St. Louis Cardinals fans may be obnoxious, but fans of the Kansas City Royals fans have issues as well.
When Fox announced last week that broadcaster Joe Buck would be in the booth for the American League Championship Series pitting the Royals against the Toronto Blue Jays, some Royals fans wasted no time is expressing their displeasure. One, Adam Jones of Kansas City, Mo., even started a Change.org petition to have Buck removed from the broadcast.
The stated reason? Buck apparently doesn't respect the Royals, as evidenced by his work in last year's World Series between the Royals and the San Francisco Giants.
"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?"
The Giants won that series 4-3, and in Game 7, Bumgarner, who had already earned two victories in the series, including a complete-game shutout in Game 5, took the mound in the fifth inning and held the Royals to one hit the rest of the way, earning the longest World Series save ever.
Buck, who also retweeted the petition, responded to one Royals fans on Twitter who said the veteran broadcaster was a classic St. Louis supporter and a "Royals hater."
"Yes. Exactly," Buck tweeted. "Go Cards! Oh wait .... Go Blues!!!! Go Ram..... Oh forget it."
One Twitter user wondered if Buck had married Bumgarner yet.
"Yes. We are registered at Rawlings and Bed Bath and Beyond," Buck replied.
As for another who called on him to admit he purposely avoided mentioning the Royals, Buck tweeted, "You're right. I don't. It's my dislike of the British."
As of Sunday evening, the petition had 12,229 signatures, Buck had two games under his belt and the Royals had a 2-0 Series lead. The Series heads to Toronto for Game 3 tonight.
Maybe now the Royals fans will find something more important to complain about, like how the vendors at Toronto's Rogers Centre ignore anyone with an American accent.
Early wake up
The Carolina Panthers got an unexpectedly early wake-up call on Sunday morning when the fire alarm went off at their downtown Seattle hotel before their game against the Seahawks.
The Panthers posted a statement on their website saying an alarm "was pulled" around 5:40 a.m. PDT, about 7½ hours before kickoff against the Seahawks. The team said players and staff were evacuated from the hotel and by 6 a.m. everyone was given clearance to return to their rooms.
The official team Twitter account featured a post with the message "When someone pulls the fire alarm at 6 a.m." over a picture of a grinning Hulk. "We can't wait to hit the field anyway."
A number of Panthers players also tweeted about the alarm. Charles Tillman posted "Whoever pulled the fire alarm on the 16th floor....not cool."
Backup quarterback Derek Anderson wasn't so sure the fire-alarm sounding was a coincidence, tweeting, "Just happened to be our floors only. Guess that's just by chance lol."
The Panthers beat Seattle 27-23, improving to 5-0. Maybe the Seahawks (2-4) should've woken up a bit early as well -- like sometime in September.
Sports quiz
What major-league pitcher holds the records for most games started, most innings pitched, most victories and most strikeouts in the World Series?
Answer
New York Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford, with 22 starts, 146 innings pitched, 10 victories and 94 strikeouts during a 16-year career in 1950-1967.
Sports on 10/19/2015