Chiefs Haters, Have Some Wings, Get A Life

by Kevin Burton    Here’s my super-cordial, Super Sunday invitation, going out to all you Chiefs hates out there.    You are invited to take all that refs-and-Chiefs bellyaching, and put it in a place where the sun doesn’t shine, namely the Louisiana Super Dome, venue for tonight’s Super Bowl LIX (59)!    You thought …

Quibbles And Bits: Outlaw Z, Forgiveness

by Kevin Burton     Come and get it kids, quibble and bits, short takes, follow-ups from recent posts, bits of news…..    A day or two after I wrote about the letter Z and its two pronunciations (zed and zee), Meriam-Webster made “zeitgeist” its word of the day.    The dictionary says zeitgeist is “the …

Keeping Score With The Language Of Sports

by Kevin Burton    I knew sports played a big role in the shaping of our common language, but I didn’t know how big.    We previously brought you a list of sports idioms on Page 7, but none of the ones from Dictionary Scoop that we posted yesterday or the one below, we’re on …

Sporty Origins Of Some Popular Expressions

by Dictionary Scoop    Have you ever heard someone say “I’ll have to start from scratch”? Ever wondered what “in the nick of time” means? What all these expressions have in common is that they originated in the world of sports.     Want to know more? Discover all those phrases you often say but didn’t know …

Celebrate Your Victories, Even The Small Ones

by Kevin Burton    Mitch Holthus is the radio voice of the Kansas City Chiefs. He’s really good at his job, in the overheated manner of the hometown play-by-play guy.    There is a nearly-universal breathless presentation of sports that attempts to elevate it to something truly significant, when it really is not.    Hey, …

So Long McCaffrey, Thanks For Nothing

by Kevin Burton    For the briefest of moments, I thought, “Breece Hall.”    I had just been blessed with the first pick in my sixth and last fantasy football draft for 2024. The Yahoo draft mechanism at first flashed “8th” for my draft order, then inexplicably changed to “1st.”     Never seen that happen …

More Musing On Life, Baseball And Pete Rose

by Kevin Burton    One day I answered the phone and instead of a typical getting I heard, “Your boy’s in jail.”    Baseball was one of the few things that my father and I could talk about peacefully. But we had a disagreement about Pete Rose.    I loved Rose, who died Sept. 30 …

Cincinnati Baseball Icon Pete Rose Dead At 83

by Kevin Burton    This is a story about baseball cards and the souls of men.    Or maybe it’s about crime and punishment and fleeting youth.    Or maybe this is a Joni Mitchell song in the making; I’ve looked at Pete Rose from both sides now, from glory and shame and still somehow …

Quibbles And Bits Sports Edition: Royals!

by Kevin Burton    Do you believe in Miracles? Yes!    Led by major league batting champion Bobby Witt Jr. (.332 batting average), the Kansas City Royals qualified for the playoffs!  I’m still a little bit in disbelief.    The Royals bubbled up into the playoffs in 2014 and I said what I am saying …

New Statue For Wichita, Jail Time For Thief

by Kevin Burton    The man who stole a bronze statue of baseball legend Jackie Robinson was sentenced on Friday to 15 years in prison for that and other crimes, as news came that a new statue will arrive in Wichita tomorrow.    Ricky Aldrete said a fentanyl addiction led to the crimes. Wichita police …