Sam Mellinger

The Kansas City Star

This is the last you’ll hear from me for a few weeks, so congratulations on that. I mentioned on Twitter I’m getting married on Saturday, which seems to have dominated the mailbag this week.

We’ll get to that soon enough, but first I wanted to share a response from Monday’s column about Emma, the kindergarten girl whose story about refusing to color the Jayhawk went viral.

This comes from a nice reader named Roger Spears, who told me the story of his first-grade son, Kevin, coming home with a similar Kansas Day project that included coloring “the proud, proud Jayhawk!”

Roger is an Arkansas grad, so he sent his boy back to school with an envelope full of Razorback pictures. He wrote: “This is the Arkansas Razorback. Color him mean, mean RED. Unlike the imaginary Jayhawk, the Razorback is real, and when cornered will fight, fight, fight to win.”

Kevin’s teacher passed the pictures around, had the students color the Razorbacks, but also “vote” for which mascot they liked better. When Roger came home that night, there was a three-foot tall Jayhawk decorating his front door.

Roger married Kevin’s teacher the next year. This fall they’ll celebrate their 34th anniversary.

On with the mailbag:

@JaredSPalmer I know you’re an Okie Joe’s guy, but what sauce did you pick for the BBQ fountain at the reception?

Gates’ sweet and mild is the right level of romantic.

@kelwill9 congrats on getting married. U do realize marriage is punishment for crime in some cultures.

That’s what she said?

@ChrisRElliott Describe the night if Kent Babb was in charge of planning your bachelor party.

Kegger at his orthodontist’s.

@patronaut0709 DON’T DO IT!

I think you meant to send this to the Lady.

@mikeloving67 take it from a man with three daughters, two who are teenagers, life as you know it is over.

We had our first “date” in the eighth grade. She’s put this off as long as possible.

@hollandjoel #TT Your fiancée is cool with you marrying her?

I haven’t asked. I’m just hoping she shows up.

@abkck with DeArmond retired and you off of work for your wedding, is next week the greatest week for sportswriting in KC for 40 years?

OK, that’s not bad.

@BigBenRackers 1. Congrats in getting married. 2. Since you won’t be there prediction o the mu/ku game? #twittertuesday

1. Thanks. Very excited.

2. Kansas 83, Missouri 70.

@rwaggoner let’s assume KU and MU share Big 12 reg. season, & meet in champ. of conf. tourney. Are they both 1 seeds, regardless of outcome?

It’s possible, but I wouldn’t count on it. Whoever wins the regular season title should probably be a No. 1 seed, assuming they don’t gag the conference tournament. But you also have to think about Kentucky (the odds-on favorite to be the top seed in St. Louis, by the way), Syracuse, Ohio State, North Carolina and Duke.

Kansas or Missouri should fit in there somewhere, but it’s a stretch to think both could be 1s.

@ChaddPeter I miss your high school coverage. What was the best article/story you wrote covering high school sports in KC?

You’re very kind. The best story I wrote on the high school beat was this one about Tony Temple.

There were others I enjoyed more, like taking the Kansas City school district to task for failing its students a few different times, or some others.

@gmann4211 Do you think Pioli brings Cassel flowers for Valentines Day or is it the other way around?

I’m still trying not to giggle about the hiring of Jim Bob Cooter.

@TheBeertree What do you think of ku’s chances going foreword if withey continues playing like he did last week?

Like I wrote in this morning’s column, Withey takes them from an OK team to a Final Four contender^.

This KU team feels closer to the edge than some of the past versions, where lottery picks came off the bench, but assuming everyone is healthy, depth can be very overrated. Foul trouble is a concern, obviously, but Withey has a knack for blocking shots and controlling the paint without being whistled, which is a huge help for Robinson.

The other major concern, at this point, is Tyshawn Taylor down the stretch. All it takes is one game, but this feels so mental that I’m just not sure it’s an easy thing to shake.

^ Right on cue, the first e-mail this morning accusing me of being a KU homer came in at 6:13 a.m. I have a weird job.

@EricHe1091 From your experiences, do you think KC is more of a baseball or football city?

Right now it’s a football town, but there’s enough room for both. The Royals have sucked their way out of being the biggest show in town. The NFL is king around the country, virtually everywhere, and Kansas City is no different.

But let the Royals be within five games after the All-Star break, and Kansas City will erupt. We don’t get much of it around here, obviously, but there aren’t many things as captivating as a pennant race in a city that loves its baseball team. It is every day, constant, unpredictable, in a way that football can’t duplicate.

I’m not saying it’s better or worse.

I am saying that if and when the Royals are in first place into August or September, we won’t be nearly concerned about training camp or whether Jamaal Charles is getting enough touches.

@PhilGarver Would you rather find 10 bucks or have an all sessions pass to the women’s Big XII tourney?

I’m probably not supposed to say this out loud, but I’d rather have one dollar than an all-sessions pass to the women’s tournament.

@drsnell Both great teams, but isn’t the reason the KU-MU rivalry has reached such heights this year because they won’t play anymore?

The perfect storm. This thing would be heated if both teams were in the top five in a normal year, and it would be heated if the teams weren’t as good but Mizzou was on its way out of the league.

That both are happening in the same season is just incredible, truly a once-in-a-lifetime intersection that makes this perhaps the most interesting local college basketball season that we’ll see in a generation.

None of that is hyperbole. I’m just not sure what we’d have to have to top this.

Haith and Self might be the country’s two leading candidates for national coach of the year. Robinson and Anthony Davis seem to be the frontrunners for player of the year. Mizzou’s best player is from Kansas City. Both schools openly hate each other in a way that transcends the usual Quantrill-type stuff.

When will we see something like this again?

@EricHe1091 I’ve never heard your story of how you came to work for the Star. Maybe you could share on Twitter Tuesday.

A combination of luck and timing, really. This was the summer after I “graduated^” from Kansas, and I was all set to work at a paper in New York. I’d essentially accepted, except an opening at the Star came up a few days before I interviewed.

^ I put this in quotations because I never received a physical degree. Too many parking tickets. And, actually, the same thing is true of my high school diploma. #ThugLife.

The people in New York were desperate enough to offer me a job, and I told them I’d be thrilled to work there, but that my hometown paper — really, no lie, my dream paper — had an opening that I wanted to interview for.

The guy in NY understood, and gave me a few days. I interviewed in Kansas City, and the sports editor at the time told me they wanted to wait a month or so before making the hire. I told him I understood, but I had this other offer so I couldn’t wait. He called the next day, I screamed back my acceptance immediately, and have been here ever since. It’ll be 12 years this summer.

Had three different jobs covering high schools over about five years, then did baseball for about five, and now the column job for about two.

Believe it or not, I don’t even need the daily reminders from readers about how much I suck to understand I’m lucky to be able to do this for a living.

@jessenewell Have you seen this video? youtu.be/1jj7Bctd78M #Mission2012

The happiest people at Kauffman Stadium might be the marketing folks, who finally have something to sell.

@SteveMac5000 If you’re Frank White, wouldn’t you bite your tongue until AFTER the ASG? Wouldn’t that be a great forum to boost HOF chances?

Well, of course Frank wants to be in the Hall of Fame, but I actually respect that he isn’t taking that route. That would be disingenuous. I’m not sure it would do any good, anyway — I don’t sense much push at all for Frank to be inducted in Cooperstown — but it would be a bad look to fake nice feelings in a desperate play for personal gain like that.

@ApexToApex What is your favorite aspect to being a sports media person in what is considered a ‘small’ metropolitan area?

Hard to say, really, because other than an internship in Cincinnati when I was in college, this is the only market I’ve worked.

It’s probably obvious that I love Kansas City, so other than that, I do think there is value being in a place where you don’t necessarily feel like you have to scream the loudest to get your point across. Maybe that allows for more thought, more nuance, though that’s really only a guess.

@jjskck You’ve given hints that you may be a bit of a beer geek. What are some of your favorites?

Well, I hate to drop this on you guys like this, but you have all been lapped as my favorite Tweep by @fancypantsbeer, who just sold me an incredibly difficult-to-find case of De Ryck Arend Tripel.

I must admit that I’ve only had this beer once, and it was during a crazy great weekend with the Lady in San Francisco, so there’s a chance my love for this is more sentimental than based on how the beer tastes, but I’m looking forward to finding out.

Other than that, I’m pretty basic, I suppose. Love most of what Boulevard does, Pale Ale year-round and in particular Bob’s 47 and Chocolate Ale.

@PhilGarver I’m always rooting for your column. And someday it might actually come through for me.

I’ll take it!

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