FiredUp Network
Thursday, July 11: Time Out KC Sports
time out K.C. on the fired-up network, Gerald Bentley. I'm joined tonight by Chris, the Playmaker Stimson from Hot 103 Jams K.P.R.S. Chris, besides taking us home on the weekdays on Hot 103, you go to a lot of Kansas City sports events, cover it, you have your podcast, Stimson ain't easy. We had a lot going on. It was a really eventful week. I wanted to start off with the big news that happened in between our last show. The NWSL Championship game is going to come to Kansas City and CPKZ Stadium. Thanksgiving weekend is going to be a whole week event. It's going to be a big economic impact for the city and had a chance to talk with Danny Wojneak from the current. This is a huge event that really I wasn't expecting to come to Kansas City, but a big mark and really showing the value of having that downtown stadium. It is huge to get that off your first year in the stadium to get that look. In the way the current is playing, we might actually get a home championship game. The way it could shape out as we saw over this last weekend, but I think it's a great look not only just for the current, not just for what the stadium is looking like, but just for Kansas City as a whole. We are really solidifying ourselves right now as the soccer capital of the United States with all these events coming through with the Copa America, with the World Cup. Now you're getting this championship game with NWSL. Who knows what could be the future. It's a great look for what's going on, especially with the owners down with the current and NWSL to have that. It's on CBS, if I remember right, I think it's on CBS Prime Tom. That's a great look, especially if the current can make it in there, Gerald. Yeah, on Thanksgiving weekend. We saw what may be a preview, so it could be the tiebreaker between the two teams. The Orlando Pride and the Casey current, they played to a 2-1 decision, and it looked like the Orlando Pride was playing the role of the New York Red Bulls. The game started with grabbing, pulling down. I mean, they just grabbed for Michelle Cooper by her forearm and tackled her, and Michelle got up and said, "What, what?" It was just crazy. They grabbed, Tim was Jersey, like it was an old NFL game with Breakaway jerseys and pulled her down, and that got nothing. Eventually, they called Yellen, and finally, there was a red card put up, but at that point, Orlando was going to park the bus mode and kept holding and grabbing. It was really just kind of, I put on Twitter during the live tweets, it was just kind of an embarrassing look for the NWSL. The referee's just utterly lost control of the game. Yeah, and you have to call those fouls, right? Do you see a foul, no matter, I know it's the number one versus the number two match-up, you want to say let them decide it on the field, but if they're blatant calls, you have to make those calls. So, yeah, a little bully ball was going on out there in CPKC, but yeah, I hate that we couldn't take advantage of that, of the man down or the woman down during the game, but, oh man, man, it's going to be great for a rematch, especially in how Orlando, and I know you saw it because you were there, how they were celebrating, especially Marta, you would have thought, you would have thought that Brazil just want to cope for America the way she was celebrating that game. It kind of reminded me of the Bengals and the Raiders celebrating wins that Arrow had, because the current players that they brought it up in the post game, Izzy and still, they both pointed out that Orlando got a little carried away and we're going to remember that. And I saw, I think it was Michelle Cooper that sent the tweet, like, okay, all right, it's on the calendar, so coming up in September, it's going to be a good weekend right there to see that rematch, but I think it's possible, you're going to see that November 23rd out there at CPKC, because both teams still look good, and think about that, they did that, we still don't have B of B, it's not back yet, and I know she's going to be motivated to see what happened on Saturday, because I'm sure she would have made a difference. Jeepernardo wasn't in the game either, if I remember right as well, so yeah, yeah, bring two of those players back and let's see how much they'll be talking at the pride of the next time we play and begin, but it was still a good matchup though, yeah. It was, it was still a good match, it was still extremely close. The deep Bernardo injury, that also highlights that need to have the referees be a little bit more on the game, because that was a regular flow of game fall that got elevated to a red cart after the game, which really doesn't help anybody. Right, right, does not at all, and it was good to see the top two scorers in the league as well with Banda and Tim one, going back and forth at it as well, so yeah, both teams have plenty of chances, that's why I loved most about the game, but at the same time, the physical part of it, it could chill out a little bit, yeah. Yeah, and those two players, they do stand out there, they're like evil twins. Oh my gosh, especially Tim with speed, man, just the breakaway speed that I see every week is crazy. Can I see her in the race with Tyree drill? Can we make that happen? I'd like to see that race happen when we get, you know, I think she is the most electrifying speed player in the city since Tyree kill. Wow, yeah, yeah, no, I mean speed like that, that is insane. The way she can get on the ball and go past two or three people with a flick of a ball is crazy. Yeah, and you don't even think if, okay, hey, it's, it's 2v1 and it's a long pasture. Okay, she's going to get it. You don't even think that anybody's going to catch up with her. It's not really, no, I mean, really impressive. Almost to the point that she's a little too fast because she kind of gets out in front of Divina and Debranardo and so sometimes she ends up on an aisle. Yeah, there's one play I have in my head where she was going past some defenders and she tried to cross it and it seemed like nobody was ready in the box. Like, hold on. Oh, give me a little bit more seconds, yeah, a little bit too fast. One more, one more point with the current. This came up on the announcement day of the championship game coming here. An amazing stat that Danny Wellniac provided to us. So far this season broadcast viewership is up 95% in the ratings from last year. That was on top of an 80% game from last year. So we're talking a combined 175% gain at a time when the ratings for everything is plummeting. Next day, except course for the fired up network, it's going out, NWSL social media mentions up 94% and the NWSL shop, the merch up 300% for last year. Wow. So the growth is amazing. Wow, women's sports is growing as a whole. It's great to see that and it's been good to see the NWSL with their promotions, the marketing and getting players in the league now. You're starting to know more storylines now, especially when you see what happened with the women's World Cup to just happen last summer. So you're starting to see more and more of that in. And I think it's on its way up. It's only going more up. Yeah. You know, yeah, get back to hopefully you'll get back to we get more of some of those players that came from the women's Super League over in England, get some of those players to come over here a little bit more and get some of these salaries up. It's probably going to be one of the best leagues, if not the best league in the world. So that would be great to see. Supposedly, there was a $900,000 contract offered to an international striker during this last transfer window. Didn't come through, but the salaries are jumping. You know, I noticed a huge difference last year during the women's final four, because I was just going around and just casually talking to people around the city and they said, oh, hey, have you been watching the women's final four and they're rattling off players names, which never happened before. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you hear soccer fans in Kansas City, they're not just talking about the current as, hey, I'm going to go see the current. They're talking about, hey, do you think it was a good idea for Michelle Cooper to go out to a wing position? Well, can you believe low score to brace? And that's the first time she's done it. I mean, they know the players' names, they know the stats, they know the formations. So it's a huge difference. That's a big change going from just watching the team to knowing the individual players, knowing their backstory, and following them to the point they follow, the royals, the Chiefs, the Jay Hawks, I mean, that's a huge difference. Yeah. And winning always helps, winning always helps. So when you're seeing the winning out there, you're seeing, okay, they're in first place, you know, you see Patrick or Britney's behind the team, you get Blackco to come back, everybody knew Blackco was, since he was in the Women's World Cup, he was coaching the women's team. So people were familiar with that coach and on top of that, he's won before. So it's just a perfect story of coming together on by the way, here's a new stadium built just for you. Yeah. So you don't have to worry about playing more at Children's Mercy Park or trying to find or playing at Legends Field. You have your own spot downtown by the river. It's just a great looking coverage. It's been great. It's been great. Just all the way around. The ion coverage that's going on Saturday nights, the prime video coverage, even on 38 to spy. Everything has just been great coverage wise. And that's been great to know. You can actually see the current every game where it's compared to, okay, what would they be on TV? We'll be able to hear it on the radio. All their games on TV now, it's great to come in every game on the radio to 90.9. Yeah. Our old friend, Davey B, doing the play-by-play, does a great job actually. Yes. It's a really good broadcast. And they have good music. If you want to listen to some alternative music with a little bit of a mellow box. You got to switch it up sometimes. You can always do hip-hop and R&B, right? Yeah. Yeah. You can mix it up. 90.9 is a bridge. Well, hey, talking about a team that the games are readily available, you can see them on your TV. Everybody in the Metro can get it. Well, and then on the opposite side, yeah, of your Kansas City Royals, good luck finding the game on TV. I would like to see you. Yeah. It's on the Valley Sports app. Once Valley gets out of bankruptcy, then maybe we can see it. But the winning is coming. As we broadcast, the Royals are only seven wins away from last year's total at 56. I know before this season, I picked 72 and 90 because growing up as a Cleveland fan, I looked at, hey, if they break 72, then, man, they're only 10 games away from being in the 500 range. That's a good season. I was happy with that as an Indians fan, growing up. They were. How do you feel about the royals right now sitting at to the point they're going to be over 50 wins before the All-Star break? Oh, I feel great. It's great to see. I would love for them to make the playoffs. I think they still have a great shot at making the playoffs. But if not, I deem the season as success, just because, like you say, seven wins away from already equaling. The total is already great. And we're seeing them compete. That's the best thing about what I see. That's all I've asked for is just to compete to actually watch a series and say they have a chance to win that series, and we've been seeing a lot of that lately. Even if some of the bigger teams that play against, they might not look as great, but they're taking care of some of those other series where they know they can win and they should win. So that is a great look to see. We're looking at four All-Stars. I never thought it was said that this season. I would have thought maybe Bobby had a chance. Salbi always has a chance because this is one of the best catches in the league. But to get four All-Stars, and you talking about two starting pitchers? You have never said that, Joe, the season started. Two starting pitchers that have made the All-Star roster. Yeah. We're not one of those teams. Normally, the world is the one of those teams. You get that one All-Star because you have to have a team representative. No, not this year. They all got recognized by their peers. They got voted in. That is a great look to see what the Royals are doing. They look, things are going up. Yeah. I mean, we had some really bad All-Star representatives over the years. I think Jeff Detman was an All-Star representative one year. Scott Elred was an All-Star representative of the year. But now they're getting it done. And Seth Lugo, arguably the best pitcher in the league right now, called Reagan's a young Cy Young contender because, man, there's not many people who can physically do what he can do. Right. It's another example if you can't teach speed. He's able to got it up there at one on one. Not many people can do that. No. No. I can't believe that the Rangers let them go just for a rotational champion, but everybody wins wins because they got a World Series Championship out of it. Yeah. And you got a cornerstone for the future with the Royals, so that's great. And Seth Lugo could be starting the All-Star. Here's that argument. He could start the All-Star game. Oh, absolutely. Good to look at that. So, you know, great, great pick up all around for JJ Pacolo and what Matt Cattrodo is doing with the Royals. It's great to see this season. And like I said, you're watching games. It's not expecting them to win, but you know they have a chance to win compared to art. We just want to see the guys develop and see what they can do. Now it's like, now we have expectations of the team, which is great to go into the season. Well, and it gives us something to talk about too because we go into July not talking about who the Royals are going to dump to hopefully get some prospects and build for the future. We could actually talk about adding players to the team. Royals owner John Sherman was on the Royals radio network today talking with Vern. And he said, this is a very unroils like quote, "I would rather add payroll than sacrifice young talent to improve this team." How do you feel about that? It's definitely a corner turning statement. You never heard that with the Glass family. I do not remember any days where they were talking like that, like Lisa is succinct like that to the point. They might him all around it, and you might have more say where I was looking to improve and whatnot. But to hear that show owner say, I would rather add payroll, that is great to hear. But never have to see it. Yeah. Yeah. So the Glass credit, they did it when they had the opportunity to do so. They did pull the trigger, but Sherman saying, hey, we can do it, let's go. It shows they have a plan. So my question was, are the Royals of today better set up for long term success than they were in 2015? Because we wanted in 2015, but we already see the window closing, because we have traded away a lot of our young talent to hold their talents, get over to the top. There wasn't much left in the cupboard, and that's what we've seen the last eight years. Now you have young talent signed, and they're actually developing a little bit because last year's first round pick was really just derided by everybody as being a horrible pick. What are you doing? Taking a hitting catcher, but like Mitchell's actually hitting off the storm. No, I love what the process is right now, and I think this will be a better process because like you say, like after the World Series, and you are already hearing about them trying to break up the team. You already kind of heard about, well, I don't know if we're going to be able to afford Hosmer and Boostakis and Kane and Perez and keeping everybody together. So you already kind of saw this is just going to be another run and once they flame out, then it's over. Where in this case, they are trying to build more in the scene. And on top of that, they need to because they try to get to stadium and so they're not going to build this new stadium and not have a good team and not have a good product out there once you have the new stadium. So I think they are going to be built for a more success to come and like you say, the prospects, I think the prospect pool is going to be much better compared to them because I think they're doing different things to find the prospects and I already see a little bit of faith in JJ for what he's at least what we're seeing this year. These last couple years, I could see the type of planet they're working on, but we have an ambitious owner like John Sherman and what he's trying to do, I think that's the biggest difference where he's probably going to spend more money on prospects and spend more money in draft situations. Like, I'll be interested to see what they do in a draft this upcoming weekend to see how they will add on to the team. So I think that's where the difference is whereas you're probably afraid, oh, we don't want to draft this person. They're probably not going to sign. They're going to ask so much money. If Sherman is talking about added payroll, we'll see some of that with this draft as far as who they pick. They're not going to be worried about, can we sign this guy right now? We'll get this guy signed whoever we pick. And so I think they are going to be better success for the future. And it's always good to have a cornerstone like Bobby already. That definitely helps because you're not signing them when he's 30 for his big contract. You already got them early. So I think that's a great look for what they're trying to do. And young pitching, young pitching is huge as well. Yeah. Cola Reagan's locked up till 2028 as well and they have plenty of room for upside. They only have $31 million committed at this point in 2026. Wow. They can easily go to 130. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And if you have to make some moves, you're not, you're not necessarily saying, okay, we're not going to do anything after we make these moves, you got to start from scratch again. I think they could still make moves. And still, like you said, with the prospects coming up in the system, when you're talking about Blake Mitchell, when you're talking about some of the other pitches, I'm not sure I remember seeing her about AC Lacey a lot. Yeah. I hope he's still doing good down there. But some of those people, if they can come up and provide what you're hearing about down in single A and double A and all that, I think Omaha, Omaha has been great too. Omaha's on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's the biggest thing. What you're seeing in the minor league system will show you what your major league team is going to look like in the future and things are looking good down there. Then they'll look good for the future up here in Casey. Absolutely. And then hey, let's take a look at Children's Mercy Park. We were at the game on Sunday, sporting Kansas City in a game that got a little chippy late. Yes. Yeah. Alice. Old Ford, FC Dallas owned by Kansas City's own favorite owner, Clark Hunt. Yeah. The Kansas City team took out Dallas 3-2 in a game that ended with a red card on the song, the song in extra time, with like a minute to go. And the song proved that it's always the guy who retaliates that got caught because he had the ball bounced off his head after doing a great job, killing the clock and defending all the kind of eat the time up, he's getting bounced on his head, all right. Yeah. But Dallas took the ball and begged it off his head and he jumped him and that's what the referee saw. Hey. I'm pretty sure it'll end up being elevated to a red card on the Dallas player to upon review. Hey, Coach Reem, I want to show that to some of the Chiefs players in training camp coming up that shoulder tackle, that facade laying down the area on that play, man. But he deserved it, man. You can't throw them by balls. Yeah. Yeah. Like that we do that was all purpose. Yeah. I'll do it. Yeah. Here's what Peter said about it. I think, look, I think at some point, you know, I always said you got to keep your emotions and you got to react and you got to be smart and how you react. But in that situation, I completely understand what occurred and why you reacted the way you did. And so I just, I just think the situation also could have been handled differently by the referee because there's no way that the player should have gotten away with what he did. There you go. No, that's two reds. That should have been two red cards off top. You know, you say the facade, hey, you can't do that. You know, you're going to get seen with that. At the same time, you can't throw the balls at people's heads like that. That's crazy. So yeah, that can't happen, but you know, it was kind of good though. It was kind of good to see him fired up, walking off the field, getting the crowd fired up. You know, they care. They want to win these games. They, they are, they are being feisty and that's sometimes you have to show that. Sometimes you have to show. Hey, we were going to fight back. We're not going to just let you bully us. You know, especially a young player like the song and a veteran like Ariola. Yeah. You can't, you can't let them do that to you. So I love to see that just to see some fight, but what a match it was. It was a, it was a great match from began to end. Sporting could have won a like five or six, how many gold chances they had in that game. So yeah, yeah, it was great, but yeah, they almost flaked it off again, Geraldie. I almost did. It was a win for me coming through with that 80, 81st, 82nd minute. They held on. That was a great goal by Memo. Yes. Memo and Peter went and talked to the Calderon fans afterwards and Peter said, Hey, it was okay. That game on, you know, Peter went out there and said, we really need you in that game on Wednesday. It's important to tell everybody to come to the game. And I think that's showing that they haven't given up. Yeah. Yeah. The internet's not a. Oh, no. Right. Is that, is that dead hunt in the car, in the hunt family over there, they want you talking about it. Yeah. The internet's, the internet's against us tonight. No, it's going to be a big game. Not a monster. So Google fiber, I mean, no, no, no, no, it's a big game Wednesday night with FC Dallas. For one, as you can see, man, I'm sure FC Dallas is steaming about what happened. They might have felt like they had a chance to win that game if they let it slip. So, and then you saw the end of that game, if I, if I'm Peter, man, poop is all back out there again on Wednesday night because the red carton don't mean nothing for the US Open Cups. Sure. Go ahead and put them back out there and see what happens if they play a reality out there, but yeah, huge game because even though the season is not as, has been looking for sport in case he has been looking great, they still have a chance for a trophy because it's still in the US Open Cup. And you know, sport in case he takes so seriously with the US Open Cup, they got, I forgot how many got on the wall. So they're all about winning those cups. So this would be a great look for sport and if they can make that happen. And I think it's gonna be a good one. I think it's gonna be a good look out there and I would love to see what's gonna happen. I'll play it on being out there tomorrow night. So yeah, yeah, if Peter says we want you out there, that's, yeah, go, go be out there and support. Yeah. I think if they pull this off and they win the US Open Cup, that makes it a successful season, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. You got to say, okay, they struggled. The record isn't what it should be, not what anybody wants, but man, they haven't given up. You can watch that team practice. They practice hard. It's not like, you know, we talk about NBA practices and MLB practices, they're just kind of, you know, they kind of go through the motions and, you know, it's a long season. Well, I'm not less. They practice as hard as they play. It's really kind of shocking when you're covering professional sports to see how hard they do practice. Yeah. Yeah. We're trying. And Peter's giving them chances. That's the other thing I like this year. He's actually giving some of these younger player chances. We're seeing Bart's getting more clock now. You saw the song out there getting clock. Pierre is out there getting clock. He's in driving Kyrie Shell now as a right back, you know, which is different this year. So like he's, he's trying different things, seeing Jake Davis now in the midfield. I didn't know he was a midfielder before. I didn't, I always thought he was straining as a right back, but to see him coming to midfield and be attacking presence out there as well, man, we're starting to see some of those things. And we might see a little bit more shake up as the season goes because Peter's not giving up as I'm sure he's not giving up on trying to make the playoffs either. And you still got the league's cup coming up too. So there's plenty to play for for sport in KC and this week is showing a lot and I missed the Austin game. So I didn't get to see what happened when they play Austin. And I watched a little bit of Colorado game, but like you said, you can still see them competing. You can still say they engage that not giving up on the season. So that's the testament to the coaching staff and what they're doing in the front office. Yeah. I mean, two of three and a dominant win against Austin, a good win against Dallas and a tough game against Colorado. They lost it an extra time. So by no means an embarrassing game against that, that's tough. And they're a good team. Yeah. They're a good team. Yeah. Yeah. A little good news for the sporting side. They get as Peter pointed out, they have three representatives on the US Olympic team. Now got it right behind me, Jake Davis, John Polskamp, and of course, John Luca Buceo. Yes. Yes. So something to be proud of for the team. Here's what Peter had to say about that. Actually, we have those two and we also have boost going, you know. So we have three, we have three guys, you know, currently involved in that group. So I'm happy for them. So I had a chance to represent, you know, the United States and the Olympics in 88 in Korea. And so I think it's a, it's a proud moment for them. It's a proud moment for the club. And the other thing too, as I told both of them, he's got to be ready because you never know. Something can happen really quickly with somebody. And next thing you know, you find yourself starting. So so be ready for that. Yeah. I mean, very true because they're going as alternates, but it's a tight way. Yeah. Yeah. No, you don't know. You never know. Like you say. And what's the name? Diego Luna from Real Salt Lake turned it down. Hey, Jake Davis said, I'll be there. Put me on the list. If y'all need me, I'm ready to go. So I like to see that. I can't believe I know post camp was under 23. I don't know why I thought he was older than that, but to see him on the under 23s is a good look. And I'm happy to see Busio on the team. That's going to be great to see and see him back in the Syria this upcoming season with Benicio said, I'll be good to see more of him this upcoming. So we get to taste him this summer and get to see more of him in the Syria coming up. So love to see a man. Good record recruitment point for Peter to we can point to them three and say, look, look at these three players that's representing sporty or at least play for sport and that's going to be in the US Olympic team. Come here and see what I can do for you. That's always a good recruitment tool for him. Let's see here. Here's what Jake Davis said about it. Obviously Olympics is humongous, I mean, it's the world's term and I guess and I guess I've never had the chance to represent the United States and where the Jersey is. So I think it's a special for me, especially being this old, I guess it's different like when you're younger and you go to youth camps and stuff, I mean, that's same thing, but now, you know, I'm a grown man and I'm going to the Olympics and I think that's it's truly an honor. Well, we'll we'll go right to the weekly champions with that from Jake as we're we're fighting. It's it is a match as we're we're fighting our friends, the the Internet's maybe it's a but hey, it's a big week got the weekly champion belts here or sister channel wrestling spotlight. Chris, who's your champion of the week? My champion this week will be Bobby Whit Jr. and just because he'll be representing the Royals. Like once again, not only just for the all-star game, but actually in the home run derby that's coming up. And so I think that's another big look for Kansas City and for the royals for him to be in the home run derby to have him participate in that. So back in his hometown too, he's from the DFW area. So I'm I'm expecting big things from Bobby on next Monday night. So I'm going to give him the champion for making that and putting the spotlight on the Royals and for Kansas City once again, putting on. So that'll be my champion of this week. Well, I'm going to go stick with the royals, but I'm going with John Sherman because the interview he did with Vern on the Royals radio network is the most uplifting interview I've heard with a Kansas City owner in years really gave me a sense of confidence. He said, Hey, we got to get the TV fixed. I don't care what the upfront revenue is. We get to reach the revenue will come. I want people to watch the games. We're going to get the stadium fixed. It's happening. I mean, all the answers you want to hear. And when he talked about improving the team, he said, yeah, hey, we can spend more money. I'd rather spend more money than give up the future. And if we're going to trade for somebody, I want them to help today and tomorrow, not just today. We're not running the player. I mean, it was a all in 10 toes in on building the team. He is leaning in and it looks like they're really going to build a long term team. And this may just be the beginning of a nice run of winning royals teams. He came over from the Cleveland Guardians who have been consistently a good championship contending team and he's applying that same blueprint, and it's great to see. So no, that's a great model. Like you said, you're with Cleveland just because there's years we say, how are they winning? Like how are they winning? How are they looking? It's good. And you could point to what you just said right there. So organization, the thing is something they're just used to. They're used to being competitive. Even when you're like, how are they doing it? They do it. Yep. And with that, we'll go ahead and wrap it up. Chris, where can people find you? Oh, have it up three jams, three to seven, Monday through Thursday, through the six on Fridays. Have it up three jams. This is the app KPRS.com. It's the website. And of course, the podcast Simpson ain't easy where if you get your good podcast, that's where you can find me and my brothers ranking things and talking about stuff and we're actually going to link up in Texas this week going down there and see my name for his birthday. So it's going to be a very interesting show. I'm pretty sure we all get together in person to do our show instead of being over the internet. So it should be fun coming up. So we're going to look out for that. Yeah. And it's a big week. We got the US Open Cup, Fountain City Pro Wrestling, one of Kansas City's pro wrestling promotions that's on our sister channel, Wrestling Spotlight. They got their third show on Friday. So go ahead and get some sugar water and limes and you can make up some lime aid and you can enjoy some great Fountain City Pro Wrestling, a wrestling spotlight and follow all the Kansas City sports teams and the rest of the world of sports right here on the fired up network. For Chris Stimson, I'm Gerald Bentley, have a great night. [BLANK_AUDIO]