Interviews

Very good first-day turnout on Twitter. Thank you. If you're on and haven't found me, I'm at "mellinger." Let's join up, we'll have fun.

You may have noticed we didn't have an MGD update after the weekend, and that's because of a bonus weekend post on SI coverboy/comedian Zack Greinke, and that Davies' start on Thursday means we won't miss a week with an MGD update.

Zack Greinke, for a lot of reasons, might be the most interesting player on the Royals roster, and this is a team that includes an outfielder who owns lions and ostriches and likes to be slapped in the face, a pitcher who was knighted by his native Aruba, another who works construction in the offseason, and a reliever who body slams opposing players and prides himself on his baking.

Greinke is the most-requested interview for this blog, and if you act now, you can read a bonus interview where Kyle Davies defends himself against what he alleges is Greinke's slander. All in good fun.

Confession time. That "contest" we ran here
was officially won by Tom Barkwell from Madagascar, and I loved both his words and the fact that he sent them from an island nation in the Indian Ocean, but I gotta tell you, it wasn't my favorite letter.

Nope, my favorite came from Army Maj. Michael Lalor, whose words came from Iraq.

I didn't mention this in the original contest because I wanted to give Michael his own post. He was kind enough to answer some questions over e-mail, which we're turning into the latest interview. His letter is below our e-mail exchange.

To Royals fans, the 2008 season will probably be remembered for three things: Jose Guillen, Trey Hillman's first season as manager, and the revelation that has been Mike Aviles.

Aviles was 27 years old before the Royals finally gave him a chance in the big leagues. By then, he'd been insulted more times than he could remember, even if they were all indirect.

No Division I school offered him a scholarship. No big league team drafted him until after his senior year, and by then it was the Royals in the seventh round in no small part because they could sign him for a measley $1,000 -- an amount so small he can't even remember what he did with it.

Luke Hochevar starts tonight for the Royals against the Tigers, so why not give him some Ball Star karma with this interview?

Baseball's best Rock Band player -- that's what we hear, anyway -- appears to be on his way to a very good career with the Royals, solidifying a rotation spot behind four good pitches, particularly a nasty sinker.

He's pitched better than his numbers (2-2, 4.94 ERA) so far, and if you take away his first start, his ERA is 3.32.

Mark Teahen once rocked a Big Black Security t-shirt to the Royals clubhouse, so you know he's OK with me.

He said his favorite episode is the one where they break the Guinness World Records, and I'll never understand why the Guinness guy said Big Black would be disqualified from the powdered donuts record if he licked his lips.

I wasn't hungry. Just woke up, in fact, and I'm never hungry right when I wake up. Then I decided to do this blog post about Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Now I'm hungry.

The particular Five Guys I'm talking about is at 119th and Blackbob in Olathe, about 10 minutes from where I sleep, which just makes me incredibly happy. There's also one in Lee's Summit, and Randy Brock, one of the men about to get rich off my terrible eating habits, says they have plans for 10-12 more at a pace of 2-3 per year.

Tony Pena Jr. came over in a trade with Atlanta just before last season to save the Royals from another season of Angel Berroa as the starting shortstop. He has brought solid and sometimes spectacular defense, and you could make the argument that he was the only Royal last year who hit better than expected.

His lack of walks have been a constant topic among fans, and he worked on plate patience and improving his defensive fundamentals (among other things) in spring training.

Blogosphere favorite Brian Bannister is more than what some call "athlete smart." As Poz has pointed out, we're talking perfect-score-on-the-math-SAT smart, the kind of analytical mind that could be doing much more important things than pitching.

Lucky for us, Bannister is pitching, and for the Royals, where he's always willing to share his insight.

The honest truth is that you can have an interesting conversation with Bannister about anything, so hopefully this isn't his last Q&A with Ball Star.

He goes by Ken Tremendous on firejoemorgan.com, Mose Schrute on “The Office,” and Michael Schur in real life. He is a husband, father, full-time blogger, big-time TV writer and Harvard grad.

He’s also one of the first interview subjects here at The Ball Star.

He talks about Joe Morgan, mistakes he sees from mainstream media, getting caught in the middle of the stats-vs-scouts debate, the newly settled writers’ strike, the disappointing charm of Derek Jeter, Jose Guillen, and gives a prediction on the Royals’ 2008 win total.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. --- So there's a bright red Hummer in the parking lot of the hotel I'm in here. California plates. Entertainment purposes only, and no calculators allowed, I'm setting the over-under on gas purchased to drive that thing from Cali to Florida at $750.

Am I way off?

No links today. An expected long day of travel went longer than expected, so I haven't had much of a chance to read anything today. For all I know the Royals just signed Roger Clemens and Michael Jordan's giving baseball another shot.

SURPRISE, Ariz. --- Caught up with John Buck, the Royals’ No. 1 catcher and players rep. Part of me can see him having a real big year in 2008, considering the start he got off to last year.

Anyway, at the end of an interview about a couple different things I’m doing for the newspaper --- I promise I’m not down here just goofing off --- he was nice enough to be the first Royals player interviewed by Ball Star.

Will Leitch is a sports blogging pioneer, sort of the Christopher Columbus of posting smart aleck takes on sports. He’s taken heat for posting pictures of athletes drunk in public, provided a gateway for bunches of other blogs to be found by the mainstream, and, in his spare time, written a new book.

Dayton Moore’s been on the scene less than two years, and already has long been a primary reason for Royals fans’ optimism.

He missed out on some big targets --- Andruw Jones and Torii Hunter and Hiroki Kuroda --- but added some middle-of-the-order pop in Jose Guillen and a big reshuffling of the bullpen in trying to continue the momentum of rebuilding a club that’s finished last four straight years.