Early morning soccer with the Bullpups

Friday’s favorites...

• MORNING SOCCER — It could be called “Breakfast with the Bullpups.”

Or for those who get up a little later in the morning, brunch.

With McPherson High’s Class 4-1A Regional Soccer Tournament championship game with Hays at McPherson Stadium being postponed Thursday night, a difficult decision had to be made.

There was no question the game was going to be rescheduled for today. The only problem was that severe storms could possibly hit the McPherson area in the afternoon and evening. Saturday is not an option because several Bullpups will be graduating. Sunday is out because no sporting events are supposed to be played. 

So the schools agreed to play the game this morning at 10:00. While there probably won’t be too many fans in the stands other than parents, I’m sure the intensity will still be high. At stake is a berth in the Elite Eight, which MHS has made each of the last two years. In fact, the Bullpups have been in the Final Four those years.

Hays probably will be grumbling a bit because it means the team had to be on the road by 7:00 this morning. A two-hour bus trip isn’t exactly enthralling.

But Mother Nature has struck again. I’ve been covering high school sports for more than 40 years, the last 38 in McPherson, and I can’t ever remember a spring that has been so wet.

• DUFFY STEPS UP — Danny Duffy is the unquestioned ace of the Kansas City Royals’ pitching staff and was anointed the Opening Day starter this season.

As the ace, it’s Duffy’s job to prevent long losing streaks. When Kansas City lost nine straight games earlier this year, two of those losses were by Duffy against his nemesis the Chicago White Sox.

Other than those two games, Duffy’s other six starts going into Thursday night had been outstanding. 

The Royals needed for Duffy to pitch like an ace on Thursday against the mighty New York Yankees, who had battered Kansas City the first two games of the series and were primed for a sweep.

And he did. Duffy pitched with grim determination as he fired seven innings of shutout ball and struck out a season-high 10 as the Royals were a 5-1 winner.

That was important because they now head out for a 10-game road trip. They play Minnesota (they’re 0-5 against the Twins this year), have a return series with the Yankees and also go to Cleveland, where they have struggled mightily even in their World Series years. I’m sure if they go 5-5, they will return home happy, considering they have had road woes this season.

• SALINA TENNIS POWER — According to a story in The Salina Journal, it appears there is an amazing group of young tennis players about to hit Salina Central or maybe some of the other Saline County schools.

Salina Lakewood, which is generally the prelude to kids attending Salina Central, had a perfect middle school tennis season this spring. What makes it amazing is the team was 199-0, as no player lost a match the entire season. The team had 15 eighth-graders.

According to the story, many of the players train at Genesis Health Club in Salina where they can receive year-round coaching. Some also trained at The Pines Tennis Club. 

It will be interesting to see how this team impacts Salina Central next year, or one of the other high schools.

• UNLIKELY STATE QUALIFIER – I was scanning the list of state softball qualifiers and was stunned to see that Pittsburg Colgan advanced in Class 2-1A.

Colgan entered postseason play with a 1-19 record, but won three straight regional games, all in lopsided fashion to advance. I don’t think I can ever recall a team doing that.

Colgan will be joined at state by Moundridge, which is carrying the McPherson area banner as it was the only softball team, or baseball team for that matter, to make state. State is next week in Pratt, with the opening day set for Thursday.

Thursday's thoughts: Preston pilots Hutch to state

Thursday’s thoughts...

• PRESTON’S TEAM MAKES STATE — Former Inman High baseball coach Jim Preston, who stepped down after last season to take the head job at his alma mater Hutchinson High, has the Salthawks in the state tournament.

After a regular season that produced a modest seven wins, the Salthawks caught fire in the Class 6A Regional. Hutch defeated Dodge City 9-5 in the championship game on Wednesday to advance to state for the first time since 2005.

While at Inman, Preston guided the Teutons to a pair of state appearances. I always thought he did a great job with the Inman program and I’m glad to see he’s having success with the Salthawks.

Many remember Preston as a former basketball official, one of the best in the state. You always knew when he was officiating, it would be a well-called game.

• HUTCH LOOKING FOR SOCCER COACH OR COACHES— Hutchinson High’s soccer coach Brad Binns resigned both his boys and girls’ positions to concentrate on his new duties as an assistant principal at Morgan Elementary.

Binns had been the boys’ coach since 2008 and had some competitive teams. He was the girls’ coach the last two years.

You have to wonder if the school will be looking for one coach for the two programs or hire separate coaches.

It’s been a tough week at Hutch, as earlier it was announced that boys basketball coach Chad Wintz had resigned after two seasons and just six wins. Wintz was a Rule 10 coach as he works for Fee Insurance.

• ROYALS UNDOING GOOD WORK — Just when it appeared the Kansas City Royals were turning things around, the New York Yankees swaggered into town.

And just as they have done so often to the Royals, they stomped a mudhole in them in the first two games.

Kansas City has been pounded into submission, losing 7-1 and 11-7. That latter score was somewhat deceiving as New York led 10-2 at one point and KC scored three cosmetic runs in the ninth.

The Yankees just seem to have the Royals’ number and it’s unfortunate because KC had come into the series on a high, having won six of seven games, including a sweep of Baltimore that had re-energized the Royals’ fan base.

Danny Duffy, the Royals’ Opening Day starter, gets the ball tonight against Jordan Montgomery, the Yankees’ No. 5 starter. If Duffy is the Royals’ true ace, he needs to come through tonight and be a stopper. It would be a shame after the three-game sweep of the Orioles that KC would give it all back by being swept.

• JACKSON TO 76ERS? — Josh Jackson, who had an outstanding season for Bill Self’s Kansas Jayhawks in his one-year stopover before going to the NBA, could be the No. 3 pick in the upcoming draft.

Washington’s Markelle Fultz is expected to be the top pick to Boston, with UCLA’s Lonzo Ball pegged for the Los Angeles Lakers, which would please his father and the Lakers’ fan base.

Jackson, who was amazingly versatile for the Jayhawks, is thought to be the third-best player and if he goes to the 76ers he would team with another former Jayhawk, Joel Embiid. The 7-0 center missed his first two years with injuries, then was having a sensational year before going down with injuries again.

Embiid is expected to be back 100 percent next year. And this year’s overall No. 1 pick for the 76ers, Ben Simmons, is expected back as well after missing his rookie year with an injury.

If I’m Jackson and drafted by the 76ers, I would make sure to get some insurance. It seems to be a curse to be drafted by Philly.

Swedes signing top cagers

Wednesday’s ramblings...

• SWEDES SIGNING CAGERS — According to my sports writing colleague Paul Mogenson of Lindsborg— the Bethany College guru who knows anything and everything about the Swedes — basketball recruiting at Bethany is on fire.

Keith Ferguson, who will be in his second year as women’s head coach, has landed a pair of 6-2 post players. One is Alex Tyson, who played at Jayhawk Juco power Seward County and prepped at Highland Park. Sloan Johnson, a 6-2 freshman out of Texas, is another key signing. The towering tandem gives Ferguson an inside presence that he didn’t have this past season except for the graduated Kimi Lindshield.

I said it when the season concluded, I think Ferguson’s women will make the KCAC’s biggest turnaround next season. He won big at Barton County and Brown Mackie, and formerly coached at the NCAA Division I level. He was hired late last year and played with the holdovers from the previous regime, but when I talked with him recently he said he already had signed 17 new players.

New Bethany men’s coach Dan O’Dowd has hit the ground running. According to Mogie, O’Dowd has signed Abilene’s All-Stater Ryan Wilson, a player McPherson High fans have seen down through the years. He’s an outstanding shooter and can stretch a defense. Also, O’Dowd managed to sign Marlon Miller of Salina Central and kept him away from Kansas Wesleyan, which had signed two players from Central earlier.  

• ROYALS’ DIVISION LAGGING – Even though the Royals were dominated 7-1 Tuesday by perennial thorn-in-the-side New York, they didn’t lose any ground.

That’s because the five teams in the American League Central all lost.

The AL Central is really scuffling. Upstart Minnesota, for now, is in the lead, but once we start getting deeper into the season look for them to fade. They’re leading the division despite a 19-16 record. 

In fact, the five teams combined are 5 games under .500.

Cleveland is just 20-18, but there’s simply too much talent there for it to continue to slumber. Detroit is showing signs of age and Chicago is rebuilding.

The Royals are just 4 1/2 games out, which is remarkable considering they have the American League’s worst record at 16-22.  The American League, however, is the stronger league at this point at it’s a combined 15 games over .500 compared to the minus-15 for the NL.

The Royals need for pitcher Jason Hammel to quit struggling as it’s almost been an automatic win for the opponents when it’s his turn in the rotation. He’s been a virtual no-show after winning 15 games last year. Much of that had to do with pitching for the Chicago Cubs, who gave him ample support on their way to winning the World Series.

• SHAWNEE HEIGHTS EXPLORING OPTIONS — According to a published report by The Topeka Capital-Journal, Shawnee Heights — which had some legendary basketball battles with McPherson High back in the days when the Bullpups were in Class 5A — is wanting to leave the Centennial League in order to join a new league that would include Basehor-Linwood, DeSoto, Lansing, Leavenworth and Kansas City Turner.

Shawnee Heights has been in the Centennial League for all but four years since the school opened in 1962.

The vote of the school board was close, 4-3 in favor of the new league should it come to fruition.

All seven Topeka high schools are Centennial League members, but it’s Washburn Rural and Manhattan — 6A schools – that have been dominating the league’s sports.

Heights has an enrollment of 1,123, which is seventh in the league.

• BALL TO LAKERS? — If it smells like fish, it’s probably fishy.

That’s what I thought when I heard Tuesday that the Los Angeles Lakers will be picking second in the NBA Draft next month.

The Boston Celtics, in a trade from New Jersey, will pick No. 1 and most likely go with Markelle Fultz of Washington, a shooting guard.

That would leave the Lakers to take Lonzo Ball of UCLA, whose father LeVar Ball has been lobbying for his son to play for the Lakers. Ball is the blowhard who basically has said that his son is Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant all rolled into one.

He also has rolled out his son’s own personal shoes, which go for nearly $400 a pair.

The younger Ball is an elite talent as he’s a great passer. But he has one ugly shot and is on the light side. There’s no guarantee he’ll be an All-Star.

This year’s draft is expected to be dominated by one-and-done players, perhaps as many as 8 of the top 10 picks.

Royals' series with Yankees is huge

Just as the offensive freakout has somewhat subsided and they’re no longer on pace to be the most anemic team in baseball history, just as the Royals have won six of their last seven to shed themselves of being baseball’s laughingstock, just as it appears they’re back to doing things “the Royals way,” along comes the mighty New York Yankees.

The Royals, brimming with confidence after a 6-1 week that has improved them to a still-paltry 16-21, never, ever play well against the Yankees. It goes back to those playoff years when all that stood between Kansas City and the World Series was its jelly-legged playoff performances against the Bronx Bombers. Not to mention the day George Brett went all-ballistic in baseball’s greatest rant after his home run was denied for slopping his bat with pine tar, with Billy Martin waiting for just the right moment to spring that surprise.

The Royals certainly have looked like a different team over the last week. Eric Hosmer finally decided to hit the ball where it’s pitched and the result has him over the .300 mark after being in the .180s about 3 weeks ago. He also knows being in a walk year, there’s not many teams that will play $20 million a year for a singles-hitting first baseman.

Lorenzo Cain isn’t hitting for power, but he’s spraying line drives to every part of the park. Salvy Perez still gets himself out more often than not, but has been delivering big hits as teams pitch around Hosmer. And Mike Moustakas has run into a few pitches that he’s hit out of sight as he leads the team in homers.

Even Jorge Soler, whose bat seems to be full of holes, hit a 2-iron of a homer on Sunday that nearly tore through the wall 464 feet away. 

Of course, Alex Gordon still looks like the $72 million mistake as he can’t unlock the mystery of why all of a sudden he looks washed up. Brandon Moss hit a couple of bombs last week, but could strike out 200 times. Joakim Soria still has fans holding their collective breaths every time he enters the game in the eighth inning.

So the Royals are back, but not all the way back. They need for Ian Kennedy to return from the DL as Chris Young is throwing little more than batting practice in his stead. Surely somebody down on the farm can go more than the 3 innings that Young has provided in each of his two starts.

This Yankees team that is coming in for three starting tonight has reinvented itself. Gone are Jeter, Posada, The Great Rivera and Pettitte, the core four of some great teams. Here comes The Judge (Aaron Judge, he of the monster homers), Gary Sanchez and Cardinal castoff Matt Holliday, who has been reborn. The Royals, fortunately, won’t have to face closer Aroldis Chapman as he went on the disabled list with a bad shoulder. You had to figure at some point a guy who can throw 105 as consistently and as long as he has had to flame out at some point.

Given the Royals’ still-fragile state, winning one of three would have to be considered a success, two of three monumental and a sweep unfathomable. If they would achieve the latter, then you would have to say the Royals are all the way back.

Bullpups' great effort fell just short

Tyler Brown knows that his McPherson High boys tennis team gave all that it had this past weekend in the Class 4A State Tournament in Prairie Village.

Normally having a state champion, a third-place finisher and a sixth-place finisher would have been enough to secure a state title.

But Wichita Collegiate had four placers in the Top 7 and despite not having a champion in either singles or doubles, the Spartans repeated as the state champion.

MHS and Collegiate battled it out all year, with the Bullpups outlasting the Spartans at the league meet, but Collegiate came back to win the biggest prize.

Yet, Brown doesn’t believe his team could have done any more.

“We had an outstanding state tournament and I couldn't be more proud to coach these young men this season,” Brown said. “Not only do they compete extremely hard on the court, every one of them comes from great families and showed amazing character that a coach can be proud of. I know it was their goal to win state, but as several of them know sometimes not only do you need to be extremely good, sometimes you need a little luck as well. You need the draw to fall your way or you need 100 percent health from all your players down the stretch of the season.  You really do need several things to fall in place to be able to put a banner up in the Roundhouse. The positive though is everyone that participated in this state tournament is back next year. And knowing how hard these guys work on their game I know we will be in the hunt for a state title once again next year.”

For the second time in his career, Nolan Schrader was part of a state championship doubles team as he combined with Kaden Stewart to roll to the title. Other than one set, the MHS duo wasn’t tested and it finished the year 25-3.

For Schrader, he’s now been to the state title match in each of his first three years. He won it all with Gallagher Martin in 2015 and took second last year with Kento Aizawa. 

So it wasn’t a surprise when he combined with Stewart for the title.

“Kaden’s skills were a great complement to those of Nolan with this dynamic duo,” Brown said. “Kaden was steady and just gives the opponent nothing to work with and does not make very many errors. This duo was paired together their freshman year and was 21-5 before I had to split them up for the best results at state that year, which won state that year. I knew they would be very good again this year.”

McPherson is still looking for its first-ever state singles champion, but Andrew Snell and Jarrod Nowak are knocking on the door. Snell took third — the highest finish ever by a Bullpup – while Nowak was sixth. Last year, it was Nowak who took fifth and Snell sixth. 

Snell now has finished in the Top 6 in each of his first three years.

“Wow, I can't say enough good things about this kid,” Brown said. “He set the bar extremely high his freshman year two years ago placing fourth, which at that time was the highest singles finish for McPherson High School boys tennis history. After Day 1, Andrew found himself in the semifinals of the singles draw yet again for the second time in his high school career. He fell just short of being the first (MHS) boys player to ever play in a final, but definitely came the closet losing in a tiebreaker in the second set to (Collegiate’s) Lakelin Conrad.  With momentum turning Snell's way in the second set, if he could of pulled that tiebreaker out I can only imagine what might of happened in the third set. Andrew may train and log the most court time on our team. I'm extremely excited to see what his senior year has in store for him. If he continues to improve as much as from his sophomore year to his junior year going into his senior year several players need to be very worried.  Not only does he have a extremely high character on the court it matches off the court and that’s what I love about Andrew.”

Nowak had yet another solid finish as he’s been one of the state’s best in each of his first two years.

“Jarrod had a bittersweet tournament,” Brown said. “For the second year in a row he drew the No. 1 seed in his quarterfinals. But he did not shy away though, he gave (Miege’s) Will Grier his toughest match losing in the three sets. Jarrod fought back after losing the first set to win the second set, but then ran out of gas cramping up after the first game in the third set, but fighting to the very end losing the third set 6-4. Jarrod showed tremendous effort and determination in not only finishing that match, but doing everything at the end of Day 1 to be ready for Day 2 and giving it a go and having to play at not 100 percent, but being able to finish the tournament in sixth place.”

With all four players coming back next year and Collegiate losing four of its six, the Bullpups could very well get over the top.

Vargas putting Royals on his back

Friday’s favorites...

• HOW LONG CAN VARGAS CARRY THE ROYALS? — How much longer can Kansas City left-hander Jason Vargas make opposing hitters look silly?

On a last-place team that is a meager 13-21, Vargas is now 5-1 with an ERA circa Bob Gibson as it’s 1.01. He pitched seven innings of three-hit, shutout ball on Thursday against Tampa Bay in a 6-0 victory, giving the Royals the series win by taking 3 of 4.

History tells us Vargas can’t keep up this pace as he's been pedestrian throughout his career. Heck, nobody can unless we turn the clock back to 1968 when Gibson has his historic season. Vargas is doing it by baffling opponents with a bevy of off-speed pitches and by the time the hitters start to look for the slow stuff, he zips an 88 mph fastball by them.

Vargas has more than one-third of the Royals’ victories. Ian Kennedy has yet to win and Jason Hammel has been a disaster. Except for his games against the Chicago White Sox, Danny Duffy has been nails. Nate Karns has been wildly inconsistent, but he’s the No. 5 guy and anything around .500 will be acceptable.

Throw out Wednesday’s one-run clunker and the Royals showed signs of life at the plate in the series with 20 runs in the other three games. But it’s still gruesome to watch Alex Gordon continue to spin himself in the ground as he’s now at .158 and Jorge Soler is flailing away at .056.

Now comes six games total with Baltimore and the Yankees, not exactly the teams the Royals want to see now.

• OTTE IS BACK — It will be so great to have Bryan Otte back as Moundridge volleyball coach.

Otte carved out nothing short of an amazing career for the Wildcats as he spent 11 years at the school before taking over at Valley Center, where he also made the program a power.

Otte won six state championships while at Moundridge. I've always thought he seemed to have a midas touch as the Wildcats were like a machine during much of his tenure.

He's also one of the really good guys in the profession and a delight to work with. Welcome back Bryan.

• MICHAEL OR LEBRON? — For whatever reason lately, the debate about who's the better player between Michael Jordan and LeBron James has been raging more than normal.

As great of an athlete as Michael was, he's not the specimen of LeBron. What King James can do with the basketball at 6-8 and 240 pounds is jaw-dropping. Can you imagine what kind of football player he would have been?

For years LeBron wasn't what I'd call a great shooter, but he's worked hard to become better.

But my vote, be it ever so slight, would still go to Jordan. He was so good in the clutch and defensively he had no peers. He has the advantage of having had a better cast around him, one reason has has won more championships.

LeBron will get his team in The Finals in a couple of weeks, but I don't see anybody beating Golden State.

Don't count out the MHS softball team

Thursday’s thoughts...

• MHS SOFTBALL A STATE SLEEPER? — McPherson High’s softball team is just 3-15 on the season.

But it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the Bullpups make the Class 4A Division I State Tournament.

First off, the Bullpups will be home on Tuesday for their four-team regional at Grant Complex. It never hurts to play in familiar surroundings.

Secondly, for all the powerhouse regionals and sub-states that McPherson High is generally included in, this is not the case this time. In fact, the Bullpups are in arguably the weakest regional in the class.

At the time of the pairings. Wamego was at .500 at 8-8. Abilene was 5-13, MHS 2-14 and Buhler 1-17. The Bullpups split with Salina South on Wednesday, which is encouraging since the Cougars have been a traditional 5A power though they’re just 10-10 this season.

The times I’ve watched the Bullpups, it’s all about defense. When their defense plays well, they stay in games. Too often, though, they have given teams as many as six outs in an inning by not catching the ball or overthrowing it.

The Bullpups are kind of like the Royals. It was just 3 years ago they were one victory away from 4A D-I supremacy, losing to Augusta in the state finals. This year’s free fall wasn’t expected, as the team had a good number of starters back.

But on Tuesday, MHS is — in its mind — 0-0 as the regional is a second season. If it plays defense, it can score enough runs to win as lately it’s been hitting the ball hard. Scoring 23 runs in two games against Salina South was promising.

If the Bullpups can win two games on Tuesday, this would probably be one of the most unlikely MHS teams ever to make a state competition.

• COLON RELEASED BY ROYALS — It seems like Christian Colon’s career with the Kansas City Royals has always hung like a thread.

Colon was the No. 4 overall pick in the 2010 draft. It was thought at the time he was drafted more for his signability as he wasn’t expected to command outlandish money.

When you’re a No. 4 overall pick, the team expects a big return on its investment. Colon finally arrived to the parent club in 2014, when he played 21 games and hit .333.

But he never really got a chance. He played 43 games in 2015, capped by his memorable hit in Game 5 of the World Series that clinched the championship. But he was given few opportunities last year, batting just 161 times. This year he played seven games before the Royals had finally decided they needed pitchers and had no other options.

Colon never got to play every day and nobody really knows what he can due over the long haul. Maybe there's a team out there that will give him a chance to start, but he's been pegged as a backup and I don't see that changing.

My feeling is the Royals knew early on they had badly overreached on Colon, but they didn’t want to admit to the mistake. While he was a good teammate and always well prepared to play, he simply didn’t have enough pop in his bat to justify a spot on the roster. He wound up playing just 125 games in his career with a homer and 25 RBIs. That’s not much for somebody picked that high.

Now I wonder just how long the Royals will keep Bubba Starling in the organization. He’s another player picked very high who has bombed miserably. I always thought he should have stayed with football because he was an incredible talent, as McPherson High fans saw that memorable night when his Gardner-Edgerton team outlasted the Bullpups 49-42 in what many still call the greatest game ever played at McPherson Stadium.

• COFFEYVILLE CLASSIC ENDING — I was sad to see today that the Harold Thomas Interstate Basketball Classic in Coffeyville is ending.

This was one of the older boys basketball tournaments in Kansas, starting in 1973. I was a student at nearby Independence High that year and I covered this tournament as a cub reporter for the Independence paper in 1976 and 1977. It drew teams from Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri and some big-name schools. For many years it was regarded as one of the top midseason tournaments in Kansas.

According to a story I read, declining ticket sales, reduced business sponsorship and difficulties in finding teams for the eight-team field played a role in its demise. The tournament was named for Harold Thomas, the former Coffeyville basketball coach who was a Southeast Kansas legend as well as one of the great gentlemen in the profession.

I’m just glad the McPherson Invitational is going strong and has been since 1965.

Sell on Sports back on Thursday

Sell on Sports will resume on Thursday.

It's been a goal-fest for MHS girls soccer team

Tuesday’s thoughts...

• SOCCER TEAM ON FIRE — Since losing a gut-wrenching 3-2 overtime decision to Newton on April 21, the McPherson High girls soccer team has steamrolled everything in its path.

The Bullpups have reeled off five straight wins, piling up 34 goals while allowing just one. They have put together back-to-back 10-0 routs, with Monday’s pummeling of Augusta wrapping up the AVCTL Division III-IV title for a second consecutive year.

The league teams have offered the Bullpups little resistance. In the seven league games this season, MHS recorded an astounding 54 goals and gave up 3, which are similar to last year’s numbers.

That’s why coach Chris Adrian tries to schedule tough non-conference teams, such as the Salina schools, Wichita Trinity and a good field in the McPherson Invitational, which was won by Maize South, the No. 1 team in the class.

The Bullpups’ rise has coincided with the emergence of freshman Claire Hedlund, who is an energizer bunny. She has had a four- and three-goal game during the current winning streak and her presence has opened up new opportunities for MHS’ “Big 3” of Alayna Wallace, Aislinn Hughes and Jessie Kynaston. Wallace has taken advantage to pile up a ton of assists while Hughes isn’t surrounded by two or three defenders as she was earlier in the year. Kynaston has returned to last year’s form as opposing teams are confounded by the plethora of offensive weapons at the Bullpups’ disposal.

So much possession of the ball has helped the defense tremendously as MHS seemingly has the ball about 75 percent of the game. When you have the ball, the other team can’t score.

Adrian said Monday the team is peaking at the right time and hopefully that translates into another berth in the state Final Four, which would be a third straight.

• A ROYALS TEASE? — It seems like when the Royals have one of their rare offensive outbursts — Monday’s 7-3 victory was only the third time this year they have scored at least 7 runs — Kansas City fans keep saying “is this the game that's going to turn it around?”

Royals announcers were saying the very same thing last night after they took care of Tampa Bay, a team they have manhandled in recent years. The Royals have not won back-to-back games since April 16, when they were completing a four-game winning streak. When the Royals do win, they seem to turn around and follow it up with an offensive clunker. They have played 31 games, scoring two or less runs in 15 of them.

The Kansas City offense erupted for 13 hits, with Eric Hosmer staying on fire with three more and he’s now gained 100 points on his average in the last two weeks. It’s ironic this outburst took place since Alcides Escobar, hitting all of .183 before the game, was returned to the leadoff spot, a place he used to occupy during the Royals’ halcyon days despite the fact he's allergic to walks.

• WHINY WARRIORS — I’m not a big fan of the NBA, but I do watch it when it gets to crunch time.

I thought it was a neat story in 2015 when the Golden State Warriors won the championship after many years where they were irrelevant. They reminded me of the old Laker “Showtime” teams of Magic, Kareem and Big Game James Worthy.

But success has gone to the Warriors’ heads. Their ego took a hit last year when they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in The Finals after having a 3-1 lead, but they added Kevin Durant this year and have looked to be the dominant team.

But I can hardly stand to watch them anymore. I viewed their last couple of games against Utah and they spent more time complaining about every single call than playing the game. Draymond Green embarrasses himself and if I were an NBA official, I would T him up early in the game because then he’d know another would cause him to be tossed out. 

NBA officials want the games to be decided by the best players, but sometimes you have to put a stop to the utter nonsense.

MHS sports heading into the home stretch

We’re heading into the home stretch of the McPherson High spring sports season and here’s an update on where the teams stand:

• Boys Tennis — It’s state tournament week and the Bullpups are considered one of the three leading contenders for the Class 4A championship.

MHS has been chasing No. 1-ranked Wichita Collegiate all season and even outlasted the Spartans at the league meet, though both teams went with different lineups than normal to not give anything away when state rolls around.

Andrew Snell and Jarrod Nowak are considered top singles contenders. Snell was the regional champ last week and Nowak the runner-up. Nowak was fifth in the state last year, Snell sixth. The doubles team of Kaden Stewart and Nolan Schrader could make the Final Four after taking second at the regional last week, losing in the finals to pre-tournament favorites Jacob Berven and Jase West of Abilene.

• Baseball — MHS is on the road today for a triangular at Wellington (with Goddard the third team) and a sweep would give the Bullpups a 13-4 record. A final decision has not been made on the completion of the second game with Salina South that has been twice postponed. If it is played, it would be on Wednesday, with a huge doubleheader set for Thursday with MHS hosting Buhler at Grant Complex. But the weather gods may spoil both dates as there’s a strong chance of rain both days, which is the story of the spring.

• Girls Soccer — MHS has two games left in the regular season this week, today at Augusta, then Thursday at Salina Central. The Bullpups are 11-3 on the year and should have no trouble with Augusta, but Salina Central will provide good competition heading into next week’s postseason play. The Bullpups probably will be home for at least the first two games.

• Softball — McPherson High played doubleheaders last Thursday and Friday, then has three twinbills scheduled for this week, so basically half the season is being played in eight days. MHS is at Wellington today, hosts Salina South on Wednesday and then entertains Buhler on Thursday, but again Mother Nature may have other ideas for the two home dates. MHS is 2-12 on the year, but has the good fortune of perhaps being in the weakest regional in 4A Division I. Wamego has the most wins (6) of any team in the regional, which the Bullpups will be hosting next week.

• Golf – The Bullpups have league this week, making the short trip to Hesston on Tuesday. The regional is next week at Clay Center and why KSHSAA selected that site is a mystery since it’s a nine-hole course and it will take all day to play. Jacob Lackey is expected to qualify for state and MHS will have to play its best to make it as a team.

• Track and Field – McPherson High is going to host the AVCTL Championships on All Schools Day, so a big crowd is anticipated at McPherson Stadium. The Bullpup girls will be a favorite, while the MHS boys should finish in the upper half. Regional is the following week, then state, of course, at Wichita State.

• Girls Swimming — The Bullpups have been remarkably consistent this season, always in the Top 3 of the meets they have competed in. The league finale is Saturday in El Dorado, followed by state. Swimmers have to meet a pre-determined time in order to advance and the Bullpups are expected to have a good-sized contingent at state.