KC Confidential.com

Was a time everything I wrote about iconic local jazz crooner Ida McBeth was music to her ears…

No mas.

Haven’t spoken with McBeth – who closes out the decade tonight at Jardine’s – since the dawn of the New Millenium, July of 2000 to be exact.

I was choking out five columns a week then at the Kansas City Star – a fairly active pace – and got a call one morning from a pissed off Ida. Her goal: to get her story out about how retired Royals star George Brett had majorly dissed her. My goal: to shepherd the next day’s column through the FYI copy desk. So I listened – without taking notes – while she ranted and raved about Brett’s boorish behavior and suggested we discuss it later. Continue reading

And now, as they sometimes say, the rest of the story…

Veteran television and radio broadcaster Roger Twibell will depart 610 Sports at year’s end to go into the custom golf club business with his new company Clear Golf (cleargolf.net).

“We’re launching right after the first of the year,” Twibell says. “I’ve been working on this for three years and we just got the Web site up. We’re not taking orders yet but we will be shortly after the first of the year.”

Twibell’s launch product, The Clear Putter, is described as a “revolutionary” golf club with a high moment of inertia, aluminum, stainless steel and polycarbonate construction, a “cross-groove face” to minimize backspin and achieve a more uniform ball roll.

“I designed it and I’ve gotten a patent on it,” Twibell says. “It’s for the commercial market; for tournaments, for businesses to give as gifts. It’s not really for the retail marketplace at this time. But that doesn’t preclude it from going to the retail market later.” Continue reading

Hey look. Adam’s Rib is an advertiser on KC Confidential, right? Duh…

And I just wrote about its coming-soon contest where 10 local celebs will vie to win beaucoup bucks for the charity of their choice by entering the Ultimate Brisket Burger Challenge August 15th. So absent any new news that KC Mayor Mark Funkhouser, George Brett, Jason Whitlock or some other celebs have agreed to the chow down it would be bogus for me to revisit the story, right?

Wrong.

That’s what I would have told uou like 15 minutes ago…

But that is soooo 15 minutes ago. 

That’s because 5 minutes ago I got an email from Adam’s Rib owner Hope Loehr with a photo of herself seated by the actual 10 pound plus sandwich the contestants will be attempting to consume. 

With that said, I’ll let the photo of Hope and the sandwich do the rest of the talking…

I have seen the future of kick ass BBQ in Overland Park and it is Adam’s rib...

Once upon a time that title belonged to a gentleman named Hayward Spears. To this day Spears operates Hayward’s Pit Bar B Que at College and Antioch. During Hayward’s ’70s and ’80s heydays, it owned the barbecue bragging rights for Johnson County. It was also one of the first suburban eateries to cash in on then new liquor-by-the-drink laws in the days when only private clubs could dole out Jagerbombs and the like. It’s spanking new, upscale digs and panoramic views of Corporate Woods merged the otherwise gritty art of eating Kansas City barbecue with fine dining.

That was then…

Today Hayward’s has grown a bit long in the tooth and shopworn to be charitable. And those long lines of suburbanites from its glory years are far fewer and further between by my measure.

Enter former Hayward’s manager Hope Loehr... Continue reading

“George (Brett) said yesterday, ‘You know, when I see the kid I’ll apologize to him.’ Well that sounded a little hollow to me.”
Kevin Kietzman, referring to KSHB’s Justin Unell, the reporter who interviewed Brett at the Joe McGuff ALS charity golf tournament, 810 AM
GH: Here’s what sounded hollow to me, Kietzman ripping Brett the day after he was laughing and joking with him on the air and telling George, “This was nothing! This didn’t even leave a scratch on you!” This is why Kevin Kietzman has zero credibility with me as a reporter, a journalist and a man of character.

“I want to know when that apology (to Unell) happens. And I think (Brett) should probably learn his name and not refer to him as, ‘the kid.’”
Kevin Kietzman, 810 AM
GH: If KK is so inquisitive as to the answers to these queries, why didn’t he ask Brett himself when he had him on the air the day before? Instead, he once again plays tough guy the day after. There is a word that describes guys like KK. That word is gutless. Do you think that’s too harsh? I think it’s merely accurate. Rip Brett all you want, just do it when he’s on your show and not a day later.  

Continue reading

“Every manager takes criticism. Every manager is gonna take criticism. I don’t give a shit if you’re Joe Fuckin’ Torre, you’re gonna take criticism! I think the problem is in this town is that we’ve lost so many fuckin’ years in a row that people don’t have any patience! So as soon as he does something that the media doesn’t like, they explode on him. Well fuck you and fuck them! Believe me, Jack Harry, Kevin Kietzman, Roger Twibell…have never interviewed for a manager’s job. You know why? You know why? Because there are 30 teams in major league baseball. Thirty! No one’s ever called these guys to manage, have they? No one’s ever called then to be the general manager. Why? Because they don’t know what they’re talking about sometimes. And I’m sick and tired of listening to it. Okay? I’m sick and tired of listening to it, believe me.”
George Brett, interviewed while standing next to his golf cart at the Joe McGuff ALS golf tournament on Monday, KSHB 41
GH: First things first, the reporter for KSHB 41 who initiated what will be the local sports interview of 2009, was Justin Unell, the senior producer at 41. Unell was also the recipient of Brett’s first, “Fuck you!” The photographer who captured George’s words, facial expressions and panned his lemon-yellow zebra-striped slacks was Tom Christiansen. Both of these men deserve a deep show of gratitude from every talking head in local sports talk.

Continue reading

“Let’s face it, the team that’s going to be picked to win the (Big 12) North was this close, this close to being 2-6 in the conference last year.”
Danny Clinkscale, on KU’s high expectations for their football team in 2009, 810 AM
GH: Yeah, I know, it’s baseball season. But indulge me in a little spring football wrap-up talk. Kansas looks very, very good and should win their first-ever Big 12 North title. But as we all know, the games that count are played in October and November, not May.

“I always say quarterbacks are like tea bags – you never know what you’ve got until you put them in hot water.”
Gary Pinkel, on assessing his untested crop of QBs at MU, 810 AM
GH: MU, K-State and Nebraska have no idea what kind of tea bag they have running their offense in 2009. Not only does KU know that Todd Reesing is the man, he will complete his career as the greatest Kansas quarterback in school history. And that ain’t something to say lightly when you consider John Hadl and Nolan Cromwell (a former idol of mine) once held that job.

Continue reading

Word that the Kansas City Royals are poised to bring back Halter Top Day in part to commemorate the team’s 40th anniversary might come as a shock to some…

Hey, but times change and for the first time in ages, the team has no plans for doling out those ubiquitous-but-tired bobbleheads, according to Royals spokesman Toby Cook.

Which reminds me, they never did get around to bobbleheading Kissing Bandit Morganna, did they?

I digress…

The Royals tentative plan to bring back Halter Top Day harkens back to a 1998 column I wrote in the Star.

Could Halter Top Day return to The K? I asked then Royals PR czar Mike Levy?

“I hear about this so often it’s unbelievable,” says Levy told me.

So was there a snowball’s chance in Hades of bringing back those cheesy, powder-blue halters? Continue reading

So why are we stuck watching OU/MU, a matchup of two teams in or near the Top 10, on 38 the Spot while the KU/TT slaughter is on ESPN2? Not that I’m spoiled by HD television but any game not in HD now makes the players look like charcoal smudges to me.

________________

“A lot of guys still to this day still call me Lou.”
George Brett, on his odd nickname, 610 AM
GH: Brett revealed the origin of his “Lou” nickname in an interview with 610’s Roger Twibell Wednesday morning. George’s older brother, Ken, gave it to him as a kid because he loved to watch Looney Tunes cartoons on television. George stated it eventually was shorted to just “Lou” and has stuck with him ever since.

“The effort that these (Royals players) have put in (during spring training drills) has been unbelievable. The effort is like game speed and the players are having a lot more fun.”
George Brett, who is serving as a coach and mentor in Surprise, 610 AM
GH: Many eye witnesses have been praising the Royals’ effort this spring. Let’s hope that translates into an April that doesn’t bury all of our hopes before May Day.

“That was the biggest blow for me to take in my career. I kinda got pissed off because I knew I was worth more than a thousand dollars. …I was a college senior and I had no other options. It was either come take a thousand bucks or go home and work.”
Mike Aviles, Royals shortstop, talking with Soren Petro on the Royals offering him a signing bonus of only $1,000 after drafting him in the seventh round in 2003, 810 AM
GH: Tough for me to get teary-eyed over a college kid getting a grand to sign and play baseball for a living. Shut up and show us you’re worth more – which is exactly what Aviles did in 2008. He is now one of those Royals I skip a bathroom break for to see/hear his at bat.

Continue reading