KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Kansas City general manager Dayton Moore grew up as a Royals fan and was a teenager when he watched Game 7 of the 1985 World Series from a hillside outside the ballpark.

He’s now built a team going to the World Series.

With the same patience in his young players that Kansas City management has shown in Moore during an eight-year rebuilding process, the Royals are back on baseball’s grandest stage.

Now, he may find himself with other suitors, too. Moore began his career with the Braves, and the GM job there is still open. But Royals owner David Glass says he will do everything in his power to keep the architect of his team in Kansas City.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Kansas City Royals are in the World Series for the first time since 1985, and their road to the Fall Classic has reached record-setting proportions.

Jason Vargas combined with three relievers on a four-hitter and the Royals took advantage of a Baltimore miscue to score twice in the first inning of a 2-1 victory over the Orioles. The victory caps a four-game sweep and makes KC the first team in major league history to open a postseason with eight straight wins.

The Royals got their runs on a fielder’s choice that became an error on catcher Caleb Joseph. Kansas City had runners on second and third when Eric Hosmer hit a grounder that first baseman Steve Pearce threw to the plate. Alcides (al-SEE’-dehs) Escobar slid safely and the ball bounded away from Joseph, allowing Nori Aoki (NOHR’-ee ay-OH’-kee) to score the second run.

Vargas allowed just two hits over 5 1/3 innings, including Ryan Flaherty’s solo homer in the top of the third. Kelvin (KEHL’-veen) Herrera got the next five outs before Wade Davis and Greg Holland each worked a scoreless inning. Holland picked up the save in all four games of the series.

The Royals will host the first two games of the World Series, beginning next Tuesday.

Baltimore ended the series by scoring just two runs on seven hits in the final two games. It’s the first time the Orioles have been swept in a postseason series.

Wayne McClain, a former aide to head coach Bruce Weber at Illinois and

Kansas State, passed away on Wednesday at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Illinois after an illness. He was 59.

A successful high school coach, McClain came to Kansas State in October 2012 as director of student-athlete development after spending 11 years at Illinois, including the last nine with Weber. Although he spent just one season at K-State before returning to the prep ranks he made it a memorable one as he helped the Wildcats to a 27-8 overall record, and a share of  their first conference title since 1977 with a 14-4 Big 12 mark.

McClain’s high school basketball teams won four state championships in Illinois, and he was named the 1997 USA Today National High School Coach of the Year.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Lorenzo Cain has been selected MVP of the AL Championship Series after helping the Kansas City Royals to a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles with a 2-1 victory Wednesday.

The Royals are headed back to the World Series for the first time since beating the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games in 1985, the last time Kansas City even reached the playoffs.

Along with making a series of splendid defensive plays in center field, Cain had eight hits in the series, matching the franchise record for an ALCS set by Willie Wilson in 1985 against Toronto.

Cain matched a Royals record with four hits in Game 2 on Saturday, and scored Kansas City’s first run in Game 3 on Tuesday night. He also laid down a key sacrifice bunt – the first of his career – that helped the Royals take a 2-0 lead in the first inning Wednesday.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – With more dominant defense, an opportunistic offense that plated two runs in the first inning and a bullpen that shut down the Baltimore Orioles once again, Greg Holland and the Kansas City Royals wrapped up a sweep of the AL Championship Series with a 2-1 victory on Wednesday.

Next stop: the Royals’ first World Series since 1985, when they last made the playoffs.

Kansas City hosts the first two games beginning Tuesday against the winner of the NLCS between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.

Jason Vargas combined with three relievers on a four-hitter, with Holland earning his fourth save of the ALCS. It was the first time the AL East champion Orioles have been swept in 21 postseason series.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – After every home game at Kansas, players file out of the locker room at Allen Fieldhouse and spend about 15 or 20 minutes signing autographs. Sometimes, there will be hundreds of fans – many of them children – waiting for their favorite player.

These days, a seemingly innocent way to connect with fans is triggering red flags.

High-profile cases of college football players signing autographs for money, a violation of NCAA rules, has coaches on edge in all college sports – including basketball. Johnny Manziel was investigated last year, though no wrongdoing was found, and Georgia’s Todd Gurley was suspended recently as the NCAA investigates him, too.

“We’ve run it through our compliance in the past and have ways to handle it,” Kansas coach Bill Self said Wednesday during the Big 12’s annual basketball media day.

“Somebody asks for an autograph, the perfect thing to say is, ‘Who do you want me to make it out to?’ If they say, ‘Don’t – just sign your name,’ well, then you automatically know it could be for sale, and with you having no knowledge of it,” Self said.

Iowa State’s Fred Hoiberg said coaches talk to their players “all the time, until you’re blue in the face,” but that it’s still hard to monitor everything.

“They’re 18- and 19-year old kids,” Hoiberg said. “They spend a lot more time on their own than they do with the coaches. You do as much as you possibly can by trying to educate them.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The preseason player of the year in the Big 12 began his career at Dayton. The newcomer of the year spent time at Southern California and UNLV before landing at Iowa State.

Welcome to big-time college basketball in the modern era, where four-year transfers are all the rage. The movement between Division I programs, once a relatively rare occurrence, has become so prevalent that many coaches are even changing the way they build their programs.

Just consider Oklahoma State, which had players depart for Miami of Florida and Louisiana-Lafayette while welcoming in high-scoring guard Anthony Hickey from LSU. Cowboys coach Travis Ford says it’s simply how programs are building teams these days, an important piece to an increasingly complex puzzle.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie apologized on Twitter to the Orioles for wearing a T-shirt to his post-game news conference Tuesday night that read, “These O’s Ain’t Royal.”

Guthrie wore the shirt, a twist on the Chris Brown song “Loyal,” after Kansas City beat his former team 2-1 to take a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven AL Championship Series.

The shirt touched off an avalanche of criticism toward Guthrie. Along with offending many Orioles fans, the shirt also ignited controversy across social media platforms because of the vulgar and derogatory nature of the song’s original lyrics.

Guthrie, a prolific user of social media, said in his apology early Wednesday that he did not consider the reaction the shirt might generate and did not intend to offend.

 

This year the Kansas State Men’s Basketball team will have more depth compared to years past.

Bruce Weber, Head Coach explained Wednesday at the Big 12 Media Days in Kansas City that two years ago the team had a lot of experience and good depth, this year they have the depth but not quite as much experience.

“We probably have more players, or similar number of players were we can probably go two deep at each position, and again that’s just keeping guys healthy, staying healthy, that will be very important for us,” says Weber.

The depth is an improvement to a year ago when at times, especially on the road, the Wildcats had trouble having five on five in practice.

“We just didn’t have enough people. Our walk on’s had to play an instrumental role.”

Weber indicated that they will have more depth at the forward position but it will be a mater of keeping everyone healthy when it comes to the other positions.

Kansas State will play their lone exhibition game on November 9th against Washburn University before officially tipping off the season against Southern Utah at Bramlage Coliseum on November 14th.

The Junction City Blue Jay boys soccer team fell to Shawnee Heights 2-0 on Tuesday night at Al Simpler Stadium.

Drew Proctor, JCHS coach, said the first five minutes of every half has been the achilles heel for the Blue Jays. “We had one little letdown where we just watched a guy win a ball over the top of us and we didn’t even challenge. It was real easy for him to just get up, win the ball, and he knocked it into the back post.”

Proctor said with about 10 minutes left in the first half the Blue Jays also let down a little bit with defensive transition.

Proctor noted Shawnee Heights is ranked 10th in Class 5A.

The Blue Jays are 5-8 on the season.