Change this pic - it’s silly, but now it’s cropped (sort of - it’s still touchy)Frank WilliamsFri, November 28, 2025 at 1:00 PM UTC·5 min readI’m going to keep this short today since yesterday was a holiday and I didn’t have a lot of time to write. Plus, there wasn’t a lot of news.
At The Star, Jaylon Thompson wrote “How recent MLB trade could alter Royals’ pursuit for impact bat this offseason”:
The Royals have been linked to potential options in various offseason rumors. Many evaluators have connected Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran to the Royals. St. Louis Cardinals star Brendan Donovan was also listed as a potential option, as reported by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Both players are former All-Stars. They also have a versatile skill set that could fill a key offensive need.
However, there is a new wrinkle in both rumors. The Red Sox and Cardinals made a significant trade involving veteran starter Sonny Gray. Boston acquired Gray for its No. 5 prospect and an additional player — further emphasizing that the club entered this offseason needing some pitching help.
A couple of listicles?
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAt The Athletic, Andy McCullough (remember him?) came up with a Black Friday deal for every team:
Kansas City Royals (82-80): OF Harrison Bader
Bader picked an excellent time for one of the best seasons of his career, as he should be able to capitalize on a weak market for center fielders. He hit 17 homers with a .796 OPS in 2025. The Royals are thirsting for better production from their outfielders, and always place a premium on defense at Kauffman Stadium. Bader is a good fit for a multi-year deal.
At MLB.com, Will Leitch gave one reason for every MLB team to give thanks:
Royals
Bobby Witt Jr. took a slight step back this year and was still one of the 10 best players in the sport, and the Royals get to build around him for the next decade. They’ll always be contenders with him around.
I usually just throw out some questions for Black Friday, but how about a mini-OT that I wrote a couple of weeks ago?
Today’s topic: Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska
Up on the northern coast, it is home to about 5,000 people, making it the 12th-largest city in Alaska. But it has an extensive Wikipedia page for a town that size.
Just some quick little hits:
There are signs of civilization going back to 800 AD
In 1935, Will Rogers and Wiley Post died on their way to the town and the local airport is named after them
Airplane and boat are your only ways into and out of the city: there are no roads to connect the town with the rest of Alaska
Speaking of roads, all of the ones in the city are “unpaved due to permafrost”
You also run the risk of seeing polar bears
But what got my attention is a headline about how when the sun sets on November 18th… and then doesn’t rise again until January. And then there’s this: “In addition to its low temperatures and polar night, Utqiagvik is one of the cloudiest places on Earth. Owing to the prevailing easterly winds off the Arctic Ocean, it is completely overcast slightly more than 50% of the year.” Holy Seasonal Affective Disorder, Batman.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThat’s a hair misleading. Yes, the sun is always below the horizon during that time. However, there is some twilight, at least for a few hours. This short video from a local Charlotte weatherman has a good primer on the types of twilight.
On the winter solstice of 2024, there was civil twilight from 11:57 until 2:56. Civil twilight is what it looks like for a half hour or so after sunset in most places on most days. So that’s three hours of real brightness. Nautical twilight was another couple of hours of dim light on either side of that. And then there’s another hour and a half in the “morning” and “evening” of astronomical twilight, but that’s not a lot of light to the naked eye.
If you want to see what it is like, one of the University of Alaska departments has a webcam there. They have a cool 24-hour video there to see what it looks like for a whole day. I wrote this a couple of weeks ago when there were still a couple of hours of sun. That is no longer the case. Still, you can see what twilight looks like.
However, for the winter, there’s an equal and opposite reaction in the summer. From May 10th until August 2nd, there is no sunset. That’s 84 straight days of all sun all the time (though there’s that whole cloud problem).
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAside: I have to wonder what people looking at Friday Rumblings web traffic must think. Webmasters for both a Charlotte TV station and the University of Alaska must be wondering why they are getting traffic from a Royals blog.
I’ve mentioned Mammoth a couple of times before (“Another Celebration at the End of the World” and “The End”). A few of you may remember me talking in the comments, considering going to see them locally. I ended up seeing them, as many had suggested. It was on a school night so it was late. Even so, it was everything I wanted it to be. My son and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them in a smaller, more intimate venue.
Here’s the leadoff song for their portion of the concert. Shockingly, people’s cell phones don’t really do the audio justice.
For what it sounded like, when recorded by professionals:
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