because now teams have to put some skin in the game to complain about umpires, and many if not most missed calls are corrected.
Yes, there is a prejudice for umpires to protect umpires, a prejudice that follows both human nature and what we see during games.
Yes, there is data that tracks review results, including on Baseball Savant.
We can see that tag plays and close plays at first accounted for nearly 75 percent of reviews last season, and that just 44.75 percent of all reviews overturned calls on the field.
Just thinking about this logically, that number should be much higher. Umpires allow teams a few moments to decide whether to challenge a call, and with some exceptions teams are incentivized to only challenge when they are at least fairly certain a call was missed.
If more than half of challenges are being rejected in that context, and the ones doing the rejecting are buddies with those whose judgment is being questioned, it stands to reason that we have umpires protecting umpires.
I want to be clear: this is not a criticism of umpires!
I would be prejudiced to protect my friends or coworkers, same as you would be.
This is why I’d like an independent group of trained umpires or rules experts to be making those decisions.
But I do want a strong disagreement on the record here with the people saying the whole system should be scrapped. Forty-four percent is logically too low, but that’s also hundreds of calls that were corrected.
Are we forgetting about how frustrating it was when none of those mistakes could be fixed?
I know he deleted a sort of cryptic tweet that made it sound like no deal will get done, and I might be out of touch on this one, but I still can’t imagine this is his last season with the Chiefs.
He’s just too important, and he has too many reasons to want to stay.
From the Chiefs’ side: Mathieu has completely remade that defense, both with his play and who he is. He’s just so smart, and committed to team, and a strong fit for what they like to do defensively. He is the single most important person in turning that junk defense of 2018 into something worthy of a Super Bowl championship.
From Mathieu’s side: He’s happy in a locker room he feels respected, and on a team he knows will be a consistent winner, which is a plus for his Hall of Fame chances — which are real and important to him. He can play the next few years as the best defensive player on a consistent Super Bowl threat. He’ll get paid here, too.
I just find it hard to believe that in that context — and with a cap that will go up next year, and then go WAY up in 2023 — the Chiefs and Mathieu can’t find an agreeable number and structure.
But that’s not really your question. You’re asking how he would play if an extension isn’t done.
And, honestly, I can’t imagine he’ll be much different either way. He’s an unusual guy. He’ll be locked in no matter what.
People need to chill out. That’s true in a lot of places, from politics to road rage to the internet in general. But there is something that feels specific and laughable about some of the stuff we do in sports.
Lucas Niang is an enormous human being and, in fact, his value as a football player is largely derived from his enormity. He’s got a bit of a gut, which puts him in great company among offensive linemen, and the video clip that got some people freaked out included the following traits:
- something like four seconds long.
- shot from like 60 yards away.
- shows him jogging.
- does not show him gobbling mozzarella sticks, drinking liquid fat, or vomiting.
- shot after more than nine months away from direct contact with the team, and nearly four months before the regular season starts.
Guys, what are we doing here?
I believe that Lucas Niang has the potential to be a very good football player, but just for a second let’s all assume the worst. Let’s assume that Niang is the first offensive lineman with a gut, and that he’s not just hopelessly obese but will lean into his new internet rep and become a competitive eater by Halloween.
He will have been a missed third-round pick, and the Chiefs will likely have Mike Remmers or Kyle Long starting at right tackle.
Save your freakouts for when you see Tyreek Hill go on a sour cream-only diet.
But, let’s stay on the Chiefs’ line…
The idea of trying out for an NFL team is so absurd I’m not even sure I can come with a decent joke. But one thing that I think goes unnoticed and unappreciated most of the time is the degree of detail put in by everyone on that field.
I would love to sit for an hour next to Tyrann Mathieu watching film. I would love to follow the quarterbacks around, and see all the people they touch, and inventory the details they have to keep front of mind.
The specialists are ridiculous. Did you know that James Winchester won’t consider it a good snap if the ball is perfectly on target but does a quarter of a rotation too many? These guys are different.
But the Chiefs hope the answer to your question is a trade. Because that would mean that everyone stays healthy and performs well enough to garner trade interest.
At the moment, the depth chart looks something like this:
LT: Orlando Brown, Martinas Rankin
LG: Joe Thuney, Nick Allegretti
C: Creed Humphrey, Austin Blythe
RG: LDT, Kyle Long, Trey Smith
RT: Mike Remmers, Lucas Niang
The Chiefs would probably have Blythe over Humphrey at this point, but you get the idea. That’s 11 guys, I didn’t mention Yasir Durant, Darryl Williams, Andrew Wylie or Prince Tega Wanogho.
A year ago, for Week 1, the Chiefs had nine offensive linemen on the 53.
So, if guys stay healthy the Chiefs are going to have more linemen than they can keep.
Remember a few years back when the Chiefs had enough line depth and traded Parker Ehinger to the Cowboys for Charvarius Ward just before the season?
There will always be some teams looking for line depth, and if the needy team has a position of strength that matches up well with the Chiefs, it could be a good move for both.
If the Chiefs feel good enough about Humphrey, then perhaps Blythe fills a need somewhere else. You could imagine someone like Wylie or Allegretti having at least some value.
It’s a strong position to be in, and at some point I will stop marveling at how completely and effectively the Chiefs appear to have remade their offensive line — younger, better, and at least for 2021 cheaper — but that point is not now.
I’m not sure I agree with how you’ve framed it. Reporters and columnists have had radio shows or regular segments for decades.
I’ve done a regular segment on the Border Patrol for years. Before that, I was offered a local show, but it didn’t work out for a few reasons. The podcast that has my name on it but Savanna Smith’s work behind it just celebrated its one-year anniversary*.
* We took it out to dinner, but it wouldn’t shut up. Sorry. I’ll leave soon**.
** But, anyway, now that you FORCED me to bring up the podcast I am again going to shamelessly beg you to give it a listen, smash the subscribe button, and then joyously give us 5-stars and a glowing review.
So I disagree with the term “trend,” because that implies this is new. I would argue that podcasts are similar to radio shows, which would make them an extension of something that’s existed for decades.
I’d also disagree with the term “pseudo radio personalities,” and maybe this is just a personal thing, but to me that implies something artificial. Like you’re going on a show and playing a character. I know some people do that, but I don’t.
This could be obnoxiously meta, but I’ve always thought the purpose of my weird job is to help people better connect with and understand their favorite teams. The most natural medium for me is what we’re doing here, interacting, through written words.
But in 2021 that shouldn’t be the extent of it. I don’t particularly like video. I find it a bad way to connect, which might sound weird, but for me it puts the focus on the wrong thing. I don’t know if you agree, but I have a much better recall from things I’ve read or heard than I do with video — unless the visual adds to the point, like a film breakdown or a joke or whatever.
I have to be honest here. There was a time not too long ago that I was wondering if the podcast was worth the trouble. I just didn’t know. Would that time be better spent on another column? Or working on bigger, long-term stuff?
Then I was messing around online, trying to answer a nice listener’s question when I stumbled upon the reviews. And you guys are amazing. I realized I never asked you to rate or review — rookie mistake! — so I was blown away to see all the 5-star ratings and kind reviews. I appreciate it more than you know.
This has turned into a #Humblebrag, which was not my intention. What I’m saying is that my job is to connect with you and help you follow your teams. The ratings and reviews told me that was happening with the podcast.
So now you’re stuck with it.
And you’re stuck with me asking for ratings and reviews.
I hope you can see an answer in here somewhere. The specific methods we use to connect with you might change a little over time, but I think if you go 30,000 feet you’ll see it’s been mostly unchanged for decades.
You are in charge. You have the power. There are several people — I’m guessing at least five or six, but honestly I don’t want to count — who are enough of my boss that they could fire me fairly easily, but the truth is that my real bosses are you.
You are the reader or the listener who determines whether I’m worth the time. That’s the whole deal here, which means I need to figure out how to get to and stay in that space for you.
I’ll do it here with the Minutes, online and in the newspaper with more traditional columns, with Blair’s awesome podcast, my 5-STAR RATED PODCAST, the segments on 810, and anywhere else I think we can connect.
That’s not a trend. It’s my literal professional purpose in life.
More podcast talk? More podcast talk!
I’m really glad you put the proper respeck on that: Great Reader Michael.
He called in a while back saying that if I really wanted to get people calling in that I needed the numbers to spell something out, you know, like the kinds of businesses that have commercials with jingles in them.
So that’s what he came up with: 816-BEG-IDOL.
Now, I’m choosing to use the connotation there very ironically, especially after I’ve stared at the phone keypad long enough to be convinced there’s not a better option.
Feels like a good time to remind you: please call! 816-234-4365, put the number in your phone, call anytime, one more time 816.234.4365.
I’m getting dangerously close to a jingle.
This is a reference to a segment on the Border Patrol that completely went off the rails when Steven referenced a story about UFOs on 60 Minutes.
Chaos ensued, including Jake talking about the Galactic Code and I’ll tell you this right here. Whether we’ve met in person or not, one thing I guarantee we have in common is that neither of us has any idea what the heck Jake was talking about.
As of the moment I’m typing these words I haven’t watched the 60 Minutes segment yet, but I do believe that other life forms exist. It just seems so improbable that in the entire galaxy we’d be the only intelligent beings.
I also believe that it’s at least possible that The Others are significantly more advanced that we are, in intelligence or technology or both, and are keeping an eye on us to make sure we still don’t know about them.
But, guys, I’m also not convinced we haven’t been living among aliens for years because...
You know I don’t need a legitimate excuse to drop some Bo.
We should move on. I’m losing control here.
This might be a strange distinction to make, but I don’t think I’m perfect on anything.
I’ve — /Ryan Lefebvre voice/ — achieved perfection on a few things, but I can’t say that I’m perfect on any of them. I’ve smoked the best brisket I’ve ever had in my life, and also one that I wouldn’t serve at Famous Dave’s. Honestly, I’m still not sure what I did differently.
I feel pretty good about my popcorn. I use Orville Redenbacher, because I’m not a monster, and coat the kernels in canola oil, put it on high heat, and try to take the pot off about 10 seconds earlier than the mainstream media say you should. Salt in layers, with fine sea salt. It’s amazing, but even something that simple isn’t perfect every time.
I’ve done perfect burgers*, perfect ribs**, close-to-perfect wings***, and there’s a braised short rib recipe I can’t find online that I do for Christmas every year****.
* I’m a smashburger guy, using an iron skillet on the grill.
** Probably the thing I’m most consistent with, doing the 3-2-1 thing. I’ve started to open up the vent a bit for the last 30-45 minutes or so to get a little more char, and like the results so far.
*** I cheated, and procured the Peanut’s recipe. But I don’t have a fryer, and I’m not a culinary genius, so they’re never QUITE as good as the GOAT.
**** It takes most of the day, which is actually fine because there’s plenty of time between kids opening presents and dinner, plus it makes the house smell like a Hallmark movie.
There’s a salmon process that’s fairly foolproof, where you coat with brown sugar, put some seasoning on — I like this one, but that’s just a taste thing — then some cilantro and lime, put it on a cedar plank and smoke to 140. I feel good about my chili, even when we try to be healthy and use ground turkey.
But I want to make two general points here. The first is that part of what I love about cooking is that perfection is unattainable every time. Maybe that’s sadistic, but I enjoy the process, and trying to think of little tweaks that might be noticeable only to me, or that might not make any difference at all.
The second point is that part of the fun is that we all do things a little differently, which means we can all learn from each other.
If you have something you think you particularly love — especially if you cook it outside, or cook it for lots of people — let me know! I’ve been stalking brisket videos on YouTube lately, and am down this rabbit hole about peach paper and adding tallow and all these other things, so if you can give me clarity here I’m here for it.
So, rant coming, but I don’t think this should be that hard. First of all, there should be a company that makes a dependable refrigerator. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. Just a big box that stays at 36 degrees or whatever, connected to another box that stays at 0, with some shelves and stuff, and lasts for a very long time.
I’m not looking for a smart fridge, and I don’t need an auto water fill, or any of these other bells or whistles. I just want a dependable refrigerator. But because that doesn’t exist, and because the ice maker is the first thing to go, I’m now a Guy Who Bought A Commercial Ice Maker.
I’m convinced I’m using a machine gun to kill a fly here, but I’m just so sick of having to buy a bunch of ice every time I go to the grocery store. Then you have to store that ice, which means you have less room in your freezer, so it’s this constant balancing of having to worry about having just the right amount — I drink water all day, so I use a lot of ice, but I don’t want so much on hand that the kids’ frozen pizzas or whatever don’t fit.
These are first-world problems, I get that, but we’ll hopefully be going to the pool and the lake a lot this summer and I’m just tired of playing this game.
It’s obnoxious. So I bought this thing that I hope will solve all my problems, but I’m also worried that I’m sort of a halfway crook here, because there’s essentially nothing I can find that’s between about $500 and about $1,800.
That’s a big gap, but I’m already having a hard time justifying $500 for ice, and I’m not sure I could get there with $1,800, but I just have this fear that the $500 guy is going to bust on me in like a year and then I’ll wish I went all in with the bigger guy.
But. Anyway. You asked a question.
We don’t have that sort of traditional man cave basement thing, so I don’t know that I’m an awesome person to talk about this, but for me there are basically four requirements for a basement:
- A great TV.
- Comfortable seating for at least five or six people.
- A bar.
- Some sort of conversation piece.
These are all fairly self-explanatory, but I want to stress that the conversation piece doesn’t have to be some $3,000 painting or a game-used Mahomes jersey or whatever. Could be a picture of your favorite ballpark, or an old-school 1980s poster. My wife put a few dozen of my favorite cards in a frame. Something like that.
Should be a place that makes you happy, but more than that comfortable.
So, yeah. I have many opinions on this. El Camino is the last album they did that I didn’t have to pretend to like, and even that one was getting a little too poppy for me. That’s not a slight on pop music, I dig a lot of pop music, but for me the years between Brothers and El Camino was this slow but deliberate march away from what made them unique and toward a more mainstream audience.
Again: I do not begrudge them. We all like money.
But for someone who fell in love with a specific sound, watching the one band capable of that sound morph into a sound that’s done by many was sad.
The low point was their last album. Terez and I used to joke about this all the time — “imagine the balls on those guys to make this crap and call it, ‘Let’s Rock.’”
So for me, an entire album of old-school southern blues cover songs feels a bit like an apology. And I accept.
There isn’t a song on the new album that I would put in their greatest hits, or even their top 20, but there also isn’t an instant skip. It’s very chill, with a good vibe, a great Sunroof Open And Windows Down Driving-kind of album, which I appreciate immensely.
My hope is that this is sort of a bridge album, that it’s a step away from what they’ve been doing and back toward that in-your-face, unapologetic, garagey, bluesy, rock stuff that made them pop in the first place.
And I did not intend the pop double entendre thing there, but it fits, so I’m leaving it in.
This week I’m particularly grateful for all this rain. We really needed it, and I’m sorry, I can’t keep up this lie I hate all this rain. Stop raining. Please. Just stop. I’m grateful for my roof that doesn’t leak.
This story was originally published May 18, 2021 at 5:00 AM.