Month: July 2010

We bought tickets via StubHub that included a parking pass, which was SWEET. We pulled up into the stadium, showed the attendant our pass, and he gave us a blue hang-tag and said, “The guy up there will direct you.” We pulled right up near the stadium and were directed to a parking lot mere feet from the gate. So this is what celebrities feel like! *wink*

We arrived quite early (4:30 pm) to see the stadium before the game and also to meet up with friends. The evening was a tribute to the Negro Leagues, so there were all kinds of festivities – free Kansas City Monarchs caps, several Negro League players signing autographs, fundraiser concessions to benefit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (which is in KC), as well as unrelated fun things like live music and face painting.

In Kauffman Stadium there are waterfalls and fountains along the outfield wall, so we watched those for a while. There is also “The Outfield Experience”, which features all kinds of fun stuff for kids to do – baseball-related things like base running as well as a carousel and five-hole putt-putt course. Once our friends got there, we hung around in this area for quite a while, because it was a good way to keep their 3- and 5-year-old boys busy.

For dinner, Dave got one of the fundraiser hot dogs, which was unfortunately not very satisfying. I got pulled pork and baked beans, which was pretty yummy (though of course not as good as the pulled pork at Camden Yards).

Our seats were great – in the lower level up the first baseline. The game was a little odd, because the players were wearing Negro League tribute uniforms, so it really didn’t feel like we were watching the Royals and the Orioles. The game featured more action than the one we recently went to in Cincinnati, but it was still remarkably quick. It started a little after 6 pm, and was over well before 8:30 pm – perhaps the quickest American League game we’ve ever been to. My Orioles were in the lead for a couple of innings, but blew it in the 8th, losing 4-3. The Royals fans were really excited, though. I gotta give it to them – they’re nice fans, and supportive of their team, even though they are typically terrible. A lot like Orioles fans.

At least during the hot dog derby – which actually featured live runners in hot dog costumes, not just cartoons – my chosen hot dog (relish) was the one that won. *smile*

Continuing our baseball-driven Midwest tour, we drove today from Champaign to Kansas City, across Illinois and Missouri via Springfield IL and Hannibal MO.

The first half of the trip was smooth, with nice weather, light traffic, and not too much road work. About an hour west of Hannibal, though, the sky started to get really dark; then the water started coming out of the sky. The rain got so bad that I could barely see to drive, so I slowed way down just to keep myself on the road. I wasn’t really driving that slowly – maybe 55 mph – but got passed by a pickup and then a semi, on a bridge of all places. That was ridiculous and didn’t feel very safe, so we pulled off at the next little road and waited for about five minutes. Both the rain and the traffic let up a little, so it felt much safer to be on the highway.

The rain continued off and on for another hour or so, but never quite as bad as it was for those few minutes. Fortunately it seemed we skirted to the north of the worst of the thunderstorms – there were a lot of intense lightning strikes just to the south of US-36 as we drove. I wondered what would happen if our vehicle were to be struck by a lightning bolt. Fortunately we didn’t have to find out.

After we got onto I-35, heading south into Kansas City, it took us quite a bit longer to get into the city than it otherwise would have, because of lane closings due to construction. We were ready to be out of the car by the time we got to our hotel.

We hung out in the hotel for bit to decompress. Then we headed out to have authentic Kansas City barbecue at Gates and Sons BBQ, as recommended by a friend who is a KC native. It was quite the cultural experience, and the ribs were tasty.

After dinner we drove to downtown Kansas City, and found ourselves in the Power & Light District, which features a whole bunch of cool restaurants and bars in a tiny few-block area. We walked around a bit first, just to see what else was around, which is when I became infatuated with the Kansas City Power & Light Building.

The major goal of the evening was to find a sports bar where we could watch the Royals vs. Orioles game, to prepare ourselves for tomorrow evening’s live experience. We ended up in Johnny’s Tavern, which was the perfect choice, because all of the walls were lined with TVs showing various baseball games and other sporting events. Dave even got to watch the Yankees for a while. Unfortunately our teams were not victorious. The Orioles were poised to win, but then the Royals had a walk-off 3-run homer in the bottom of the 9th. At least the rest of the folks in the bar were psyched about it. *smile*

A major goal of our only full summer living in the Midwest is to catch games at a bunch of the Midwestern ballparks. Today we went to Cincinnati to see the Colorado Rockies play the Reds in the Great American Ball Park. We had great seats – four rows up in left field. It’s a well-designed ballpark – seemingly not a bad seat in the house – though a bit generic (other than the fascinating riverboat feature in the outfield).

It was brutally hot – every fan in the stadium was just wilting. The kid in front of us kept complaining to his dad about how hot it was, and the dad’s creative response was, “Hey – shut up.”

The game wasn’t particularly exciting – which was actually a good thing, because a lack of runs makes a game go faster.

About halfway through the game, we got up to escape the sun, and took a walk in the shade of the concourse. Unfortunately that was when the Rockies decided to score – we missed the only run of the game. We strolled over to the area behind center field to the misters, only to find that they weren’t misty enough to really cool things off. We found ourselves standing in a spot only slightly more humid than the rest of the air, and decided it wasn’t worth it.

We had a good time anyway. After the game, we cooled off at Rock Bottom in downtown Cincinnati (is it inappropriate to call it “Cincy”? Do people from there hate the nickname like San Franciscans hate “Frisco”?), then went looking for a Skyline Chili in which to have dinner, as we had been instructed.

Amusingly, as none of the Skylines in downtown Cincy (see, there, I did it) were open on a Sunday evening, we ended up driving across the river to Kentucky to have dinner at a suburban Skyline Chili. At least we had our authentic Cincinnati chili experience.

On the way home, we decided to play chicken with our gas tank. We figured we had just enough gas to get us to Indianapolis, where we knew there was a truck stop selling gas for $2.59. The gas tank counted down to 0 miles left in the tank, when we were just 10 miles outside of Indy. So we had to stop and put in 1.61 gallons (at $2.84/gal) to get us to the cheap gas. But we didn’t get stranded on the side of the road, outta gas. So we’ll call that game of chicken a draw.