Travel: Royals

Kauffman Stadium

No one goes to Kansas City just to go to Kansas City. They go for a reason. We went for baseball. That was really the only reason. We enjoyed many other aspects of the city they dub the Paris of the Plains, but we wouldn't have ventured 3 hours south of Des Moines had it not been for baseball. The specific baseball I am referring to is the professional baseball club the Kansas City Royals. What was once a proud and somewhat successful franchise, the Royals are now simply a franchise that has the unique distinction of being the only major league team in Missouri that also happens to be in the American League. Pretty cool right? If they aren't famous for that, which they really aren't, I guess they are also famous for being pretty bad at playing the game of baseball even though that is the one thing they are striving to do. They've been pretty bad for quite a while now. Not Pittsburgh Pirates bad, but still pretty bad. Suffice it to say, I can't imagine that many people willingly choose to make a road trip to see a Kansas City Royals game. Sure, Royals fans may put in the effort to make a quest like this, but it's still the Royals, so I doubt it. In the end, even though the team is a stinker, the stadium is quite nice. A worthwhile venue to partake in an afternoons ballgame.

Travel: Wenatchee

Hydro Park

Wenatchee, WA

It was mostly sunny and warm, our hotel was nice, we swam in a pool, lounged in a hot tub, ate good enough food and our little squadron of 13 year old baseball players won themselves a championship. We had a nice little weekend in Wenatchee, and I have a miniature bobble head trophy to prove it. 

My oh My and Fly Fly Away

Dave Niehaus

(1935 - 2010)

"Get out the rye bread and mustard this time Grandma, it is Grand Salami time"

Baseball Season is Finally Here

I've been to two games so far this year. Opening day and the game on Monday. Both were complete opposites. Opening Day: Awesome atmosphere, dud of a game. The M's mustered 2 hits and got shut out. In soccer terms, it's like watching almost every soccer game. However, like I said, the atmosphere was great. Near sellout crowd, fireworks, baseball is back buzz, Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner, Dan Wilson, free soda, great upper deck front row seats, awesome. All in all, worthwhile even though the game failed to instill hope in any Mariners fans. Now lets fast forward to Mondays game vs the Orioles. The atmosphere was close to lame but the game itself was a thing of beauty. First off, it was officially the lowest attended baseball game in Safeco Field history. 14,000 or something. So if anything, a record setting night. I was a part of it. Other than that attendance fail, great night. The weather was July like balmy. No need for a jacket. We had terrace club level seats, row 2. The Mariners offense resembled an actual baseball team and hammered out 8 runs. Doug Fister pitched a no-hitter into the 7th inning, and the defense was nothing short of gold glove caliber. As the Mariners marketing machine wants me to believe, after Mondays nights game, I Believed Big. Mariners World Series Champs in 2010, you heard if here first.

Baseball Season Can't Come Any Sooner

I've waited patiently for the past three months. I've endured football season. I like football, I do. But it's in the fall and winter seasons. I don't care much for those seasons. And I didn't grow up playing football, so the love of the game is pretty shallow. The UW Football Huskies showed vast improvement and played in some unbelievable and heart wrenching games, but they were still a 5-7 ball club, so how much fun can you really have. In terms of the NFL, I am a big bandwagon Seahawks fan. Since they were a terrible excuse for a professional football team, I didn't come anywhere close to jumping on any bandwagons. I've enjoyed basketball season but only to a certain extent. My huskies, preseason Pac-10 Champs, are the Jekyll and Hyde of the NCAA. At home, they're competing for a national championship. Period. On the road, they are a division 2 project trying to keep pace with the likes of the Western Washington Vikings and Seattle Pacific Falcons. And the NBA...Ugh. Sonics, still gone. Thunder, possible playoff team. Plus, it's still only February. The NBA doesn't matter until April at the earliest. People talk about certain teams being in trouble because they can't win games in December and January. Here's the secret, it doesn't really matter. The Spurs used to never start trying until late February at the earliest and ended up winning a couple Championships the past few years. Also, it's the NBA, so who really cares that much. And by the time I should start caring, baseball will have started, so the NBA will be on the back burner, set to simmer. I'm thankful for football and basketball, because they pass the time between the end of the World Series and the start of Spring Training. We're now closer to the start of spring training than we are from the end of the World Series. We're on the downward slope. In two weeks, spring training starts. Then two months from now, baseball will officially begin. Not only that, the M's have real potential. And the Kid, Junior Griffey, will hit beautiful majestic bombs out to the deep right field porch for one more season.