David DeJesus Traded to Oakland A's

The Kansas City Royals have traded away the longest tenured and probably most recognizable face (if there are any anymore) on the team. On Wednesday David Dejesus was trade to the Oakland Athletics for two pitchers - Right Hander Vin Mazzaro and Lefty Justin Marks. DeJesus played for the Royals for 10 seasons with a Batting Average of .289 and 61 Homers. He had a nice career with the Royals and I am sad to see him go. Oakland was a .500 ball club last year, so maybe he can help them. Maybe even get into the playoffs, something he obviously was never going to do here.

This is such a problem with baseball now and has been for a long time. No player stays with one team for his entire career anymore, it's such a shame. I grew up in the Royals heyday and it was great to go to the park and see all the players that you knew from year to year. It's too bad that today's kids don't get that. Well, anyway, let's see what we got for DeJesus.

Vin Mazzaro is a 24 year old Right Hander originally from New Jersey. He joined Oakland's farm system in 2006 and had a great year at Double A Midland, TX in 2008 winning several honors including mlb.com's Double A starting Pitcher of the Year. His Major League Debut was in June of 2009 and his career record is 10-17 with a 4.72 ERA.

Justin Marks is a young Lefty drafted by the A's in the Third round of the 2009 Amateur draft. He pitched Collegiately at Louisville and was named the Big East pitcher of the year for 2009. Marks spent last season in Class A ball with mixed results. Like most baseball trades, it will be a while before the success or failure of the deal can be measured.

The Royals also released pitcher Brian Bannister on Wednesday.

Kidnapping and Bank Robbery in Overland Park

A bizarre story of kidnapping and bank robbery is unfolding in Overland Park this morning. According to Jim Weaver of the Overland Park Police Department, the victim, who is a 20yr old employee of the US Bank on 119th st near 69 Hwy, was abducted in the parking lot of his apartment complex last night. Supposedly, the robber/kidnapper took the man and his car to the bank early this morning where the employee opened up the bank and it was robbed.

The victim was found this morning by another employee opening up the bank at around 7:30AM. He had been beaten and was tied to a chair. An FBI spokesperson said the suspect is a white male, 6 feet tall, 180 pounds between 30 and 40 years old. He was last seen in a gray t-shirt driving the victim's light blue 2008 Chevy Aveo (nice car). No word on how much money was stolen.

This story sounds a little weird to me. An inside job maybe? In fact, I wouldn't at all be surprised if the "victim" in this case was also the perpetrator (or one of the perps). If I am wrong, this kid sure is lucky he wasn't killed. I'm sure we will know sometime in the near future. We will keep you posted here on Kansas City News.

Southwest High School Divided into Three Parts

Southwest High School to Divide into Three Separate Parts by Friday
by Kansas City News

Just as predicted, Kansas City's infamous "Right Size" plan has backfired.  In March 2010, The Kansas City Board of Education voted to close almost half of the city’s public schools, attempting to cut down on a $50 million deficit.  Nearly 300 Kansas City teachers lost their jobs, and several major schools were closed abruptly.  A local school, Southwest High School, has suffered immensely since this plan was put into action.  When the right-size plan went into action, Westport High School, located at 315 39th Street (in the deep ghetto) was closed and it's students were crammed in with the students at Southwest High School, located at 6512 Wornall (not so much in the ghetto, more like in the middle of Waldo).  This "blending" of students from the deep hood with students from the Waldo area caused a record-setting trend of violence.  Southwest High, becoming extremely overcrowded, crammed students into closed quarters with catastrophic results.  Police were called to the school 50 times in the first 36 days that the school was open!  Police officers were assaulted and injured, and the school was even set on fire at one point.

Miundrae Prince, Kansas City's Chief Acedemic Officer, and quite possibly former rapper, announced that Southwest High School would be divided into 3 sections to try to combat the discipline problems the school faces:

1.  Early College - not really sure what this means, but we're assuming that the school is hoping to rope all of the decent students into this section.

2.  Life and Engineering Sciences - or "manual tech" - This section probably resembles the classic vocational tech program that Kansas City schools have had for years which separated those who did not want to learn typical school subjects from the general population.  These students were often bussed away to learn how to work on cars, etc.  Or as Forest Gump's mother says "My boy isn't going to some special school to learn how to retread tires".  I remember the kids who attended the vocational program at our school, let's just say that none of them turned out to be white collar business professionals.

3.  Children as Individuals - This one makes absolutely no sense from the name alone, but district representatives (and former rappers) say that it is for students who want to study the "standards based education".  I'm guessing that this is the middle ground.

Students at Southwest High are given the choice of which program they wish to enroll in and they must decide by this Friday.  Three mothers of students were interviewed and they had mixed feelings - "Jovonda" said that she thought that it was a good idea, "Caseyona" said that she hoped that it would work, and lastly, "Lawanda" said that she did not think that it would solve anything at Southwest.  If the students are allowed to choose whatever section of the school that they want to attend, there will surely be a serious imbalance, as high school students mostly follow whatever their friends, girlfriends / boyfriends are doing.

Pedicab Service now offered in Downtown Kansas City

There is a new "green" way to get around Kansas City's hot spots. Tricycle Transit is a new company that started operations last Friday in the Crossroads District. The company operates Pedicabs similar to the one shown in the photo to the right. It's a bicycles operated by a driver and seats up to 3 people. Currently operations are limited to the Crossroads district and Westport, but they hope to expand in the near future to other areas including Waldo, River Market, and Zona Rosa. Fares are $2 per block no matter how many passengers.

With winter fast approaching, it may seem like a less than ideal time to start this type of operation. Owner/Operator Jay Matlack acknowledges this fact, but wants to have the operation fine tuned by Spring when he expects business to take off. I suppose if a passenger is sufficiently lubed up, the cold might not be a problem. I think come summertime they should employ hot chicks in bikini tops to drive the "tricycles".

Good luck to Jay on his new endeavor, I truly wish him luck. You can reach Tricycle Transit at 913-221-8768.

Chiefs And Tigers Let One Slip Away; KU Stages Greatest Comeback Never Seen

It can be debated who had a worse performance on Sunday in Oakland - the Refs or the football teams. Just your typical Raiders-Chiefs contest featuring 27 penalties, 2 fake punts, 6 fumbles, numerous terrible calls (for both sides) - a 4th down that was really a 1st down, and a kickoff return for a touchdown, oh yeah, and Overtime. The Raiders defeated the Chiefs by the score of 23-20 in a game that it seemed no one wanted to win. The Chiefs got off to a 10-0 First half lead that probably should have been a lot more as the Raiders made mistake after mistake that the Chiefs refused to take advantage of. A late second quarter field goal was nullified by a holding penalty on the Chiefs, and when the Raiders gave the ball right back after a terribly thrown pass was intercepted by Jon Mcgraw, the Chiefs failed once again to take advantage. The second half started with a Raiders kickoff return for a TD, and when the Chiefs coughed up the ensuing kickoff, it looked bad for our boys in red. Though the Chiefs righted the ship eventually in the second half to once again take the lead, they let the Raiders tie it up, and eventually win it in overtime.

My thoughts on the game:
-Cassel again was inaccurate most of the afternoon.
-Why can't our guy hit on the long ball? Every other quarterback in the league can throw a long ball with better accuracy than Matt Cassel. If he can't execute, stop calling the plays.
-The Chiefs defense did a nice job again, McFadden only had one long run and was contained well most of the day. Take out the KO Return TD and the Raiders only scored 16 on our D.
-I guess Charles was nicked up a little, but he needs to see more carries, he averaged 5yds/Carry to Jones's less than 2.
-This wasn't the disciplined Chiefs team that we have seen this year, but I guess playing the Raiders, a little of that is going to rub off.
-The Refereeing this year has been hideous - particularly Pass Interference calls, and can we at least get the down right? Is that too much to ask?

All is not lost for the Chiefs, they still have the lead in the AFC West, and a very winnable game coming in Denver. With all the parity in the NFL, it should be a fun ride.

Speaking of quarterbacks that can't throw the long ball, Missouri's Blaine Gabbert had a terrible night in Lubbock on Saturday going just 12 for 30 and only 95 yards. After the Tigers broke two long runs for touchdowns in the first quarter, they inexplicably stopped running and started throwing. Gabbert couldn't hit anybody and Missouri's defense wore down in the second half. The Texas Tech Red Raiders shut down Mizzou on route to a 24-17 victory effectively ending Missouri's chances for a Big 12 North title.

KU rattled off 35 unanswered 4th quarter points to stun the Colorado Buffaloes in Lawrence on Saturday afternoon. It was the biggest comeback in Jayhawk history in a game that almost no one saw. Announced attendance was over 40,000, but from highlights I've seen that is a generous estimate and there was no TV coverage. The Jayhawks have been up and mostly down for the year,but they have shown signs of life lately. Of course Colorado is terrible (winless in the Big 12 this year), so who knows.