A book cowritten by Jeff Magalif
Harvard degree? Check.
Stalking conviction? Check.
Baseball statistician extraordinaire? Double check.
To describe Pembroke Country Day School alum Jeff Magalif as a tad eccentric would be an enormous understatement.
Magalif has agreed to share some of his baseball wisdom and provide an overview of this year’s (seemingly) playoff bound Royals team, but first a little history.
Check the following excerpts from an online case examination of State of Missouri vs. Magalif on FindLaw.com, “a free legal information website that helps…find answers to everyday legal questions and legal counsel when necessary”:
“After Sweet Tomatoes Restaurant opened during April 2000 at 1309 Meadowlake Parkway in Kansas City, next door to Magalif’s house, Magalif began protesting the restaurant’s odor. He posted signs in his yard and shouted profanities at the restaurant’s employees and customers. In January 2002, Magalif focused his anger on Sweet Tomatoes’ kitchen manager, Stephanie Venenga, after she removed a stack of tree limbs blocking the restaurant’s driveway when she arrived for work during predawn hours one morning.
“On March 8, 2002, as Venenga was leaving Sweet Tomatoes, she noticed a car parked in front of the restaurant with flashing headlights and blaring its horn. She got in her car to drive it to the car to determine whether or not the person inside needed help. As she drove her car from the restaurant parking lot, Magalif drove his car to the restaurant’s driveway and blocked it and made an obscene gesture at Venenga. This frightened Venenga. She backed her car into the parking lot, returned to the restaurant, and called police.”
Long story short, the circuit court granted Venenga an “ex parte order of protection” from Magalif, after which the state later charged him with five counts of violating and one count of stalking.
A jury found Magalif guilty but he appealed and won “because the circuit court determined that the state did not present sufficient credible evidence.”
Missouri then appealed that decision but Magalif prevailed, in part on the basis that honking his car horn and flipping off Venenga was not “a violation of the terms and conditions regarding abuse” of the ex part order.
See what I mean? Magalif’s a character.
And a fierce follower of baseball statistics and the Kansas City Royals baseball team.
Hy-Vee 95th and Antioch store director Russ Johnson
Which speaks to his run in earlier this year with that fancy-schmancy new Hy-Vee at 95th and Antioch.
Seems a Hy-Vee manager started turning off the televisions at night in a seating area outside the grocery’s trendy upstairs bar at key points of games Magalif was watching.
“I was watching the NBA playoff game between Memphis and Oklahoma City when he turned off the TV with 33 seconds left in the fourth quarter,” Magalif says. “And that game went into overtime.”
Then as the Royals season unfolded, said manager allegedly turned off the television late during a number of the team’s games. After complaining unsuccessfully to store director Russ Johnson, Magalif took his complaint about Hy-Vee – a sponsor of the Royals – to the team.
“And Johnson told me, ‘We pay them, they don’t pay us,’ ” Magalif says.
Nonetheless, “They sort of finessed an accommodation that didn’t make a lot of sense,” Magalif says. “But my point was, in the United States when we start watching a game, we finish watching the game. This isn’t Moldova.”
All of that said, going forward into a likely playoffs run, KC Confidential will be taking Magalif’s pulse, and why not?
I mean, how many Kansas Citians have published works on the Harvard Crimson website ranging from October 1973’s Nixon: An Historical Symposium to The Case Against Howard Cosell.
“THE BEST THING about Howard Cosell’s book Cosell is that his grating voice is not a part of it,” Magalif begins. “The worst is that, as the title suggests, the focus is on Cosell himself, rather than on American sports seen through his eyes.”
Of Nixon Magalif wrote, “He aped Grant…And Raped Math,” adding that “SAM ERVIN thought that Nixon got into trouble because his gang ‘undertook to nullify the laws of God and the laws of men. There is another possibility: Nixon could be in trouble because he tried to nullify the laws of math.”
Let the good times roll…
harley please reply to Hearne’s request for material.
Be careful what you wish for, Orphan!
iwill….got a holiday this week…new clients and tons of things to
catch up on.
My first entrée will be how stupid these mid term elections will
be and it makes no differernce who wins…we only have to
listen to the majority party for a few months and then the
real stuff happens.
Harley will come out with a bang…and not the b.s. that wislun “the
jewel theif” writer put out…the b.s. we get from “fuzy math” glaze
or the battle between lefty and glaze about baseball which nieither understands.
as far as this guy….you said he’s a Harvard graduate and harasses
18 year old waitresses at a salad bar, flips off young girls and
innocent customers of a retail operation….breaks branches off a
tree to fight with someone….honks his horn like a 5 year old…
wait till we get our hands on this loser…what kind of bully
is this piece of shit.????????????????? bring him on hearne…
you’ve reached the bottom of the barrel with this loser….its only
upward and onward after you addd this kook. We’ll rip him a new
one!!!!! And as far as royals statistician…where’s he been the last
30 year? Of course he can’t be worsr than glaze and lefty!!!!!
In fairness to Jeff, he totally busted Sweet Tomatoes for stinking up the neighborhood – right next door – with its faulty sewer and fought to get them to have to fix it.
So he didn’t just rise from out of nowhere as a kook.
There clearly was contentiousness coming toward him from the other side.
And let the record show that he has some bylines in the Kansas City Star too, writing about baseball statistics, so give it you best shot, H Man
see wislun/hearne
my fans/followers and disciples are clamoring for
my words and writings. hahahahaha!
Please wait disciples…took a break just now…
my words will soon enhance kcc.
Thanks for all the nice words. Be patient…Harley
is preparing his works as we speak.
Harley, looking forward to your piece on politics. If nothing else, I’m sure it will result in a tome from Chuck. Get it in so HC can start the editing.
Me too Stomper, Harley’s pithy, laser like takes on politics will no doubt bring him the usual accolades from other knowledgable, liberal gadflies unburdened with even a smattering of eclectic thought.
His criticism of Leftridge’s takes on baseball (Which get right into George Will territory with more humor.) screams, “I’m a fu*kin moron!!!”
So sure Harley, don’t keep us all waiting, bring light into this room. But remember, “What gives light, must endure burning”.
I smell smoke.
I ssmell filthy racist vile hate from chuckles the
sad clown.
point blank.
A man who once had a thought but it died of loneliness.
“point blank”
Until your upcoming treatise on “politics” suffuses the electorate and changes the world, that is your high water mark in all the years you have puked on your shoes in this room.
Can’t wait for your gutless, anonymous, liberal profferings. Enlighten the unwashed masses with your erudition and further, if it is, at this point possble, embarrass the MU School of Journalism.
What a fuc*in hoot.
Chuck, it might interest you to know, that Harley and I graduated in the same class, summa cum laude.
Take that smarty pants!
Rachel, you’re so full of crap. Harley’s name isn’t Harley and you have no idea WHO he is.
Mr. Harley, you write to Hearne: “you said he’s…and harasses 18 year old waitresses at a salad bar, flips off young girls…”. But in fact Hearne wrote NOTHING about 18-year-old waitresses or about flipping off young girls. So where does it come from?
Can’t wait to read Jeff’s work. Maybe too early to offer this but….
Nice score H man.
Do you think Glazer will have the lasting sexuality of my Grandpa’s cousin?
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0709491/bio
The Royals’ sweep of the Angels was the fourth-biggest upset in baseball postseason history. Ahead of it: 1954 World Series, 2008 N.L. divisional, and 1990 World Series. Thanx for your interest.
The Royals’ sweep of the Angels was the fourth-biggest upset sweep in baseball history, Stomper. Ahead of it: Indians over Giants in 1954 World Series, Dodgers over Cubs in 2008 divisional playoffs, & Reds over A’s in 1990 World Series.
Wow, being a Pem-Day grad sure allows you to rub shoulders with a lot of dickheads.
And yet I’ve never met YOU.
this isn’tthe kc star…we fact check stuff…but your actions
show us as you being a bully….
hangs out at hy vee to watch basketball….what???????????????
but stalking and harassing the kitchen manager like a criminal
is going too far.
how about the kid whoharaased the leawood lady and the
manystories wislun wrote about. That was bad.
Did the creep have rope and a stocking cap in the car.
why give these kinds of peole the exposure…
and baseball extraordinaire…can’t wait…didthe guy play
ball…ever thrown a cutter….or was he what they used
to call one of the “pemsidaisies”
should be fun. Where’s whinery?
Mr. Harley, perhaps you are unaware that alleged victim Stephanie Venenga (the kitchen manager) testified that at least 10 times she discovered that the sports section of her morning Star–delivered to her home in Eudora–was missing, and that she believed I had stolen it. The judge, John O’Malley, found this incredible (a 60-mile round trip to steal a sports section!). But perhaps you find it credible.
so many dickheads, so little time.