Memories of Royals broadcaster Fred White

The Royals announced on Wednesday that former radio broadcaster Fred White died of complications from melanoma. This came just 24 hours after White announced that he’d be retiring from his post-broadcasting role with the team, which was to help build up and maintain the vast Royals Radio Network.

Fred White. Picture from the Kansas City Star.

I grew up with two parents and three older brothers, so it’s not like I was lacking for childhood presences. But Fred White, along with Denny Mathews, were a profound staple of my childhood summers.

Fun Minor League stats from Opening Day (SQUEE)

Yesterday was Opening Day in Minor League Baseball, which is like Christmas Part III (after MLB Opening Day, and actual Christmas).

Will Smith, strike-outer and high-fiver of many.

A big story was Jurickson Profar finally making an appearance at AAA, after skipping straight up to the Majors from AA last year. He went 2-3, which is nice, but hardly the most interesting-looking line of the night.

That honor belongs to

Good snacks for bad kitchens: Peanut butter chocolate bananas

My kitchen is terrible. The oven is never the temperature it’s supposed to be, and the one big burner on the stove likes to shut off at random times. I can’t make most of the things I find on Pinterest* but here’s one thing I did make: Chocolate- and peanut-butter bananas.

*Did you hear? We’re on Pinterest!

STEP ONE: Take your laptop into the kitchen and fire up an episode of Friday Night Lights.

Totally sports-related.

Advent Calendar of Hotness Day 17: Eric Hosmer

Time for my homer pick! Apparently Eric Hosmer has only been mentioned on this site one time in history, and it was when he was too young for the Ladies… to officially think he was attractive. Life sucked then. But this is now, so let’s DO THIS.

From his very brief stint in my town, in front of my camera.

Advent Calendar of Hotties Day 3: Eden Hazard

I was going to be a Royals homer and feature my favorite catcher in the world, but a Facebook friend recommended I look in the direction of Eden Hazard and suddenly I’ve got soccer hotties on the brain.

Hello.

Celebrate and remember Pat Burrell, a pillar of this site

Pat Burrell is retiring, which means this site now has to exist in a world without him. Ladies… without Burrell is like Seinfeld without Jerry, like a flower without petals, like Grady Sizemore without that one coffee cup. Just…totally naked, but in like a really sad way.

According to Google, the Ladies… have written about Pat Burrell 118 times. By no means is that the most we’ve ever covered a hottie of sport (paging Tom Brady, Ryan Lochte, etc.), but he is a part of the very fiber of our collective heart nonetheless.

In most of the rest of this post, we'll forget he has a face, too.

What if Jeter isn’t the only one with gift baskets?

Thank heavens for the New York Post. Without them, how would he know that Derek Jeter sends his single-serving ladyfriends away with gift baskets?

He used to give out t-shirts. True story.

But hey, trends spread like wildfire in baseball. By now, stars all around the game are in the post-booty gift basket game. Step into my office; I’ll show you the baskets I’ve been able to unearth so far.

Advent Calendar of Hotness: Day 11

It’s my turn to be a complete homer. So much of a homer, in fact, that many of these photos are my own handiwork. Today’s hottie is Manuel* Pina, a catcher in the Royals’ system who caught a few games in the Majors last season.

That hair...

*He’s listed everywhere as “Manny,” but a little old bird told me he hates being called that.

Advent Calendar of Hotness: Day 7

I don’t have many opinions about the New England Patriots. Really, I don’t. Out here in the safety of the AFC West, I don’t have to think about them much. One thing I do think is that Aaron Hernandez is kind of pretty just unfairly hot? I don’t know. Don’t judge me.

Off we go.

"Aaron! Over here!"

So, about that espnW thing…

ESPN, for women. We’d be remiss as Ladies… if we didn’t weigh in on this ridiculous idea that’s apparently a real thing, and not an Onion article.

Click for source...made by Miss Minda

Miss Minda: Apparently we aren’t smart enough to understand the real ESPN, because it belongs to our dads, our boyfriends, and that cute guy at work we’re always trying to impress.

Games Mistress: What’s kind of worrying me is

Figure Skating Liveblog Bonanza

UPDATE: The link below should actually work, and in a non-mobile form. Sorry aout that.Assuming Miss Minda understands how to make this thingie work, we’re gonna liveblog this thing. RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW. (Which is French for “click that link right there.”)
Olympics and OMG JOHNNY WEIR

Johnny Weir tonight! Not that NBC mentioned him…

A strange NBC promo made NO mention of the Fabulousity That Is Johnny Weir. As fans of La Weir, the Ladies will not stand for this snub.

Check out the promo, then vote in the poll below.

Leaving Weir out of Olympics promo:
(polls)

Ladies and stat nerds unite: in celebration of F-Gut!

Stat-nerds have been falling all over themselves in adoration of Franklin Gutierrez’s astounding CF defense, which is so stunningly awesome that the Mariners are hanging on to him for four more years. But don’t leave the F-Gut lovin’ to the statheads* – he’s someone the Ladies… can appreciate as well. Behold:

He is the WORLD. It says so right on his jersey.

*I, much like Crane, proudly belong to that set of people. Give me FanGraphs or give me death!

Advent Calender of Hotness: Day 11

We could do a whole series on hot Diamondbacks, but today is for Conor Jackson.
More, after le jump.

The Twins are IN

So…that game just happened. It was a thrilling combination of bad teams, bad umpiring, bad announcers, and a stadium that everyone hates…but it was fun.

Congratulations to the Twins for outlasting the Tigers to get to the postseason. Now, go get some rest before your game in New York!

Celebrating O-Cab's key home run. Who knew he could FLY, too?

Quick add from CuteSports:

The following picture comes from MLBNetwork reporter Trenni Kusnierek’s twitter feed:

Champagney Mauer

Payoff of paying attention to Florida State

So this crazy football game happened. If you missed it, basically Miami and Florida State went back and forth and Miami came back in the final moments and took the lead. Da U won 38-34.

I hate both teams. Despise them. Like really, the only way for me to win this game as a fan was if both teams lost. But hey, watching FSU isn’t the worst thing in the world with the guy they have under center. Christian Ponder is totally cute, right? It’s not just me? Help me decide.

Hike! Hellooooo Chris Ponder!

The Ladies… play MLB GM: Call up Lenny DiNardo?

If I had a nickel for every time I wanted to do Royals General Manager Dayton Moore’s job, I’d have…a shitload of nickels. I’d love to think GMDM totally reads all the Royals blogs out there, and considers our suggestions. That’s proooobably not the case at all, but just in case: Hey GMDM, call up Lenny DiNardo! He could help your bullpen! And he’s a lefty!

Oh, and…he looks like this:

We have the Omaha World Herald to thank for this work of art.

Ben Roethlisberger…fix your TV? That’s the best you’ve got?

The charges* filed against Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger this weekend are serious, and in no way do the Ladies… condone such acts. Sexual violence is disgusting and pathetic, and should not be committed by anyone at any time. We doubt many of you would disagree.

One could also file a lawsuit against that shirt.

*If you haven’t heard, Big Ben faces counts of assault, sexual assault and batter, false imprisonment, false pretenses, fraud, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Story here. If true…not cool, Ben.

HOWEVER, I couldn’t help but smirk at the line he allegedly laid down on the Harrah’s employee who filed the suit.

Live blog for the ASG! NOW!

Head on over to our Live Blog Central and join in the revelry.

Carlos Pena wants you to liveblog with us. Really. Go!

I was there (sort of): CWS championship series, Game 1

If you haven’t been watching the College World Series, tonight would be a good time to tune in to ESPN. Tonight is game two of a 3-game championship series between LSU and Texas, two teams who fully expect to play in Omaha every summer and who are generally fun to watch.

Rosenblatt Stadium didn't stay empty for long after this Tigers warmup!

Last night was no exception. 

Pre-draft photo gallery – your future MLB hotties?

It’s almost here, it’s almost here! The MLB draft is next week, and at this point we already know that the Washington Nationals will sign Stephen Strasburg, and the only mystery is how historically big his signing bonus and contract will be.

This man and his million strikeouts will be very rich in a week.

But let’s take a look at a few of the guys who will be drafted after Strasburg, shall we? We might be seeing them in the Majors someday, after all…

Take Us Out To The Ballgame: The Ladies…do the new Kauffman Stadium

Kauffman Stadium opened in 1973 in the middle of nowhere – as opposed to downtown – Kansas City. Royals Stadium, as it was known at the time, was different from its contemporaries because it was for baseball only, as God intended stadiums to be. Other pro sports cities were drafting their own one-way tickets to hell by building multi-sport facilities. Not Kansas City.

Lovely and friendly - Kauffman Stadium pre-renovation

It has changed a bit for this season, though!

In 50 words: Sunday stuff

After this paragraph, I’ve got just 50 words to fill you in on the big sports stories from Sunday. For the record, I’ll count a game’s score as one word (so “2-1″ is one word). Since there are lots of photos, I made them small, but you can click each photo to see the full-size version. Here we go!
Throat slashed, Wings win.

6-0…Zackkkkkkkkkk Greinke!

I’ve been a Royals fan my entire life. Unfortunately, that’s only 20ish years, meaning the team has pretty much been a laughingstock since I was born. But you know what? The best pitcher in all of baseball – let me repeat that here – the best pitcher in all of baseball wears a Kansas City uniform.

And look! JoePo's 2nd SI cover story, for 2x the Awesomeness!

UPDATED Announcement: Welcome your new Ladies…!

If you follow us on Twitter, you’ve gotten a pretty good idea of things that would not be announced on this site. Now, at long last, it’s time to let you in on what WILL be announced.

We have chosen our new Ladies…! We got a ton of great applications, and it wasn’t easy to choose. Thanks to everyone who applied, and please keep your eyes open to future Ladies… opportunities – we heart all of you! In no particular order, here’s  a bit about each of our new writers.

***UPDATE*** Due to a slight technical difficulty (in my brain), we neglected to include ALL of the new Ladies… in this here post. In addition to the warm welcome you’ve already given our 7 other newcomers, please take a moment to get to know the awesome CuteSports.

Pardon the interruption…a plea to rich women

This is not really, technically sports-related. Well, Tony Romo is in the photo, and HE is obviously sports-related, but…that’s about as sportsy as this post will get. These photos of Romo and Jessica Simpson have been making the rounds yesterday and today, including an appearance on Deadspin. The gals of GFY already handled the sofa-esque patterns of Simpson’s tiny orange dress with their usual hilarity.

Click image for full-size

Yes, it’s disturbing that some paparazzo stuck his camera UP her skirt for some photos (totally NSFW!), but something else is really bothering me here.

Hockey hotties: Playoffs, round 1

Puck Daddy brings us the NHL Round 1 playoff schedule today, and as a Versus subscriber…I’m ready. The very earliest games are Wednesday at 7 Eastern: Rangers at Capitals, and Flyers at Penguins. In honor of the fact that these teams will be the first to take the ice in this playoff season, let’s peek at some of the finer parts of these four rosters, shall we?

Predictable, I know. You got a problem with that?

Reminder: Apply NOW!

Some Ellsbury.

Quick note: Remember that we are looking for new Ladies…, and we’ll stop taking applications at 6:00 eastern time this evening. So get on it!

Sad day for baseball: RIP Nick Adenhart

(Photo: Mark Boster, LA Times)

We’re not particularly huge Los Angeles Angels fans here at Ladies…, but on a day like today it really doesn’t matter what teams we like best. I think that, when a baseball player dies, anyone who likes baseball can shed a tear, regardless of the team logo the deceased wore when he played.

Many, many, many people around the baseball blogosphere have taken a moment today to post about the sudden end to Angel pitcher Nick Adenhart’s life.

Opening Day in 50 words

We’re going to try something new here: After this introductory paragraph, I’ve got 50 words to fill you in on all the Opening Day happenings from around the Majors. For the record, I’ll count a game’s score as one word (so “2-1” is one word). Here we go!

Reds phone didn't help; Mets won.