Kansas City Royals fans have been nominated for Sports Illustrated’s 2014 Sportsman of the Year, and they are not deserving candidates in my opinion.

Why? It’s simple! Check the attendance figures for this past season. The Royals finished 25th in attendance this year, the worst of any team that played in the postseason. I’m not saying that Royals fans are bad fans, I’m just saying that they don’t show up until the postseason begins. The scene you saw in the World Series in Kansas City where it was full house after full house? That didn’t happen all season for this team. I get that these fans have been “long suffering” and waited three decades for a winner to come along again,but in my view they didn’t see anything good brewing with this team until the postseason began and are a “Johnny come lately” group of fans,who will probably go back to having less than 20,000 a night show up once the season begins in April.

Rewarding a fanbase with an award such as this is like rewarding a student who is consistently tardy with an award for perfect attendance. Showing up for your team’s games is what makes a fan base great and if your fans aren’t there to show their support, they aren’t a good fan base. They have potential to be better and to show that,they need to be better than 25th regular season attendance.

Now we go to a guy who might be rewarded for having an awesome postseason.

Pablo Sandoval,who became a free agent last week, is engaged in contract talks with the San Francisco Giants in the hopes that their All-Star third baseman will stay in orange and black for years to come. Sandoval,28, batted .366 in the postseason with seven doubles and five RBIs, four of those came the World Series against the Kansas City Royals.

Sandoval has expressed interest in returning,but is interested in a six-deal with the team. The Giants have held off on other free agents until the Sandoval situation gets settled.

“We’ve engaged, but I’ll leave it at that,” Giants general manager Sabean said Thursday. “We’re three days in, so that’s the best answer I can give.”

Sandoval’s agents will be talking to other teams with negotiations ongoing in San Francisco,but it seems that other teams aren’t interested just yet because of the ongoing talks with the Giants. It seems to me that he’s more than likely going to stay and I can’t say that it would be a bad move at all. He likes it in San Francisco, people wear panda hats at the ballpark because of him, and I don’t think he would be as good as he is with another team. Some players fit certain teams and Sandoval just fits with the Giants. Simple as that!

The Oakland Raiders have a lot of potential the rest of this season. No,not to win a game,but to lose every single one of them,a feat that hasn’t been duplicated since the Detroit Lions went 0-16 in 2008.

The Raiders currently sit at 0-9 after their latest loss, 41-17 at home to the Denver Broncos on Sunday. The schedule does not get any easier,either. Up next for the Raiders are the Chargers in San Diego who are fresh off a bye week. Then they host Kansas City, then go to St. Louis, and then they get a home date with the San Francisco 49ers, a game that should have a Vegas line on how many stabbings, arrests,and fights that will occur between the two fan bases.

I don’t see any light at the end of the silver and black tunnel for the Raiders. It’s been this way for a really long time and until a winning culture gets planted in Oakland (or San Antonio or whatever city they call home in the near future), it’s going to continue to be this way.

The Sacramento Kings held a cornerstone ceremony for the new downtown Sports & Entertainment Center,something no other American sports team has ever done. This ceremony dates back to the 18th Century when George Washington laid the cornerstone to the U.S. Capitol building.

What made the ceremony even more symbolic was that the new arena is being built on the site of the first California Grand Lodge which was founded in 1850,which has since moved to San Francisco. The masons believe the first stone must be perfectly square, level and plumb – or the building itself will cave in.

The cornerstone was also filled with a time capsule containing masonry and sports memorabilia.

I have been a part of the masonic family half my life now and while I was unable to attend, I was happy that so many of my friends could be there to witness something really cool and something no other sports team has done. I hope that other sports teams,whether or no their future homes were once on a site where Masonic buildings were,will participate in an event such as this. It’s just too cool. Well done,Kings and well done,Masons!