Chris Fickett

Watch it or not, you pay for sports on cable TV

kansascity.com — As live sports programming (like the NBA playoffs featuring LeBron James, above) becomes more coveted by advertisers, ESPN and other networks are bidding in the billions to secure broadcast rights. And those costs — ESPN charges TV providers more than $5 per month per subscriber, making it by far the most expensive basic cable channel — get passed to the consumer, whether they like sports or not.

Sam Hellinger carries West Seattle into school’s first state championship game

blogs.seattletimes.com — PASCO - West Seattle senior Sam Hellinger carried a simple approach into Friday's Class 3A semifinal against Mount Si: Give his defense the opportunity to make plays behind him. But there was more weight to this game than that, and Hellinger admitted as much after West Seattle held on for a 3-1 win.

Royals fan races onto field and (momentarily) eludes capture with fancy footwork

kansascity.com — Check out this video of a fan dashing onto the field at Kauffman Stadium during the Royals’ 5-4 loss to the Angels on Thursday night. He eludes a police officer with a slide across the pitcher’s mound and steals the rosin bag. He ran off, but eventually was caught.

With Andrew Wiggins and Tarik Black on board, what’s in store for KU basketball in 2013-14?

kansascity.com — In the aftermath of an NCAA Tournament meltdown, and the loss of five starters from a Sweet 16 team, KU basketball coach Bill Self added the final pieces to what could be considered his finest recruiting class in Lawrence.

Poll: What is your level of anger with the Royals' recent struggles?

kansascity.com — There is a lot of apocalyptic talk from fans, and it all comes from an honest place. The Royals have taken their fans down this path many times before, a free-fall that either turns hope into hopelessness or twists the knife of suck a little bit more. Are you mad?