The Internet keeps giving and giving.
The Kansas City Royals, the darlings of the baseball world after their surprising and exciting run to the World Series last season, are halfway through getting back to the Fall Classic after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon.
A great time to be a Royals fan! Surely they don't have a care in the world?
If you believe that, you don't know the Internet, the bastion of false outrage and nonsensical action.
On the website Change.org, someone has started a petition to force FOX announcer Joe Buck off Royals' broadcasts this postseason.
From the petition:
"On October 29th, 2014, Joe Buck said Bumgarner 87 times, Giants 56 times, San Francisco 24 times, Kansas City 13 times, and Royals 8 times. Our opinion is clear and simple, why not have someone that will call the game evenly and without a preconceived love for either team?"
I don't know what confuses me more:
Someone took the time to go through a broadcast of a World Series game last year and hung on every word Buck said during a game. And then took the time to count them.
Someone may have still had that game on their DVR. I thought I was bad about deleting things.
Someone thinks this will work.
Actually, more than someone. As of Saturday morning, the petition had more than 10,000 "signatures."
Royals fans, and I am one, why?
Kansas City is coming off 30 years of some truly horrible baseball. The Royals are finally getting good again. This is what you're worrying about?
It's starting to sound a lot like a certain fan base who we've grown to know and loathe.
Speaking of the BFIB, they weren't exactly thrilled with Buck a couple of weeks ago. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, he had the temerity to say he wanted to be part of a World Series broadcast with the Cubs involved.
"When people say, "What's the one thing you want to do?' that's my answer: Cubs in the World Series," Buck said. "I don't want to do an NBA Finals or a Kentucky Derby or moderate a presidential debate, as if that would happen. I want to sit at Wrigley Field, look out and know that a World Series game is about to start. It would be the cherry on top."
Buck is having fun with all of it, using Twitter (yet another place featuring coherent thought) to promote the petition. There's no such thing as bad publicity.
If you truly find Buck to be a plague on your ears, here's what you do. There's a button on your remote, likely tagged with the word "mute." Push it, the word "mute" should appear on your screen. Unless you're in the News Tribune newsroom, then the word "muet" pops up. I think our television speaks pidgin French.
Make sure you have closed captioning off. If you don't want to hear Buck, you sure don't want to read what he's saying. Turn on your radio, the hometown announcers are there to keep you company.
Just thank goodness Rex Hudler isn't on.
Follow News Tribune sports reporter Tom Rackers (@tjrackers) on Twitter for other observations and updates during local games.