By KEVIN HASKIN
TopSports.news
Kevin Haskin
Musings at the mid-month:
-- Talk to anyone outside Kansas City about a downtown ballpark and parking gets mentioned first.
-- Talk to those inside Kansas City – I did so this week during a reunion of former Kansas City Kansan sports writers – and parking got mentioned first.
-- As much as anyone wants to dismiss that angle, parking is a concern.
-- The Royals once marketed heavily outside of KC. Now, not so much it seems.
-- Kansas City is a different, and more vibrant place, meaning people in Topeka, or any other place nearby enjoy it even more and still attend games.
-- I don’t go enough to really care, and I won’t feel any tax pinch.
-- Building downtown could make sense and it could be cool.
-- But given when both Kauffman Stadium and Arrowhead were built, designers really did it right. Each have, with modifications, withstood the test of time.
-- Oh, whenever someone advocates shuttles, keep in mind how long shuttles can get bogged down in postgame traffic.
-- Drove with my daughter to the old Kansan building recently and took a picture. Paper went belly up years ago, but the façade remains.
-- A lot of great athletes and great teams in KCK back then.
-- Wyandotte High School graduate Rick Peterson would agree.
-- The Big 12 did what it had to do adding members and I should probably feign excitement about the new grouping, but how long will it last?
-- Especially when Kansas bats a wandering eye toward other leagues and openly acknowledges concerns about dwindling revenue streams.
-- No, I do not know whether the Jayhawks will gain admission elsewhere. Flunked tea reading, which really can’t be streamlined into a pass-fail option.
-- If KU can get into the Big Ten, then it’s proof basketball matters.
-- If it happens, send past and current coaches and ADs a thank you note. Except Jeff Long. He deserves nothing.
-- Rock Chalk could just as easily be a slogan that reflects KU’s steady positioning as a basketball favorite or, ahem, chalk.
-- Yet we tend to take the Jayhawks’ basketball preeminence for granted. Don’t.
-- Comments out of Kansas State, meanwhile, tend to ballyhoo the new Big 12 alignment.
-- This is K-State’s best option and the option is best if the dozen moving forward stick together.
-- Think about these three straight weekends the Wildcats will be on ESPN-plus.
-- Their matchups with Nevada and Oklahoma State absolutely should be cable network options.
-- But you can’t help but think a message is being sent here.
-- By the way, what exactly defines the plus in ESPN’s streaming option?
-- I’ll let you buffer on that answer.
-- Personal memories when I think about the four new Big 12 additions:
-- UCF. Nothing much, except that Wichita State celebrated a move to the AAC, only to watch now as members with strong football programs leave.
-- BYU: Steve Sarkisian as a player, quarterbacking the Cougars against K-State in the Cotton Bowl.
-- Cincinnati: Visiting ancient Nippert Stadium for both K-State and KU games, and now marveling that Cincy somehow gave the place a shiny makeover. That, and young Huggs.
-- Houston: Phi Slama Jama and before that, the Big E winning a big game in a big place, the Astrodome. Game of the Century it got dubbed in 1968 as Houston ended UCLA’s 47-game winning streak.
-- Reminds me that 50 years ago I sat in the den of my sister’s Topeka home, glued to football’s Game of the Century pitting Nebraska and Oklahoma.
-- The anniversary of the 1971 showdown will be celebrated Saturday when the two programs reunite.
-- Reading recollections this week, I can’t help but recall that K-State beat Oklahoma in 1969 and ’70, while the 1968 Kansas team shared the Big Eight title with OU and advanced to the Orange Bowl.
-- Also in ’68, both KU and K-State beat Nebraska. ABC then telecast the Sunflower showdown, a big deal in the age of limited TV for college football.
-- Shortly after Vince Gibson’s death, Pepper Rodgers told me he lamented the rules violations each turned in attempting to gain in-state superiority.
-- Eventually, those blows proved costly for both of the rebuilds.
-- I’ll think of Pepper and Vince on Saturday when watching Boomer and Big Red. And, I’ll be mindful that I miss the Big Eight.
-- FWIW, my sister’s old den now features a collection of golf treasures since the house is now owned by the crafty left-hander, Mark Elliott.
