To make things even worse, Patrick has a torn ACL in his left knee. That will be a minimum of six months of recovery. 

Wichita was awarded this huge honor over Atlanta, Charlotte and other cities. Congratulations! Coming up? Wichita will host the U.S. National Youth Soccer President's Cup in 2026, 2027 and 2028. This is the first time ever  a city has been awarded the tournament three years in a row.

With the Olympics and with the World Cup coming to Kansas, I've really, really tried to learn to like soccer the past six months. While I love watching my grandchildren play, adult soccer can't be any more boring. And, yes, many years ago I was one of the fans in the stadium when Pele played in the United States.  Now, I realize this is heresy to soccer fans. That's okay.  But, as evidence, I offer this off-air photo I took of NBC's coverage of the U.S. women's gold metal victory yesterday. It is a cutaway while the game was in progress, not during a medical or other break.  I rest my case! Just like I enjoy watching television meteorologists when I visit other cities, one would think Germany's soccer players would have been enthralled by the 1-0 game.  If you like it, that's great! Enjoy! Just, please, stop trying to convert me. Soccer is boring. 

She won the gold metal today! She starts at Kansas State this semester. 

  Kansas City won 26-7!

#15, Tommy DeVito headed for the end zone From a DuckDuckGo search earlier this week: Same name, same state,   different generations.  Tommy DeVito was the founding member of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons , by far the #1 early 1960's pop music group in the USA until Beatles "invasion" in 1964. He grew up in Belleville (northern) New Jersey and lived with his family until he dropped out of school after the 8th grade. When you watch Goodfellas  (starring his lifelong friend Joe Pesci) and hear the name "Tommy DeVito," it was named after this TDeV. CNN Tommy DeVito is the starting quarterback for the New York Giants and lives with his parents in northern New Jersey ...just eight miles from NJ's MetLife Stadium and 9 miles from Belleville.  When I am watching a Giants game and (frequently) hear Tommy DeVito's name, the sound of the Seasons' #1 hit Walk Like a Man runs through my mind. But, when they call a play for the Giants' #15, I suspect t...

ESPN Friday certainly don't know about geography....

Len in Super Bowl I; photo NY Post The news that broke today that Len Dawson is in hospice care makes me very sad.  Not only was Len a Hall of Fame Quarterback for the Chiefs, he was one of the first active players -- ever -- to do sports broadcasting.  I met Len when he was sportscaster for KMBZ Radio in Kansas City and I did their weather. Even though I was a teenager, he was always a gentleman and encouraging to me. In the last couple of decades, I would run into him at KMBC TV and we would have a pleasant conversation. While I haven't been him recently, I considered him a friend.  Best of luck, Len. You will be terribly missed. 

Big 12's Kansas State plays in the last bowl game of the year Tuesday evening My gosh, reading Twitter after Cincinnati lost to Alabama, you'd have thought they were blown out 70-0. One of my favorites was a self-described B1G (Big 10) fan who kept throwing shade at the Bearcats until his conference's Michigan kicked off an hour later against Georgia. Oops.  I wish I had saved all of them. They are fun reading.  I'm primarily writing about the sportswriter who commented (paraphrasing and referring to Cincy and the AAC) the Power 5 are a "different level of competition" and that the rest "should have a championship of their own" as well as all of the others who were so quick to criticize the American Athletic Conferences' football programs. " Sports Illustrated" couldn't wait until the game was over to criticize Cincinnati  Really? Is this conventional wisdom (CW) among sportswriters correct? The statistics point to the CW being wild...

 

Do these cows look "miserable" to you? They are grazing in the Kansas Flint Hills Since these wackos got the publicity (which is what they want), let's have a little fun with this. PETA explained its stance in a news release Thursday ... saying "bullpen" is insensitive to cows. The org. said baseball should instead use "arm barn" to avoid the issue. "Words matter, and baseball 'bullpens' devalue talented players and mock the misery of sensitive animals," PETA exec   Tracy Reiman   said. My granddaughters look toward the Wichita Wind Surges' bullpen in left field I wonder how PETA came up with "Arm Barn"?  Here are my suggestions if baseball really wants to rename the bullpens:  Pitchers' Patch Curveball Cubbyhole  Baseball Bunch Hanging Curveball Hangout However, given PETA's perennial lack of a sense of humor, I would have thought they would have proposed "Arm Pit" over Arm Barn. After all, in their w...

Lightning has been occurring over the greater Los Angeles area this evening which has caused a 45 minute delay in the kickoff of Monday Night Football. The above photo was captured by ESPN. At 5:35p PDT (7:35pm CDT), there was a new area of lightning south of the stadium (blue dot) moving  northwest. So, there may be an additional delay in the scheduled 5:50pm kickoff.  Still it is odd that rare thunderstorms in the Southland are causing this delay in a domed stadium that has one open area.  The ESPN crew (motto: "I'm not a meteorologist but I play one on TV) said, "Lightning can't go sideways." Oops.  They really should have a meteorologist or commercial weather company on retainer. UPDATE: Another meteorologist agrees.

Arrowhead Stadium in the snow. Photo of by Tristan via Twitter AccuWeather  recently published an interesting article and poll on the subject of the NFL and its policy of playing most games during adverse weather. Before I make my suggestions I want to make a couple of clarifications.  The 2018 Miami-Tennessee game was delayed by lightning, not just by rain.  NFL games are  rescheduled in event of a hurricane. They did just that in 2005 when Hurricane Wilma threatened a Chiefs v Miami game.  My opinion: Things should continue as they are. NFL games should continue to be played in the snow and cold and similar conditions. It is part of the tradition of the game. However, I would make two changes: Lightning delays often last too long in both college football and the NFL. This is due to the both using outdated science.  As the article points out, there is far too much risk and disorganization when combining tornado risks and football stadiums full of fans...

...here is a good tutorial as to the NFL replay review process. My Chiefs have a bye and don't start play Saturday. 

The Indianapolis-based NCAA announced today that a single city -- likely Indy -- will be chosen to hold the entire tournament because of COVID. We in Wichita were certainly looking forward to again hosting the NCAA's men's basketball tournament in March, 2021.  To me, this decision does not make sense.  The health risk to healthy young men around the age of twenty is very low to begin with (see graph), I don't understand the need for a bubble.  What about people older than twenty? People like me (60's) or older or in other high-risk groups should not attend until vaccinated. As of today, the U.S. has registered 11,000,000+ cases. That is projected to be close to 20,000,000 by March based on current trends.  Given  two vaccines are supposed to be available by year's end , and that 80,000,000 are supposed to be able to be vaccinated by March, we have roughly 1/3rd of the U.S. population invulnerable to the disease with the number rising rapidly. If  herd imm...

From the NFL Network this afternoon. In the playoffs, there are no ties so there were only two alternatives, Chiefs or Titans. They were 100% wrong.  This time of year, meteorologists have to contend with: no precipitation, rain, freezing rain, drizzle, freezing drizzle, sleet or snow. Then, we have to forecast, "how much"? We even got the rare out-of-season tornado outbreak correct . Forecasting the future is hard. Meteorologists do a great job week after week. H/T: Lisa Teachman

The title reflects words of wisdom from ESPN's Chris (Boomer) Berman. Beside the alarming late-game performance of my Chiefs, there is a bigger point to be made here. Via Twitter In the NFL, there are only three outcomes: win, loss, or (rarely) tie. In meteorology, there can be many outcomes: dry, rain, sleet, snow, et. cetera. As the cliche´ says, "forecasting the future is hard." But, meteorologists do it well day after day, year after year. Back when it looked like the Chiefs would win the game, here is some more magic from Patrick Mahomes. And, while YouTube made the video available for posting, it said the NFL (aka, "no fun league") won't allow it. There is a link in the middle of the copyright notice, so just click that. You won't be sorry. It is an amazing highlight. 

I signed up for ESPN+ because I loved NFL Primetime  when it was on ESPN and because my Kansas State Wildcats were going to open Big 12 play this year against Oklahoma State and it was going to be 'televised' only on the +. So, I shelled out my $4.95 for the first month. Verdict after 1.5 quarters of the game? It should be called ESPN - .   The production values are terrible: no line to gain projected on the field, no pylon cam, no first down cam, no referee cap cam, no field goal live statistics. There are very few cameras being used which results in missed plays and few angles for replay. It is chintzy. And, for your money, you get just as many commercials as you do with free television broadcasts. The ESPN - streaming is poor quality. Even though the game is in a second quarter lightning delay there have been at least a half-dozen times when the screen has frozen or broken up. And, they tried to sell me a one-year subscription when I logged in and there as no "...

Following up on the posting below, this is how bad it is. By the way, you'll see a clip of the Twins at the Rangers. We (AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions when I worked there) had a lightning warning (40 minutes in advance!) for Six Flags Over Texas at the time which was directly across the parking lot.