Sports & Recreation >>

• Best Athlete
  Jarmila Gajdosova Kansas City Explorers
  There's no doubt that, as the top doubles team in the world, Mike and Bob Bryan bring out the crowds for the Kansas City Explorers, one of 11 clubs in the professional World Team Tennis league. But, despite the Bryans' well-deserved celebrity, it was little-known Jarmila Gajdosova's drive and... More >>
• Best Biking Companions
  Bike Escorts
  There are plenty of good excuses for not cycling around Kansas City. Bike lanes are spotty, drivers are aggressively protective of their asphalt, and those pesky bridges and highways make downtown a fortress. But a band of local bikers is taking the intimidation out of two-wheeled... More >>
• Best Running Group
  Kansas City Trail Nerds
  Ben Holmes was poised at the starting line of the Boston Marathon in 2000 when he had a realization: "I hate this." Not the running, exactly, but the noise and the crowd and the abuse his body took pounding 26.2 miles on cold, hard concrete. Back in Kansas City, the seasoned runner already had... More >>
• Best Royal
  Gil Meche
  The baseball world laughed when Royals GM Dayton Moore signed starting pitcher Gil Meche to a fat contract before the 2007 season. Meche inked a five-year, $55 million deal, which did seem ridiculous given the right-hander's track record of mediocrity. Immediately, however, Meche made Moore look... More >>
• Best Performance Under Pressure
  Zack Greinke, Royals
  A year after taking a sabbatical to deal with anxiety, Royals pitcher Zack Greinke found himself in a mega-chokeworthy situation: pitching opposite the big-league debut of touted Boston Red Sox gyroball-hurler Daisuke "Dice-K" Matsuzaka. But over seven innings, Greinke struck out seven. He kept... More >>
• Best Charity Fundraiser (12 Comments)
  Karl Keltner
  No one can accuse Karl Keltner of being soft. The former Marine with 20 years of experience as a personal trainer has run 40 marathons; competed in 16 Olympic-distance triathlons; and twice completed the harrowing, hot-as-hell, 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon through California's Death Valley.... More >>
• Best Reason for Royals Fans to Have Hope
  Mike Sweeney's Possible Departure
  Mike Sweeney is, by all accounts, a devout man. But given his injury history, fans have to wonder why his higher power didn't give Royals management a heads-up in 2002 before signing him to a five-year contract extension worth $55 million. Viewed enthusiastically by fans at the time, Sweeney's... More >>
• Best Highlight Clip
  George Brett's Pine Tar Incident
  It's July 24, 1983. The Royals are down 3-4 against the Yankees in the top of the ninth. George Brett cranks a two-run homer off his hated rival, Goose Gossage. It's the kind of trademark move that makes him our hometown hero. Afterward, when an umpire notes that Brett had too much pine tar on... More >>
• Best T-Bone
  Rob Watson
  Sometimes the most important player on a team isn't the superstar but rather the guy willing to do whatever it takes. Second baseman Rob Watson is that guy. As Northern League Player of the Month in July, he batted .413 and knocked in 29 RBIs to help the T-bones stay atop the Eastern Division.... More >>
• Best Sports Blog (1 Comment)
  The Soul of Baseball
  A major topic of media navel gazing concerns the potential conflict between traditional news outlets and new-breed bloggers. Ideally, online media and traditional media complement each other rather than conflict. A case in point is the absurdly prolific sportswriter Joe Posnanski, who writes a... More >>
• Best Post-Game Fireworks
  Community America Ballpark
  This fireworks show may qualify as the most American 10 minutes in Kansas. After the final pitch, the stadium lights dim. The crowd, with last-minute hot dogs and plastic beer cups in hand, trickles from the bleachers to the outfield. Chuck Berry and Little Richard blare from the speakers. This... More >>
• Best Sports-Talk Host
  Soren Petro, WHB 810
  In 1972, author Calvin Trillin wrote in the New Yorker that four of his top five restaurants were located in Kansas City. Similarly, sports radio is often a local delicacy. And the best sports-radio host in the country resides in Kansas City. Soren Petro, who hosts WHB 810's 11 a.m.-2 p.m. slot,... More >>
• Best Makeshift Bike Trail
  Southwest Boulevard to Werner Park
  Because Kansas City's idea of a downtown bike route is posting "bike route" signs on congested city streets, street-biking hounds must demonstrate a degree of ingenuity. Escape the congested midtown and downtown scenes by following Southwest Boulevard west under Interstate 35 until it connects... More >>
• Best Place to Hike
  Parkville Nature Sanctuary
  Parkville Nature Sanctuary is so expertly designed that just three miles of hiking trails manage to hit the Midwest's best wilderness features. Besides a picnic area with a barbecue pit at the trail head, there are wide, ADA-accessible paths through prairie grasses and across a boardwalk winding... More >>
• Best Park (3 Comments)
  Kaw Point Riverfront Park
  It's pretty obvious why Lewis and Clark, when they arrived at Kaw Point on June 26, 1804, decided to take a few days of respite. Located at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, the six-acre point offers breathtaking views of the wide, churning channels. These days there's even more... More >>
• Best Volleyball Spot
  Volleyball Beach
  It's a steamy, late-August Wednesday night in Kansas City, and an ocean breeze is a thousand-mile-away dream. The sun is down, but there's no relief. Just the same, the weather hasn't stopped hundreds of people from spiking balls at one another on 13 sand courts behind this south Kansas City... More >>
• Best Gym
  Life Time Fitness
  Rocky trained for fights by running up steps and chasing chickens, but some of us need fancy equipment and every permutation of ESPN on mounted televisions to get off the couch. A Minnesota-based chain of resortlike health clubs, Life Time Fitness spares no expense in the effort to make... More >>
• Best Place to Play Softball in the Shadow of Big Brother
  Mulkey Square Park
  Take Summit north across Interstate 670 and you'll happen upon a foreboding building with tinted windows and locked iron gates. Inside, the FBI brainstorms new and exciting ways to usurp America's civil liberties. Outside, just across the street, some Bad News Bears ringers brainstorm new and... More >>
• Best Yoga Teacher
  Amy Jin Schmelzer
  As yoga has catapulted from an obscure Indian tradition to an exercise regimen of the overstressed masses, it's no easy task to find a teacher who stands out from the om-chanting pack. Give Amy Jin Schmelzer five minutes, and the Iowa-native will prove that she's no cookie-cutter yoga... More >>
• Best Public Golf Course
  Drumm Farm Golf Club
  Ball-gobbling native grasses grow tall at Drumm Farm Golf Club, which opened in 2002. The 18-hole course and nine-hole executive track were designed by Michael Hurzdan, an environmentally friendly golf architect who strives to save and enhance natural habitats. With four tee boxes, the main... More >>
• Best Free Poker
  Poker Knights KC
  The rise of televised poker has convinced a lot of card players that they can bluff their way to riches. Would-be sharks can hone their skills without risking the mortgage by playing Texas hold 'em at the dozens of bars around town that hold free tournaments. (The bars make money from the drinks... More >>