All the talk since the All Star break has been how the Kansas City Royals may actually be ready to hit the free agent market for some starting pitching.

Well, July 21^st marks the 20^th anniversary of just how wrong things can go when you go shopping.

For those of us who pine for the good old days of Royals baseball, we recall how the era came crashing down at the feet of one man – reliever Mark Davis.

Coming off a 92-win season, the Royals were ready to load up for another run at the pennant. And who would expect less, with a lineup of George Brett, Willie Wilson, Frank White, Bo Jackson, Danny Tartabull, Kevin Seitzer and youngsters Mike McFarlane and Brian McRae.

The rotation was equally stacked with Bret Saberhagen and Mark Gubicza being joined by 22-year-olds Kevin Appier and Tom Gordon.

But the team had no established closer, and prior to the 1990 season, the best one in baseball became available.

With San Diego in 1989, Davis saved 44 games, made his second straight All Star appearance, and became just the seventh reliever to win the Cy Young award.

With a price tag of $3.25 million per year – at the time the highest contract ever award – Davis was just what the Royals needed to slam the door on all those games pitched by their young starters.

But what ensued was a free agency nightmare, the end of the Royals golden era, and a cautionary tale to any team going shopping in the off season.

Maybe it was the pressure of the big contract. Maybe it was the move to the American League. Maybe it was the Kansas City barbeque.

Something didn’t agree with Davis and he was taken out of the closer role before the season was over. He was still striking out guys, but he was walking them too, at an alarming rate of 6.8 per 9 innings. His WHIP ballooned to 1.791. And his miniscule 1.85 ERA from the year before suddenly shot to 5.11.

The Royals even tried shifting Davis to the starting rotation, trying to find anything that clicked. But when the curtain fell on a season that started with such great promise, the Royals record stood at 75-86, sixth in the Western Division.

Jeff Montgomery settled into the closer’s role for 1991, and Davis tried to right himself in middle relief and spot starts. KC’s record improved to 82-80, but tremendous turnover had taken place. This was no longer the Royals of Brett, Wilson and White.

Bad as things had been, the bottom fell out in 1992.

With a clownish 7.18 ERA and an unheard of strikeout to walk ratio of .068, the Royals finally had no choice but to dump Davis for whatever they could get. The ax finally fell on July 21, 1992, when the Royals traded Davis for Juan Berenguer.

Berenguer was hardly an improvement, and he was granted free agency following the season.

So for their $14 million investment, the Royals got 7 saves and a 10-17 record between Davis and Berenguer combined. The team finished 72-90.

There probably isn’t some sort of Mark Davis curse at play here, but there’s no question that the Royals have had little to no luck in free agency ever since. The team has just two winning seasons in the 20 years since the Davis experiment was mercifully cut short.

Strangely, that wasn’t the end of the story however.

From 2006 to 2010, Davis served as the pitching coach of the Arizona League Royals. Following the 2010 season, he was promoted by the Royals to Minor League Pitching Coordinator. For 2012, he returned to his former role in Arizona.

Is having someone who flamed out so famously instructing young pitchers really a good thing? Hard to say. Not much is going right for Royals’ pitching prospects at any level. Which is precisely why the Royals will be shoppers this off season.

But with the topic in KC turning to free agency, it’s worth looking back at the Mark Davis signing with a wary eye. The Royals need to sign some pitching, no doubt. But doing so isn’t always the fix you hope for.

Sometimes it turns into a franchise killer.

The Kansas City Royals and the Los Angles Angels will be the last two teams in Major League Baseball to begin their season. The Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners have already started theirs. The Miami Marlins and St Louis Cardinals will start theirs in Wednesday evening. Finally, six days from today, after twenty-eight other teams have started, the Royals and Angels will start at 9pm local time. Even though these two teams will be the last to step off, I think they will get the most media coverage, and it’s not because the national media is in love with the Royals.

It seems that the Angels have signed a couple of big name free agents over the off-season in the name of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson. It is a compelling story in the national media. Albert Pujols graced the cover of Sports Illustrated’s MLB Preview. ESPN is televising the opener, and FOX added Saturday’s game to their regional coverage. If you live in the Royals television market don’t expect to watch the ESPN telecast. It will be blacked out to protect the FoxSports Kansas City broadcast. In Los Angles, the Orange County Register is hopping on the “mob” fad, and plans to cover the Royals-Angels Opener like never before.

The Royals track record doesn’t lend itself to the Royals being anything more than facilitaters for a game of baseball disguised to be a celebration of Arte Murano’s shopping spree during the winter. The Royals are like the convicted being lead into the Roman Coliseum to be eaten by lions. The cards are even stacked against the Royals liturgically. That’s right, Christian Royals fans will be rooting against the Angels on Holy Weekend.

I think the Angels are a good out of division rival for the Royals. Southern California is a hot bed of baseball talent. George Brett is from there, and so are a bunch of other Royals players. The Angels broadcast team consists of Victor Rojas and Mark Gubicza. Mark Gubiza needs no explaining. Victor Rojas is the son of Cookie, and grew up in Kansas City. If you follow him on Twitter you’ll notice he remains a Chiefs and KU Jayhawk fan. The Royals broadcast team has many ties to the Angels. Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler were Angels broadcasters for 11 seasons. Ryan Lefebvre is also from Southern California. If that’s not enough these two teams have seen a lot of each other in Cactus League play. Including a little dust up when Everett Teaford hit Peter Bourjos with a fastball after surrendering three straight home runs. This opening series shapes up to be exciting and hotly contested.

There is always opportunity in adversity. What better time to come out in punch the other team in the mouth than when they congratulating themselves? The Royals have a power hitting first baseman of their own. The Royals have some electric bullpen arms. The Royals have an excellent outfield. The Royals also won the last season’s series 7-3.

Earlier in the winter I was concerned that the Royals were getting too much media attention. It appeared they had become the next trendy pick in the surprise baseball team sweepstakes. I’m sure the Angels organization is not overlooking the Royals. I’m glad to see that for one weekend it appears the national media is. It’s a good recipe for “Chip on our shoulder”. It’s time for the Royals to crash the Pujols Party and shock the world.

I recently looked at the top Royals position players by Baseball Reference’s Wins Above Replacement (WAR) for rolling five-year periods in club history. Here is the same for the twirlers:

1969-73

13.9 WAR Dick Drago
8.0 WAR Paul Splittorff
7.6 WAR Roger Nelson

Drago was the only pitcher to pitch regularly during each of the five first years of Royals play. “Regularly” is an understatement–he averaged 227 innings a year in this span. His 3.52 ERA only translates to a 101 ERA+, but staying healthy and pitching, pitching, and pitching some more makes him the standout hurler from the first half decade. He still ranks ninth on the team’s all-time innings pitched list.

1970-74

 

12.1 Dick Drago
10.1 Steve Busby
9.4 Paul Splittorff

 

1971-75

 

16.2 Steve Busby
11.8 Paul Splittorff
11.6 Al Fitzmorris

 

Busby’s arm only allowed him three full seasons, 1973-75.

1972-76

 

15.7 Steve Busby
13.3 Al Fitzmorris
9.5 Paul Splittorff

 

1973-77

 

14.6 Steve Busby
13.6 Al Fitzmorris
10.1 Paul Splittorff

 

1974-78

 

13.2 Dennis Leonard
10.9 Steve Busby
10.7 Al Fitzmorris

 

1975-79

 

16.0 Dennis Leonard
8.3 Paul Splittorff
6.8 Larry Gura

 

1976-80

 

16.7 Dennis Leonard
12.6 Larry Gura
8.1 Paul Splittorff

 

1977-81

 

17.9 Dennis Leonard
15.0 Larry Gura
8.0 Paul Splittorff

 

Leonard’s top five WAR seasons all came in succession from ’77-’81. He averaged an impossible 261 innings during the stretch.

 

1978-82

 

15.3 Larry Gura
11.8 Dennis Leonard
9.2 Dan Quisenberry

 

1979-83

 

14.5 Dan Quisenberry
11.3 Larry Gura
9.4 Dennis Leonard

 

1980-84

 

17.0 Dan Quisenberry
10.2 Larry Gura
6.8 Buddy Black
6.8 Dennis Leonard

 

1981-85

 

18.1 Dan Quisenberry
8.4 Buddy Black
8.1 Bret Saberhagen

 

1982-86

 

17.7 Dan Quisenberry
10.8 Charlie Leibrandt
10.4 Buddy Black

 

The Quiz dominated the ’79-’86 stretch and is the only reliever to top any five-year period.

1983-87

 

16.9 Bret Saberhagen
16.3 Charlie Leibrandt
15.8 Dan Quisenberry

 

1984-88

 

21.4 Charlie Leibrandt
20.4 Bret Saberhagen
18.8 Mark Gubicza

 

1985-89

 

27.6 Bret Saberhagen
23.1 Mark Gubicza
20.0 Charlie Leibrandt

 

Leibrandt’s 20.0 WAR is the highest total for any number three on these lists. 20 WAR players tend to get strong consideration for the team hall of fame. That three Royals starters racked up that amount in the same five year stretch is crazy.

1986-90

 

24.2 Bret Saberhagen
22.0 Mark Gubicza
13.7 Charlie Leibrandt

 

1987-91

 

27.4 Bret Saberhagen
18.2 Mark Gubicza
10.6 Charlie Leibrandt

 

1988-92

 

20.4 Bret Saberhagen
16.1 Mark Gubicza
14.5 Kevin Appier

 

1989-93

 

22.9 Kevin Appier
16.9 Bret Saberhagen
16.6 Jeff Montgomery

 

1990-94

 

28.4 Kevin Appier
13.6 Jeff Montgomery
12.7 David Cone

 

1991-95

 

28.0 Kevin Appier
13.2 Jeff Montgomery
12.7 David Cone

 

1992-96

 

30.9 Kevin Appier
12.7 David Cone
11.8 Jeff Montgomery

 

Ape remains vastly underappreciated as one of the dominant pitchers of the ’90s. This is the only five year stretch in team history that anyone not named George Brett has 30+ WAR.

1993-97

 

28.6 Kevin Appier
12.7 David Cone
9.6 Jeff Montgomery

 

1994-98

 

20.0 Kevin Appier
9.4 Tim Belcher
7.6 Mark Gubicza

 

1995-99

 

17.0 Kevin Appier
9.8 Jose Rosado
9.4 Tim Belcher

 

1996-2000

 

12.7 Kevin Appier
9.9 Jose Rosado
9.4 Tim Belcher

 

1997-2001

 

8.4 Jeff Suppan
6.5 Kevin Appier
6.4 Jose Rosado

 

1998-2002

 

9.6 Jeff Suppan
6.6 Paul Byrd
5.3 Jose Rosado

 

1999-2003

 

9.0 Jeff Suppan
6.6 Paul Byrd
5.9 Darrell May

 

2000-04

 

6.6 Paul Byrd
6.6 Darrell May
6.3 Jeff Suppan

 

2001-05

 

6.6 Paul Byrd
6.6 Darrell May
4.4 Zack Greinke

 

After having strong pitching from the club’s inception through the mid-’90s, things get really ugly in the new millennium. 6.6 is the lowest list-leading total, and 4.4 is the lowest number period.

2002-06

 

6.6 Darrell May
4.8 Paul Byrd
4.5 Zack Greinke

 

2003-07

 

7.2 Zack Greinke
5.6 Darrell May
4.9 Gil Meche

 

2004-08

 

11.4 Zack Greinke
8.7 Gil Meche
6.3 Joakim Soria

 

2005-09

 

16.6 Zack Greinke
9.4 Gil Meche
9.0 Joakim Soria

 

2006-10

 

18.3 Zack Greinke
12.7 Joakim Soria
9.0 Gil Meche

 

Awarding three points for every number one spot on these lists, two points for number two, and one point for third place, the leaders look like this:

 

27 Kevin Appier
20 Bret Saberhagen
16 Dennis Leonard
14 Dan Quisenberry
14 Zack Greinke
13 Steve Busby
12 Larry Gura
12 Paul Byrd
11 Paul Splittorff
11 Darrell May

 

Keep in mind that is roughly a reflection of how each pitcher out-performed his own teammates in his own time with the Royals.

Number of five year periods at number one:

 

8 Kevin Appier
5 Bret Saberhagen
4 Dennis Leonard
4 Dan Quisenberry
4 Zack Greinke
3 Steve Busby
3 Jeff Suppan
2 Larry Gura
2 Paul Byrd
2 Darrell May
2 Dick Drago
1 Charlie Leibrandt

Retired pitchers from that list not in the team hall of fame: Paul Byrd, Darrell May, Dick Drago and Charlie Leibrandt. Byrd, May and Drago do not have much of a case for induction. Leibrandt is a borderline candidate in my mind, probably falling just short.

Looking ahead to the almost completed next stretch of five seasons:

2007-11 (through August 14, 2011)

 

18.2 Zack Greinke
13.2 Joakim Soria
9.0 Gil Meche

 

And now for something sad. The next three pitchers on that list:

 

2.8 Robinson Tejeda
2.8 Bruce Chen
2.8 Brian Bannister

 

 

(I have combined the position player and pitcher five-year period WAR lists to get the top three players overall on my blog here.)

You should probably follow Aaron Stilley on the Twitters.

 

As Aaron Stilley wrote on this site a couple days ago, many amazing words have already been written about the life and death of Paul Splittorff, the former Royals pitcher who passed away this week.

I was barely five years old when Paul Splittorff retired from the Kansas City Royals in 1984, and I have no memory of him as a pitcher. In fact, some of my earliest memories of baseball and of life are watching the 1985 World Series, in which the Royals defeated the St. Louis Cardinals.

Paul Splittorff retired one year too soon to be a part of that championship team. But then again, maybe Splitt was part of that championship. His last year was also the first year for future Royals Hall of Famers Bret Saberhagen and Mark Gubicza. Do you think Splittorff, the winningest pitcher in team history, had an influence on those two hurlers? You bet he did.

Although I never saw Splitt play, I was lucky enough to enjoy the entirety of his broadcasting career.

And he was, simply, amazing.

I’d like to think I know a lot about baseball. But every time I listened to Splittorff broadcast a game – every single time – I learned something new about America’s pastime.

Splittorff was a baseball professor of the highest order. He served as a perfect contrast to Denny Matthews and Fred White and Bob Davis and, later, Ryan Lefebvre. He seemed to know everything about pitching and nearly as much about hitting. You have to wonder – what made him turn to broadcasting instead of coaching? Surely he would have been a successful baseball manager.

Frank White is the new commentator for the Kansas City Royals. And I love Frank White, as a person, a player and a broadcaster. But in the booth, he’s no Splitt.

I will miss Paul Splittorff very much.

Matt Kelsey is a Royals writer and associate editor for I-70 Baseball. He can be reached at mattkelsey14@yahoo.com.

Continuing the look at the men who have played for both Missouri franchises, we examine the career of Danny Jackson.

The Kansas City Royals drafted Jackson with the number one pick in the January (secondary) phase of the 1982 amateur draft. Jackson was born in San Antonio but attended secondary school in Aurora Colorado, and was playing for Trinidad Junior College (also in Colorado) when the Royals selected him. He zoomed through the minors and made his major league debut on 9/11/1983 in Minnesota, throwing 3 shutout innings in middle relief and getting the win. He bounced between Kansas City and their AAA affiliate in Omaha in 1984, but became a full-time member of the rotation in 1985.

Jackson was a workhorse for the World Champs. He tied for third (with Mark Gubicza) on the team in wins (14), and was third among the starters in ERA (3.42) and innings pitched (208). Despite that success he wasn’t one of the three starters manager Dick Howser initially selected to pitch in the ALCS. When the Royals went down 3-1 in that series to Toronto, Howser passed up his game two starter Bud Black and gave the ball to Jackson for the final Kansas City home game. Danny was fantastic, scattering 8 hits over 8 shutout innings and beating Jimmy Key 2-0. His start began the Royals improbable comeback to win the AL, as they took games 6 and 7 from Toronto in Toronto.

Jackson’s success in that series was rewarded in the World Series, as he got the Game 1 start. He pitched well, allowing 2 runs in his seven innings, but Cardinal lefty John Tudor was better, and Jackson lost Game 1 3-1. He found himself the starter in another Game 5, with his team down in games 3-1 again. The Royals jumped on Bob Forsch for 4 runs in the first 2 innings, and Jackson cruised to a 6-1 victory. Kansas City came back to win in seven games. Other than Bret Saberhagen, Jackson was the best pitcher the Royals had against St Louis.

His 1985, 1986, and 1987 statistics are fairly similar in terms of innings pitched, home runs allowed, strikeout to walk ratio, and so on. Unfortunately, that consistency did not translate to success in terms of games won. Jackson was one game under .500 in 1986 (11-12), then suffered a 9-18 season the following year. Royal management must have thought Jackson was a flash in the pan, with the flash being his 1985 season, because they traded him to the Cincinnati Reds following the 1987 season.

Jackson responded with his finest season as a pitcher, winning 23 games and finishing second in the NL Cy Young voting to Orel Hershiser. He returned to the post season two years later with those Reds, helping them knock out the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NLCS (he won Game 3, and left Game 6 tied 1-1). He did not have much success in the World Series, but the Reds swept Oakland’s Bash Brothers, giving Jackson his second World Series title.

He was a free agent after the 1990 season, and signed on with the Chicago Cubs. He missed all of May and all of July 1991 to injury, and so threw the fewest innings he had since his 1983 call-up (70.2). He was healthier and threw better in 1992, but the Cubs decided he was expendable and traded him to the Pirates in July. He pitched fairly well for the Pirates down the stretch, but was cuffed around in his lone NLCS appearance, not surviving the second inning of a game Pittsburgh eventually lost 13-5. The Pirates left him unprotected in the 1992 expansion draft and Florida grabbed him, however he never played for the Marlins as they traded him to Philadelphia the same day.

Jackson enjoyed his best back-to-back seasons with the Phillies, helping Philadelphia to an improbably NL title in 1993 and finishing 6th in the Cy Young voting in 1994. A free agent after the 1994 season, he signed a 3-year, $10 million deal to join the Cardinals. By this point, Jackson had won a league title in both leagues, and pitched in 3 World Series, over a nine-year span. Unfortunately the magic carpet ride was over.

He was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer before the 1995 season, and had his thyroid removed. The cancer went into remission after the gland removal, allowing Jackson to make a full recovery, but that was not the end of his trouble. Jackson also severely injured his right ankle during spring training in 1995, and although he did recover he was never the same pitcher. Jackson had a rather unique delivery in which he pushed off violently from the rubber and landed full force on his right ankle, sometimes in a heap on the front of the pitcher’s mound. With an unsteady ankle as his landing gear he did not have the same control he once had.

Jackson suffered through a miserable 1995 going 2-12 for a forgettable Cardinals team that finished 19 games under .500. In 1996, Jackson continued to fight the injury bug, throwing only 36.1 innings the whole season. Those Cardinals won the NL Central, sending Danny on his fourth trip to the post-season in 12 years, but he made only one appearance, a three-inning stint in relief of Todd Stottlemyre in Game 5.

After making 4 starts for the Cardinals in 1997, he was traded in June to San Diego for another fading left-hander (Fernando Valenzuela). Jackson finished out the season with the Padres, then retired.

Danny Jackson will be remembered as one of the best left-handed pitchers in the game from 1985-1994. How his career ended won’t change that one bit. Tough, durable, and consistent, he was a significant contributor to three pennant-winning teams over that stretch, starting with the World Champion KC Royals. Of all the games he started over his big-league career (he made 324 starts, not counting the post-season), the biggest by far were the two he made in the 1985 Playoffs. Both Game 5′s, both with his team facing immediate elimination if he did not perform. He allowed one run combined in those two games, and won each one. At the tender age of 23.

Danny Jackson was a quality major league pitcher, but he is a Legend for his performance over 2 weeks in October, 1985.

Can you name the starting pitcher who put up the following numbers with the Royals?

Most strikeouts in club history, fourth most innings pitched, most win probability added, and most Baseball-Reference wins above replacement (brWAR). Another clue: he’s not yet a member of the Royals Hall of Fame.

The answer is Kevin Appier. He is clearly one of the all-time Royals greats, and though he has only been retired for four years, his induction into the Royals Hall of Fame is due. Hopefully next season Appier will take his rightful spot with the current cast of starting pitchers in the Royals Hall: Bret Saberhagen, Mark Gubicza, Dennis Leonard, Paul Splittorff, Larry Gura, and Steve Busby.

Robert Kevin Appier was born in Lancaster, CA (on the outskirts of Los Angeles) in 1967, and was drafted out of Lancaster High by the Royals with the ninth pick of the 1987 draft. Appier was sent to the low-A Eugene (OR) Emeralds, where he managed to get in 15 starts before the end of the 1987 season. The Royals moved Appier up to the high-A Baseball City (FL) Royals to start 1988, where he made 24 starts before being promoted to the AA Memphis Chicks in time for three starts. Combined, he had a 2.64 ERA. The next season, Appier started at AAA Omaha, where he spent most of the year.

He pitched well enough that he got the call to make his big–league debut on June 4, 1989 in Anaheim. It was trial by fire. Appier drew a tough opposing pitcher for anyone, let alone a fresh-faced rookie: hurling for the Angels was 38 year-old Bert Blyleven, pitching in his 20^th MLB season. Adding to the pressure, the Royals were trying to catch the Angels in the AL West race, trailing them by 3.5 games heading into the contest. The kid and the veteran swapped zeros for three innings before the Angels got to Appier for two runs in the fourth inning. Blyleven cruised through eight innings without yielding a run, and Appier exited after the sixth inning down 0-4. In the top of the ninth, Bo Jackson took Blyleven deep, but the game was lost 1-4. Appier stuck with the big club for a month, making a total of five starts and six appearances. He got roughed up while trying to adjust and was sent back down to Omaha with a 9.14 ERA.

He started 1990 back in Omaha, but returned to KC quickly, and began a seven year reign as a linchpin in the Royals’ rotation and as one of the elite pitchers in baseball. He was a revelation in 1990, posting a sparkling 2.76 ERA over 32 games. According to brWAR, he was far and away the best AL rookie, but finished third to Sandy Alomar and Kevin Maas in rookie of the year voting. Appier didn’t slow down for the next six seasons. His consistent excellence from 1990—97 is stunning. He never had an off-year. His ERA was well above average every one of those seasons, his ERA+ always landing somewhere between 121—179. His strikeouts per year ranged between 127—207, while he walked between 54—80. Saberhagen and Zack Greinke both have put up better individual seasons than Appier, but no Royals pitcher can match the sustained excellence of Kevin Appier between 1990—1997.

Two seasons do stand out: 1992 and ’93. He probably should have won the Cy Young in ’93, but pitcher wins were sacred, and Jack McDowell won the award for reaching 22 wins in spite of a 3.37 ERA. Appier and Greinke could start a support group: According to the August 6, 1999 Kansas City Star, “In 38 of (Appier’s) 89 career losses, (the Royals) scored zero or one run for him.” He fell short of such milestones as a no-hitter or a Cy Young. He made just one All-Star game. (He threw two perfect innings in the ’95 game; Tony Gwynn said afterwards, “I’ve never seen anyone throw like Kevin Appier. The ball is cutting, darting, running. He’s tough.”—July 12, 1995 Star.) He just pitched extremely well for a long time for bad Royals teams. His remarkable durability finally took a hit before the ’98 season when he fell off his porch, resulting in surgery on his collarbone. He only pitched 15 innings in ’98, and was never quite the same pitcher again.

By 1999, the losing had worn Appier down. After a rough outing in late July, Appier blew off some steam to reporters: “I’d like to have a chance to (contend). But if ownership and (the) general manager, if that’s not their goal, then hopefully they’ll get rid of me…If we’re going to be a much improved team, then I’d like to be a part of it. But if they’re going to continue with the same…they’ve been doing for the last seven years, then get rid of me.”—July 22, 1999 Star. Appier got his wish soon after. Royals GM Herk Robinson flipped him to Oakland for a trio of young pitchers (Blake Stein was the only one to do much of anything for the Royals). Appier would pitch for Oakland, Anaheim and the Mets between 1999—2003, and reached the postseason in 2000 and ’02. He earned a championship ring with Anaheim in ’02. The Angels waived the 35 year-old Appier in 2003, and the Royals, in the midst of a division race, signed him in August hoping he still had some magic left in the tank. For one night, it looked like he did—Appier blanked the Yankees over his six innings on August 13. But it was his last hurrah. He appeared in just four games for KC in ’03 and two in ’04 before the Royals released him. He attempted to come back on a minor–league contract with the Mariners in 2006, but finally hung it up when he was released in June of that year.

The Royals and their fans may not have many fond memories from the 1990s, but Kevin Appier’s durability and excellence were a constant positive force. Appier deserves a night in his honor at Kauffman Stadium and induction into the Royals Hall of Fame, and soon.

Aaron Stilley does the blog thing here and makes the tweeties here.