Cause I'm a Jay, Jay, Jay, Jay, Jayhawk

Today's post brought to you courtesy of guest blogger extraordinaire, Matthew.

My wife was kind enough to allow me to guest blog about the Kansas City Royals.

The Royals are a baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri, which I find disingenuous.  No one thinks of them as a Missouri team, they already have the Cardinals.  So, that's somewhat lame.  This happens to Kansas not infrequently.  The Chiefs are also based in Kansas City, Missouri.  This really kind of sucks for Kansas.  My entire family is from Kansas, so I really should know more about the Royals than that Zack Greinke was wasted there for several years (the Royals have sucked for some time, thought they apparently might actually be good this year).  The only other thing that comes to mind when I think of the Royals is this:

Admit it, that's all you can think of, too.  The Pine Tar Game is the only thing most people think about when they think about George Brett (even though he is in the Hall of Fame).

That's all I really have to say about the Royals.  So now it's time to talk about THE KANSAS JAYHAWKS, THE BEST BASKETBALL TEAM EVER TO EXIST, EVER!!

As I said, my entire family is from Kansas.  Both of my parents grew up in Kansas and attended KU.  They have framed newspapers from 1988 up in their house to this day.  If you don't know what happened in 1988, this happened:

That's all to say that I come by my love of KU Basketball honestly.

Now, KU plays Kentucky tonight for the national championship.  By the time this is posted, the game will probably be over and I'll either be catatonic with joy or grief.  When Kansas won in 2008 I jumped up and down, by myself, in the dark, while trying to figure out how to celebrate, given that my oldest daughter was asleep 10 feet away.

God, I love KU basketball.

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK KU!!!!!!

And that's your 2012 Kansas City Royals!!

**Blogger's note -- Or not. That's your 2012 Kansas Jayhawks! Let's just be honest about what this really is, sweetie.

"Los Angeles is a constellation of plastic." - Norman Mailer

Hello all, today's blog post is brought to you by your fascinating guest blogger, Bethany's husband Matthew.

                                            

Today, I'll be writing about The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  Seriously, that name is ridiculous.  Does that mean we should call them the Minnesota Twins of Minneapolis, or the Texas Rangers of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex (but mostly in Arlington)?  Is there something special about Anaheim that makes it worth mentioning, other than Disneyland?  I know Disney wants us to believe that Anaheim is some kind of destination worth caring about, but no one really does.  Disney World is infinitely better, if you like that kind of thing.

There's not much to say about the Angels other than that they won one World Series in 2002 against an incredibly juiced Barry Bonds.  However, the original owner of the Angels was none other than Gene Autry, cowboy singer extraordinaire.  Gene Autry's real name is Orvon Grover Autry, so you can see why he went by Gene (although Gene isn't really a badass cowboy name either, I'd bet that if he was a real cowboy he wouldn't have done very well).

                         

Orvon Grover is most famous for the songs "Here Comes Santa Claus", "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer", and "Frosty the Snowman" (also not particularly cowboy).  He owned a ranch in California that was originally called the Monogram Ranch.  He renamed it Melody Ranch, not very cowboy.  Although they did film the first few years of Gunsmoke there, so that maybe gives it an air of authenticity. So, I guess what I'm saying is that Orvon Grover, the Angels, and Los Angeles are perfect partners.  He was a fake cowboy, the Angels don't really have an identity (they just sign good players from other teams, a small time Yankees if you will), and I'm pretty sure Los Angeles doesn't really exist.

Ladies and Gentleman, your Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim!

***Blog owner's note -- The views of this author do not necessarily reflect those of the blog owner. She (I) would like to say for the record that she (I) loves (love) Gene Autry. Christmas would not be same without him. Hopefully our marriage can survive this rift.