I’ll start with the most unexpected statistic from the 2024 world of the Kansas City Royals.
The Royals are only 4.5 games shy of the best record in baseball.
As of this morning, ten teams have won 70 or more games. Remarkably, no team has won more than 75.
Dodgers: 75-52
Orioles: 74-53
Phillies: 73-52
Guardians: 73-52
Brewers: 73-52
Yankees: 73-53
Padres: 72-55
Diamondbacks: 71-56
Royals: 70-56
Twins: 70-56
In the postseason race, the Royals are…
3.5 games ahead of the Red Sox for the last wild card slot.
Tied with the Twins for the second wild card slot.
3.5 games behind the Guardians for the AL Central lead.
3.5 games behind the Orioles for the AL #1 seed.
Another surprising stat: The Royals have outscored their opponents this year by 107 runs. That is second best in the American League (Yankees are +112).
I love the buzz that this has generated throughout the city. People are talking about Patrick Mahomes AND Bobby Witt Jr.
Rita and I took a personal look last night at the K (below, with our hosts Cheryl Dillard and Pat Titterington).
Alas, the Royals 5-game winning streak was broken by the Angels. We could sure use the HDH relief crew from 2014 (see next section).
But what a season so far. It’s exciting to be in a pennant race again.
Déjà vu: Ten years ago this month (8/25/14), a regional cover of Sports Illustrated featured the Royals. The subtitle under “The ROYAL Treatment” read…
The Royals had missed the playoffs every year since the World Series victory in 1985. After success in 2014 and 2015, a new playoff drought started, but hopefully this time it will end at eight years. It would also be nice to repeat other parts of that 2014 season – win a pennant and almost a World Series. I can dream, can’t I? Go Royals!
By the Numbers: For the nerds who want to dig deeper, I’m going to spend some time in the weeds (as Rita would say). For those who prefer to avoid baseball weeds, please skip the next three sections.
In the Weeds (1) – Advanced Stats Cheat Sheet: What about all those acronyms thrown around by sportswriters and broadcasters? WAR. FIP. OPS. OPS+. WHIP. And on and on.
This is above my pay grade, so I am linking a recent Royals Review column that serves as a helpful cheat sheet. Click here.
For a detailed analysis after each Royals game, I recommend Into the Fountains (click here).
In the Weeds (2) – TOOTBLAN: One of my favorite stat acronyms is TOOTBLAN, a tongue-in-cheek term for a baserunning blunder (e.g., trying to stretch for an extra base or getting picked off by the pitcher).
The term was invented in 2008 by Chicago Cubs blogger Tony Jewell who was examining the impact of poor baserunning by the Cubs leadoff hitter Ryan Theroit. Jewell created a formula to account for this, calling it the “Ryan Theriot Adjusted On-Base Percentage” (RTAOBP).
One of the negative factors in the formula counted how often Theriot was “Thrown Out On The Basepaths Like A Nincompoop” (TOOTBLAN). Jewell’s formula is mostly forgotten, but TOOTBLAN has survived as shorthand for any type of baserunning blunder.
In the Weeds (3) – Pitch Count: We often hear an announcer talk about the importance of the pitch count. Baseball site BrooksGate has analyzed the stats and prepared a fascinating chart on how the average batter’s odds of getting on base change after every pitch.
For example, when the average batter first gets to the plate, there is a 31% chance he will reach base. If the first pitch is a strike, the chance drops to 26%. If a ball, the chance increases to 37%. And then on down the line as the pitch count continues. The percentages would shift up or down depending on the skill of the pitcher and batter, but the progression would be similar.
Programming Note: When my son Brian set up a website to archive my writings, he named it Lonnie’s Jukebox and specified three major themes.
Those themes have been supplemented with other subjects (e.g., movies and travelogues), and I began merging some of these into Hot Stove when it began in November of 2015.
I’m not on Facebook nor do I post on social media. So, Hot Stove serves as my personal platform, and that’s why I stray from baseball to other interests in my life. Rita. Music. Movies. Travel. Loose Park animals. KC history. My history.
And yes, politics, but not to editorialize or attempt to change minds. Just pointing out how it fits into my life (e.g., Hot Stove #259 where I reminisced about political campaigns in the 1970s). Looking ahead, I will no doubt comment on the 2024 presidential race. It’s kind of hard to ignore. Ask Carole King and Celine Dion (see Lonnie’s Jukebox below).
There is one subject that will have less Hot Stove coverage this year…
Telluride (Not): Since 2011, Rita and I have attended the annual Telluride Film Festival over Labor Day weekend. Reviews have been posted in Hot Stove. Here is the poster for the upcoming festival:
But we won’t be there. We are taking a movie break and will instead be in Big Sky Country on a bus tour that includes Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. We will also make a side trip to Seattle to take in a Mariners game at T-Mobile Park (our 28th stadium of the 30 MLB teams). This will reduce our stadium bucket list to two (Miami and Tampa Bay; maybe in late September).
50th Anniversary Party: Two weeks ago, about a hundred people gathered at JJ’s to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Mike White’s primary victory in the County Executive race (and other campaigns from the 1970s). The party hosts were (l to r), the campaign manager (me), the candidate (Mike) and our headquarters chief (Jan Hodgson).
JJ’s was packed.
Three KC mayors attended: Kay Barnes, Sly James and Quinton Lucas. Mayor Q just turned 40, so born ten years after the 1974 election.
A photo gallery from the party is archived at this link (Photo Credit: David Block, Jan and Lonnie).
1996 Democratic Convention: The Democratic Party is holding its convention in Chicago this week. The last time the party held its convention in Chicago was in 1996 when Bill Clinton was nominated for a second term. Rita and I were there, not as delegates, but as part of the “Missouri Delegation,” which gave us access to various Missouri functions.
We had good seats in the loge level, and some nice delegates loaned us their floor passes so we could have some brief time on the floor. That’s me in the center foreground looking back at Rita taking the photo.
There were lots of other activities during the mornings and afternoons. Below, Rita having James Carville sign his book for her.
The Missouri delegation was housed in the Hyatt Regency, and so a good amount of time was spent in the Hyatt’s famed “BIG Bar” (below, with Woody and Jane Overton).
The 1996 Chicago convention nominated a general election winner. We are hoping for a repeat in 2024.
Lonnie’s Jukebox (1) – Carole King and Her Cat: Part of this story has been told before in Hot Stove. The 2024 presidential campaign has added a new twist.
In 1971, Carole King released her blockbuster Tapestry album. Rita, in college at the time, purchased the album.
In addition to the great songs, the album was lauded for its iconic cover photo of barefooted Carole with her cat. During the photo shoot for the album cover, the photographer had suggested that Carole’s cat would be a nice addition to the photo. The cat, named Telemachus, cooperated.
Fast forward to 2004. Carole King traveled the country doing “living room” fundraisers for the John Kerry presidential campaign. Rita and I attended one in a home just south of the Plaza. It was very cool to see Carole singing and playing the piano in this intimate setting.
Rita got something extra at the event. She took her 33-year-old Tapestry album, and with the assistance of Kerry’s Missouri co-chair Herb Kohn, Carole signed the album.
From Kerry to Kamala. In 2024, some 53 years after the Tapestry photo, Telemachus got an encore in a post by Carole on Instagram:
Who would have guessed that cats would become a campaign issue? It’s made for some fun headlines (e.g., from the Borowitz Report: “Harris Offers $10,000 Tax Credit for Households with Cats”).
Thanks JD. Thanks Telemachus.
Now to the songs. One cut on the Tapestry album seems apt for this roller coaster ride of a presidential campaign…
“I Feel the Earth Move” by Carole King.
And it’s always good to know…
“You’ve Got a Friend” by Carole King.
[Telemachus Trivia: I was curious about the cat’s name, so I went to Google. Telemachus is Greek for “far from battle.” In Homer’s Odyssey, Telemachus is the son of Odysseus and Penelope. No, I don’t know why Carole chose the name.]
Lonnie Jukebox (2) – Celine Dion: One of the most poignant moments in the Olympics was Celine Dion closing out the opening ceremony singing “L’Hymne a l’Armour” (“Hymn to Love”) from the base of the Eiffel Tower.
This was Dion’s first public singing performance in four years. The 56-year-old Canadian singer is suffering from Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS).
Seeing Dion’s performance prompted Rita and me to watch I Am: Celine Dion, a new documentary about her career and her battle with SPS. It is streaming on Prime Video (trailer here). One reviewer described it as “extremely emotional, inspirational, terrifying, funny, revealing…” Agreed on all counts. Highly recommend.
Two weeks after Dion’s Olympics appearance, she was again in the news. The Donald Trump campaign had used one of her videos at a rally in Montana, and there was a quick rebuke:
“Today, Celine Dion’s management team and her record label…became aware of the unauthorized usage of the video, recording, musical performance, and likeness of Celine Dion singing ‘My Heart Will Go On’ at a Donald Trump/JD Vance campaign rally in Montana. In no way is this use authorized, and Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use…And really, THAT song?”
The ending of the statement (“THAT song”) was poking fun at the Trump campaign for choosing the theme from the movie Titanic for the rally. A sinking ship may not be the best metaphor.
Celine Dion is the latest in a long line of artists objecting to the use of their music by Donald Trump. Googling leads to scores of articles on the subject. There’s even a Wikipedia page, “Musicians who oppose Donald Trump’s use of their music” (click here for the Wiki listing).
Returning to the music…
“L’Hymne a l’Armour” by Celine Dion. Performed at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. In the rain.
“My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion. Theme from the 1997 movie Titanic. Clips from the movie included.
“The Power of the Dream” by Celine Dion. Performed at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Lonnie’s Jukebox (3) – Campaign Favorites: Rita and I each have a song suggestion for the Harris/Walz campaign.
Rita’s pick comes from the 1988 movie Working Girl, both for the uplifting performance and lyrics like “Let all the dreamers/Wake the nation…”
“Let the River Run” by Carly Simon. Clips from the movie included. Rita and I recently enjoyed rewatching the movie (streaming on Hulu).
For my pick, I’m featuring the word joy which has received a lot of notoriety in the campaign. And it’s one of one of my favorite songs.
“Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night. This 1970 song was featured at the beginning and end of the 1983 movie The Big Chill.
As for tonight…
Go Royals!!!
