Kansas Stars should be more than a one-hit wonder

Once isn’t going to be enough.

The Kansas Stars are a National Baseball Congress World Series phenomenon. They have not breathed life, they have breathed fire into the 82-year-old tournament, which at times over the past decade done more wheezing than fire-breathing.

Roger Clemens was in a Boston uniform for Monday night’s 8-3 Stars win over the Liberal BeeJays, whose NBC heritage has run deep for 50 years.

Toby Keith, Clemens’ buddy, threw out the first pitch as another sellout crowd at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium roared.

The Stars are 2-0 in the tournament and will face the NJCAA national team in the final game of pool play Wednesday night before moving into the Thursday quarterfinals. Clemens, 54, is expected to be the starting pitcher against a bunch of junior-college players whose parents were probably in grade school when Clemens broke into the big leagues in 1984.

These past-their-prime baseball players are handling prime time well. Their hitting has been a little slow to come around, but the pitching and defense – outside of Laynce Nix’s second-inning adventure in left field on a ball slapped over his head – has been top-notch.

Brandon Inge is making all the plays at third base. Jack Wilson was regarded as one of the game’s best shortstops during his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates and he can still flash the leather. Second baseman Dan Uggla, known more for his booming bat, made a nice play charging a ball Monday.

And center fielder Ryan Langerhans made one of the best players of the tournament by going back and to his left for a deep shot.

If there ever was a doubt, the Stars are still stars.

And here’s hoping the Stars are back in the NBC World Series for years to come. It’s a no-brainer, isn’t it?

“Would I want to do it again? Yeah,” said Robertson, 38, who pitched at Wichita State before a nine-year big-league career. “I’d love to do it again. But what matters is how these guys are received and treated in Wichita. I think that’s going to be a big thing in them wanting to return. And right now, they’re having a great, great time. A great time.”

It’s fascinating to hear Inge, who played 13 seasons in the majors and was in the 2006 World Series with Detroit, talk about this being the best experience he’s had in baseball in years.

Pitchers Tim Hudson and Josh Beckett were pinch-hitters in Monday night’s game and Hudson got a bloop hit and played an inning at first base.

With Toby Keith wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers jersey, everyone from Jason Aldean to Luke Bryan to – well, name a contemporary country musician and they were likely rumored to be in town for Tuesday’s game. Keith was the only one who showed, but the anticipation was fun.

The Stars have captured the imaginations of baseball fans young and old. This is something that has never happened in the eight-plus decades of the tournament. Hap Dumont, the tournament’s founder who was three-fourths carnival barker, would be loving this so much.

I’m not convinced the Stars are throwing off the competitive balance of the tournament, either. We’ll know more about that after Thursday, but it’s not like these guys are rolling out of bed hitting line drives all over Lawrence-Dumont.

The Stars struggled for six innings with the Sterling (Colo.) Xpress on Saturday night before finally blowing the game open. They fell behind early Monday against Liberal.

What the Stars have, though, is a deep pitching staff and a bunch of guys who know baseball’s ins and outs. There’s no situation they haven’t seen and as long as their bodies hold up, their minds will give them a huge advantage.

I can’t imagine one player in the tournament who isn’t thrilled about the prospect of playing against the Stars. Those junior college all-stars won’t sleep Tuesday night knowing they’ll likely be facing Clemens on Wednesday.

The Stars players are taking care of fans, too. They signed autographs for a long time after Monday’s games and are donating the money raised to the 15 other NBC teams who are playing in Week 2 of the World Series.

They’re accessible, friendly and happy to get a chance to play a game they love on a competitive level. No, it’s not the big leagues. But these guys are no longer capable of playing in the big leagues.

Most of them, at least. Inge has been an on-base machine.

“I can only hit college pitching,” he said.

Self-deprecation is one of the things the Stars do well. Inge said that when Robertson called him about playing, he had to do some stretching to find out if his knees still worked before saying yes.

“It’s been amazing,” he said. “Seeing the reactions of the kids we’re playing and seeing their eyes get big, that’s all a part of this.”

Let’s keep this going. It’s great for the tournament, great for baseball, great for Wichita.

I’m sure not every NBC general manager agrees. And if the Stars run through the tournament every year without much competition, the GMs’ concerns will gain legitimacy.

For now, though, it looks like the Stars have been an incredible enhancement to the World Series. It’s hard to find a ticket and the ballpark has been such a happy, festive place during their games.

The 82-year-old tournament feels young again. And all it took was a bunch of old guys.

This story was originally published August 8, 2016 at 11:37 PM with the headline "Kansas Stars should be more than a one-hit wonder."