The great thing about this whole Unvegan Hero/Unvegan Villain thing is that there are so many opportunities to praise Detroit/Michigan athletes and knock down their rivals. But when I found out a little something about Jeff Francoer, I knew I had to give a rival his due.

Francoeur plays for the Kansas City Royals, who happen to be in the same division as my Detroit Tigers. But while we are division rivals, the Royals haven’t been relevant in as long as I can remember. Plus, KC is home to some of the best BBQ in the world, so it gets a few points there. Anyway, this is more about Francoeur, who has brought unvegan delights into baseball in a most interesting way.

It began last year, when visiting Oakland, that “Francoeur tossed a ball wrapped in a $100 bill into the elevated bleacher seats above his outfield spot, instructing fans to use it to buy bacon or beer,” according to the Washington Post. This day became known as bacon Tuesday.

This year he gave the section their own personal pizzas (hopefully without veggies). Veggies or no, these gestures have made Francoeur a popular man in Oakland, despite the fact that he comes from the opposing team.

As for me, if he were playing against my team, I would have a hard time choosing between bacon and a W. I guess I would just hope that losing a game wouldn’t stop Francoeur from making baseball a much more fun and delicious game to watch.

So for your staunch support of bacon, pizza and beer, Jeff Francoeur, you are a true Unvegan Hero!

(via The Washington Post and @dvdheyman)

EDIT: This place has been renamed as “The Bar-B-Que Bar” and seems the same, but I haven’t been back to re-review it.

A lot of places are known to have delicious BBQ. St. Louis and Memphis are both huge and Texas always claims to be the best, but I have always felt best about Kansas City BBQ. This affinity probably goes back to the only time I went to Kansas City and got some Gates Bar-B-Q in my pre-meat blog days. It was so good I left Kansas City with my very own bottle of sauce. When I started working in North Hollywood, I noticed a place called The Kansas City BBQ Company nearby, but having heard nothing about it I sort of forgot about it. But recently a co-worker claimed it was really good, so an outing was planned and we all took a stroll down Magnolia to see how good Kansas City could taste in North Hollywood.

After much deliberation, I went with their sliced beef brisket sandwich ($9.50). This came with a side, so I picked fries and ten waited for my order. It took a little while and few people that were behind me were served first, but finally, my meal was ready. But what was this? Pickles? In my basket? With juices leaking into the bun?! This did not bode well for my meal.

After removing the pickles and tearing off every bit of pickle juice-soaked piece of bread, I was able to give the sandwich a real look. It followed the delicious pattern of bread-meat-bread-meat-bread, but seemed to be lacking in total sauce. I took a bite and found the meat to be nice and tender and the bread was pretty much there to keep the sandwich together. I was right about the lack of sauce, but there were a couple bottles of sauce at the table to supplement with. One was regular and the other was spicy. I mixed them together into a perfect concoction and started dipping my sandwich in. This was good. Not Gates good, but still tasty.

I was surprised to find that this little BBQ place in North Hollywood actually captured a bit of what it’s like to eat BBQ in Kansas City. It might not stand up too well in the actual City of Kansas, but out here in the west, it isn’t too shabby at all.