As is often the case with a Thursday day game, there aren’t as many stories out there as those quotas get filled by game previews and recaps. Even with that, Jaylon Thompson profiled Michael Massey and his newfound positional flexibility:
With the help of Royals massage therapist Nicky Stoyles, Massey looked to incorporate different techniques to keep his body in great shape. He focused on soft tissue work with the idea to release muscle tension and keep his ligaments feeling loose.
“Nicky’s been really
helpful,” Massey said. “Just getting some of that body work done, you know, weekly, and I would say a couple times a week. Just being able to keep my muscles fluid and not tight. So that’s probably been as important as anything. It’s just making sure I’m getting in there and getting rid of the day’s tension. And coming back the next day ready to rock.”
I missed this little episode the other night, but Pete Grathoff has us covered:
Wacha felt his chain break after the A’s Carlos Cortes had stepped into the batter’s box. The pitch clock was continuing its relentless pursuit of zero, but Wacha didn’t call a timeout. Instead, Wacha took off the necklace, stuffed it in the back pocket of his pants and delivered a 90.7 mph four-seam fastball for a strike….
Ah, but one person didn’t like it: A’s hitting coach Chris Cron. Home plate umpire John Libka got an earful from Cron, who apparently thought Cortes was waiting for a resolution to the broken chain and not the pitch from Wacha.
I don’t know if I’ve ever linked to the Beacon before. In this story, Josh Merchant writes about the cost of the proposed stadium:
But aside from the total project cost, the Royals are tight-lipped about how the actual costs break down — including how they plan to spend nearly $1 billion of the public’s tax money.
Those itemized details, if they were made public, could explain where the high costs are coming from — whether it’s construction materials or land clearance or something else.
Sam Mellinger, a spokesperson for the Royals, told The Beacon that the cost breakdown likely will not be available to the public until after the development plan is fully negotiated. The team has said about $800 million of the ballpark’s cost would be privately financed.
In another first, here’s an article from Vine Street Brewing by Kemet Coleman. I mean, it’s more a blog post, but it fits with the article above. This one talks about how the stadium is not near 18th and Vine and, as such, the city should invest resources there, as well.
If Kansas City wants to respond to this moment with real vision, the answer is not resentment. It is resolve. Give the Royals, Hallmark, and city leaders their flowers for pulling off a real urban-core win. Then apply that same level of seriousness to 18th & Vine. Put the Office of Music there. Invest in the district like it matters. Stop asking a museum to carry the full weight of a civic identity on its own. Treat baseball history, jazz history, and Black Kansas City as core infrastructure, not side commentary.
Blog Time!
Craig Brown wrote about Wednesday’s game at Into the Fountains:
Coming into Wednesday’s game against Sacramento, the Royals had scored a grand total of two runs in the first inning all year.
Yep. You read that correctly. In 29 games, the Kansas City Royals touched home plate in the first inning exactly twice. I’m not sure how that’s even possible.
Their first inning issues run deep. Collectively, they’re hitting .167/.200/.250 in the opening frame. Both of their runs have come via the home run. Solo shots. So the Royals haven’t even as much as mounted a first inning rally all season long.
Patrick Glancy of Powder Blue Nostalgia is writing a companion blog, Powder Blue Pulp:
As you might have noticed, I haven’t been particularly active on here lately. That’s because I’ve been toiling away at my first novel, which will release later this year! I’ll have more on that down the road, but to help get the word out, I’ve started a new newsletter that focuses on my fiction and non-baseball writing. I’m calling it Powder Blue Pulp.
Blog Roundup:
- Darin Watson at U.L.’s Toothpick: This Date In Royals History–1976 Edition: April 30 –
Good news: the Royals get to play a game! Bad news: it’s a loss to the Yankees. - Jeff Wayman at The Diamond Chronicles: Royals GBU – The good, bad, and ugly from a weekend sweep of the Angels
- Jacob Milham at KOK: Royals’ recent surge is bringing out the MVP Bobby Witt Jr. fans have been waiting for
- Caleb Moody at KOK: Dual Royals elbow surgeries take aim at KC’s pitching depth stockpile
Since we didn’t have a lot of official Royals stories or blogs, how about some stories from around the MLB to tide you over?
At The Athletic ($), Evan Drellich writes that the MLB labor talks are beginning soon. Spoiler: don’t expect much more than posturing this early.
First, the talks will open with a months-long prelude of proposal exchanges. The parties will, naturally, both start out asking for more than they expect to receive.
Last go-around, the sides made opening presentations on April 20, 2021. The players made their first economic proposals in May, and the owners their first in August. A deal wasn’t finalized until March 10, just in time to preserve a full 162-game schedule for 2022. The in-between will be filled with tough talk and hand-wringing, bluster and rhetoric.
NBC Sports baseball announcer Jason Benetti is a trailblazer:
But it was also a groundbreaking hire given that Benetti lives with cerebral palsy. So while Benetti has long worked to get the opportunity to be a top announcer, he recently acknowledged that he had serious doubts about whether a network would give him that chance…
“I would have wondered, would somebody put a person with cerebral palsy in the lead chair? However many of my friends text me and say that’s wrong, you don’t have to think about it, you wouldn’t have had to think about it, that’s BS. Because nobody’s done that before. And so now that that’s happened, I am fulfilled in that regard.”
While we’re talking announcers, how about this headline: “MLB directs Cleveland Guardians to adjust broadcast team”?
A person familiar with the relationship between MLB Local Media and the Guardians tells Awful Announcing that the league is “encouraging the Cleveland announcer team to take more time off throughout the season to stay fresh over the course of the 162-game season,” and that the league and team “are aligned with this approach.”
This is the first instance we know of where MLB has seemingly stepped in and directed a change to a team’s on-air broadcast team since the league began handling production and distribution for select clubs in 2023.
Finally, many members of the USA Olympic figure skating team threw out first pitches at the Mets game on Thursday. The video… well, it’s something.
Yeah, I’m a little behind. It’s already May and we’re just now finishing up the Asia baseball previews. Last week we did the KBO and a couple of weeks before that was the CPBL.
NPB – Nippon Professional Baseball
Country: Japan
Opening Day: March 27
Former Royals: There always seem to be somewhere between a half dozen to dozen former Royals in the NPB. This year finds Albert Abreu (Chunichi Dragons), Orlando Calixte (Chunichi Dragons), Austin Cox (Yokohama Bay Stars), Taylor Hearn (Hiroshima Carp), Sam Long (Chiba Lotte Marines), Andrés Machado (Orix Buffaloes), and Franmil Reyes (Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters). Remember former Royals farmhand Cam Devanney? Some people were worried when he was traded to the Pirates last year in the Adam Frazier trade. He’s on the Hanshin Tigers this year.
International Players: Two that jump out to me are former Twin Miguel Sano and former Pirate Gregory Polanco. There’s a few MLB journeymen like Jose Ruiz, Domingo Santana, José Ureña, and Luke Voit. Those guys played for about 20 times combined. From the above Royals list, Heran, Long, and Reyes all played 5 or more years in MLB. And there’s a bunch of other (non-Royal) players with 5+ years in MLB: José Castillo, Roansy Contreras, Bobby Dalbec, Rafael Dolis, Spencer Howard, Luis Perdomo, José Quijada, and Dayán Viciedo. Yes, that’s the same Dayán Viciedo, whose last game in the MLB was the Royals’ season-ending 89th win in 2014. He’s spent the last 11 years in the NPB where he’s a career .287 hitter with 141 home runs. I’ve used this list from JapanBall the last couple of years and it appears to be up to date-ish.
Last Season: There were 3 dominant teams in the league last season. The Hanshin Tigers won the Central League by 13 games, led by Central League MVP Teruaki Sato (.277/.345/.579 with 40 HR and 102 RBI). In the Pacific League, the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters battled for supremacy with the Hawks winning the league by 4.5 games. The Hawks pitching staff was anchored by Pacific League MVP Liván Moinelo (12-3; 1.46 ERA; 172K in 167.0 IP), the first Cuban in NPB history to win MVP. This battle continued in the playoffs as the two met in the Final stage (think LCS). The Hawks came in with a 1-0 lead by virtue of having the better regular-season record and won the first two games, giving them a commanding 3-0 lead. However, the Fighters fought back, winning the next 3. But series MVP Moinelo shut them down in the deciding game. The Tigers advanced easily to the Japan Series but lost to the Hawks in a gentleman’s sweep. Hotaka Yamakawa won the MVP, hitting home runs in games 2, 3, and 4. Sato won the Fighting Spirit Award (think: MVP for losing team).
Rooting Interest: In 2020, both Nori Aoki and Alcides Escobar were on the 2020 Tokyo Yakult Swallows, so our rooting interest was obvious. This was amplified by the fact that they hadn’t won a Japan Series since 2001, though they had been to a few playoffs since. But then, Munetaka Murakami happened. He burst onto the scene with 36 HR in 2019, followed by 28, 39, 56(!), 31, 33, and 22 last season. They won the Japan Series in 2021 and a Central League pennant in 2022, his MVP year. Last year, he only played 56 games due to injury and the team finished in last place. Now Murakami plays for the White Sox and already has double-digit home runs. I mean, if they can have him and still play last-place ball, maybe they’ve gone back to being the team for us, even with no Royals.
World Baseball Classic: The USA was the betting favorite in the WBC but Japan was the defending champion and had the second best odds. They’re the only team to win more than once, winning in 2006, 2009, and 2023 and have never finished below third. They were a sparkling 4-0 in group play with dominating wins against Taiwan (13-0) and Czechia (9-0) mixed in with comeback wins against Korea (8-6) and Australia (4-3).
Being the Pool C 1st place time lined them up with the 2nd place team from Pool D, Venezuela. After Ronald Acuna Jr homered to lead off the game for Venezuela, Shohei Ohtani tied the game with his 3rd home run of the WBC. Venezuela scored again in the 2nd. But Japan answered in the 3rd with an RBI double by the aforementioned Sato and a 3-run homer by (Hanshin) Tigers OF Shota Morishita. But then Maikel Garcia hit a 2-run homer in the 5th and Wilyer Abreu hit a 3-run homer in the 6th. Samurai Japan was stunningly bounced in the quarterfinals and Venezuela went on to win the title.
Random Nuggets:
- Sadly, there don’t appear to be any easily accessible English games for the NPB. The NPB Subreddit has a section in their FAQ about watching games internationally, but I think it’s falling out of date. It takes a lot of work with different services, VPNs, and subscriptions, so it’s not ideal. Pacific League TV’s YouTube channel has an English game every once in a while.
- In this space last year, we were lamenting how Sasaki went to the Dodgers, adding to their already bloated payroll, and were lamenting which team Murakami would go to. However, his injury last year scared a lot of teams off and he “only” signed for 2/$34M with the White Sox, which is proving to be a bargain. Saitama Seibu Lions pitcher Tatsuya Imai signed with the Houston Astros for 3/$54M. Yomiuri Giants Infielder Kazuma Okamoto signd with Toronto for 4/$60M. Remember former Royal Foster Griffin? He’s also been with the Giants the past couple of seasons and came back to MLB, signing with the Washington Nationals.
- Before the season, the Japan Times had their previews up for the Central League and Pacific League. Here’s what they had to say about our Swallows, who they predicted as last in the Central League:
The Tokyo Yakult Swallows did not have much firepower at the plate in 2025 and now have to move forward without star slugger Munetaka Murakami. Jose Osuna and Domingo Santana will be counted on to help drive in runs, and Tetsuto Yamada will attempt to slow his decline at the plate.
None of that, however, will be enough if the team is not better at preventing runs after posting a league-worst run differential of minus 121 last season.
- The aforementioned previews predicted the following league standings. Central League: Hanshin Tigers, Yokohama DeNA BayStars, Yomiuri Giants, Chunichi Dragons, Hiroshima Toyo Carp, Tokyo Yakult Swallows
- Pacific League: Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, Orix Buffaloes, Saitama Seibu Lions, Chiba Lotte Marines, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Links:
- https://npb.jp/eng/ – The Official NPB site has some parts translated into English
- https://www.reddit.com/r/NPB/ – NPB Reddit
- https://www.reddit.com/r/NPB/wiki/index/#wiki_news_links – The NPB Reddit wiki lists a number of other sites
- https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/baseball/ – Japan Times is (per wiki) “Japan’s largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper”
The last couple of weeks, we’ve gone the NES route. How about a new game?
I’ll let Lucas M. Thomas’s review at IGN start us out:
A moonlit duel in a field of grass. Two ninja clash, mid-air, each with just a single strike. One falls to the ground defeated — Ken Hayabusa. Ken’s son Ryu finds a letter the next day, left for him by his fallen father. It tells him to take up their clan’s legendary blade and travel to America. That’s where the story begins.
There were a handful of games on the NES with cutscenes, but this is perhaps the most memorable.
Ninja Gaiden was a classic. It played fast and smooth. I love that Wiki links to an academic paper about video game design trade-offs in talking about why Ninja Gaiden worked so well:
A comparative analysis of the video games Prince of Persia (1989) and Ninja Gaiden (1988) explores different methods of implementing the walk cycle and reveals a trade-off between verisimilitude of movement and responsiveness to user input. Prince of Persia’s walk cycle, inspired by full cel animation, foregrounds fluid movement, while Ninja Gaiden utilizes limited animation techniques to prioritize responsiveness.
The wall jumping was fun. The weapons were unique. Oh, and the difficulty. It wasn’t on the level of Battletoads or the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – it wasn’t frustratingly bad. But it was hard. The level designs were generally good – difficult, but not completely unforgiving.
Just writing about it makes me want to pick it back up, if only for an hour before I get frustrated with it.
Here’s that intro movie:
