Sports

In 1959, Bob Lida dominated the Big Eight championship with his time in the indoor 440-yard dash.  More than 50 years later, he's still running-- and still a champ.

Mexican-American fast-pitch softball is a tradition that runs deep in Kansas and Missouri. For decades, families have passed on the tradition of playing baseball or softball, but the legacy has been poorly documented.

The game was originally introduced to Mexican immigrants in Kansas and Missouri in an attempt to shed them of their cultural identity. But, that didn’t happen. The sport did nothing but help define and unite a new community. 

The experience

You think the road is long and difficult for the Kansas City Royals? Imagine how hard it must be for Royals fans.

Commentator Victor Wishna shares his thoughts on the roller-coaster team in this month's "A Fan's Notes."

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The legendary broadcaster Ernie Harwell was not the first or the last to say that, “Baseball is a lot like life…full of ups and downs.”

Well, if Royals baseball is like life, then life has been hard.

How can a team that began the season so brilliantly currently be in the basement?

Next week, while the NBA and NHL playoffs drag on, ESPN will turn its attention to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Many will again wonder, "What's a kid's classroom activity doing on the quintessential sports network?" Commentator Victor Wishna has an answer, in this latest edition of "A Fan's Notes."

In the acoustic landscape of organized competition, there are those iconic sounds that separate the hope of victory from ultimate defeat: The buzzer. The horn. The final whistle. But none may be more chilling and spirit-draining than this one: Ding!

Because of a hand injury last year, Tom Watson was unable to defend the last tournament he won, the Senior PGA Championship. But he’s healthy now and in the frame of mind to win another championship.

This year’s Senior PGA Championship takes place at the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, MO.

Though Tom Watson is 63 now, he’s not ready to give in easily to age. He compares his attitude to another legendary golfer, Arnold Palmer.

"He still thinks he can do it. He goes out there and may not be able to, but he still thinks he can do it," says Watson.

The prospects for next season's Kansas Jayhawks' basketball season got a huge boost Tuesday.

Andrew Wiggins, the consensus pick as the nation's top-ranked high school basketball player signed a letter-of-intent to play for KU.

Wiggins is a 6-foot-7 forward who can score. He grew up in Canada, but spent last season at Huntington Prep in West Virginia.

Wiggins chose KU over Kentucky, Florida State and North Carolina.

He announced his decision in a private gathering in West Virginia, one day before the deadline to sign a letter-of-intent this spring.

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The road to answers on why someone would bomb the Boston Marathon, the nation’s oldest annual one, remains long, and difficult.

In this edition of "A Fan's Notes," commentator Victor Wishna looks for inspiration in the marathon itself.

Seven games into their 2013 baseball season, the Kansas City Royals have a winning record for the first time. The home opener against the Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium took a dramatic turn late in the game.

Unlike last year when the Royals gave up seven runs in the first inning of the home opener, they kept the game close.  Down 1-0 in the eighth, Lorenzo Cain doubled and scored in an inning that produced all the Royals' runs in their 3-1 victory.

With a record number of spring training games won, the Royals started the regular season in Chicago last week with two losses and a win.

The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is notorious for its unpredictability year after year, and as March Madness winds down, one Kansas university gets to claim the biggest upset of the tournament; Wichita State University making it to the Final Four for the first time since 1965 to play first seated Louisville.

Though Atlanta is this year’s host city for the NCAA’s Men’s Final Four, Kansas City still holds the record as the city with the most championship games.  This year, the NCAA is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the men’s basketball tournament. 

For the 29th time, the annual NCAA Division I Basketball Championship -- that is, "the tournament" -- has arrived in Kansas City. With thousands upon thousands of fans expected, the March Madness is spilling out of the Sprint Center and clogging the downtown streets. Commentator Victor Wishna tries to make sense of the maddening crowd in this month's edition of A Fan's Notes.

The first bow and arrow is believed to have been used around 12-thousand years ago, but with the rise of guns, archery fell out of favor.  Now, it’s being revived with the help of school programs across the county. Eric Edwards from the Missouri Department Conservation and coordinator for the Missouri National Archery in Schools Program shares with us how archery is helping young people learn discipline, love of sport, and concentration.

Actor Harrison Ford plays Branch Rickey in "42," the movie on baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson to be released next month.  Rickey is the former general manager who signed Robinson to break the color line in Major League Baseball.  Ford will be in Kansas City next month for a special screening.

  It’s a mad, mad, mad March. And there’s nowhere more crazy about college basketball than Kansas City. From the Sprint Center to Municipal Auditorium, up and down the Power and Light District to living rooms everywhere, college hoops are here. Today on Central Standard, we tip off a conversation about the tournaments that are dominating our airwaves, namely the NCAA tournament that starts today and includes games later this week here in town, but also a tournament that gets less press but has been in town longer—much longer—the NAIA, whose championship game is tonight.

Sometimes the need to be accepted can be just as powerful as the need to be different. One local rugby club somehow offers both.

The Kansas City Carnivores are by definition a team that plays rugby. They also serve as a non-profit organization that seeks to bring the sport of rugby to traditionally underrepresented communities, with an emphasis on gay and bisexual players.

In college basketball, the Missouri Tigers advanced in the Southeastern Conference tournament after a 62-50 victory over Texas A&M on Thursday night.  The Tigers will take on Ole Miss tonight.