My Dad (age 80.5) enjoying his first ever KC Royals ballgame. He'd never been to the stadium, and I had no idea. It had always been an assumption that since Paul has lived in KC for 30 years, and Ken had lived in KC for 25 years, that at some point, they'd all gone to a game(s), but nope, never one. Made me kind of sad. Dad loved the game, had a smile on his face for the hour of pre-game, and for the first hour of the game. This photo also is Paul, my brother, and James, my nephew. John, another one of my nephew's also went with us to the game, but refused to have a picture taken of himself; afraid the girls would be swarming after him. It was James and John's first Royals game too.
As a young boy, Dad had taken me to several KC Athletic's games, before they moved to Oakland, and became the Oakland A's. It was in the old stadium downtown, in a ghetto part of town, but I always felt safe when I went with Dad. One of my most fond memories at the time was in '67 when I caught the foul ball, and Dad hunted down Ewing Kauffman, the team owner, and escorted me down to the front row behind homeplate where Mr. Kauffman then signed the ball for me. Yep, I've still got the ball!
We had a 4-1 lead going into this inning, but we brought in our 'ace' closer out of the bullpen, whom promptly lost the lead, and then the game. Stadium was about 3/4's full tonight. Despite the Royals being in last place, tonight had $1 hotdogs, peanuts, and Pepsi. That brought them in for sure, as the normal price of a dog is $5. Our seats were pretty good, but we were right on an aisle, an aisle filled with gaggles of girl teenagers whose sole lot in life (or at least for this game), was to get up and leave their seats as often as humanly possible, to come back 5-10 minutes later, to do it all over again 5 minutes after that. It happened all night, so aggravating. Not that we lost, but that these Clydesdale's were constantly in the aisle blocking the views.
I was surprised that my camera phone got this picture, but it turned out pretty good. The fountains had some pretty cool special effects in between innings, and especially when it got dark for the fireworks. This was no nickle-dime fireworks show; this was a whole enchilada, wow, it lasted about 30 minutes, and they had some tricky fireworks aerials that were a visual feast. The way they coordinated it with the fountains, the lights, and the music made for a great after-game treat. The finale was one for the ages. Reminded me of the finale you watch when the Olympics finish.
Oops, this one is out of order. Oh well; I was trying to show the jet flyover that was timed perfectly.
Okay, the indent is jacked on this blog, so be it.
Our day started with lunch about 3p at the original 1957 location for Jack Stack BBQ. Unquestionably, the world's best BBQ. As a young child, I lived in KC for 12 years, and still love it to this day, enjoying every trip, and wishing I could visit the city more often. We pulled up into the parking lot, and the smell of smoke overwhelmed us. I had a good picture of it, but it did not send, so that kind of sucks.
Our server was Linda, the same one in the same round corner that we'd eaten at many times before. She's not been there since '57, but close. She was perfect as usual. I had the burnt ends, and the rest of them had "the special", which today was supposed to have been 5 ribs and 2 sides for $10. Each plate though was delivered with 12 ribs, and the boys enhaled their slaw so quickly that Linda brought more bowls of slaw for the whole table. The value today was amazing.
These weren't old dried out ribs, these were the pick of the liter ribs. Falling off the bone moist, tender, delicious. I know, because after I finished my burnt ends, I was offered a few of Paul's, which I woofed down too. James finished all 12 of his, plus 2 of John's, whom finished all of his with James' help. Paul was able to polish off about 1/2 of his, and most surprising, Dad ate about 2/3 of his, leaving 5 ribs (which is what the meal was supposed to have started with!). The doggie bag of leftovers was finished around midnight that night . . ., which is right about when we made it back to the room after the game.
Paul and the boys stayed up with TV till about 2a; and Dad & I were then up for good shortly after 6a, with Dad saying "Let's go! Time for breakfast!", which we went down together, and did eat quite a bit.
But, when the boys showed up 20 minutes later, the kitchen staff had to lock the doors after Paul, James, and John had cleaned out the buffet, plus the refill of the buffet, plus at least one more refill after that. MAN, these boys can eat (and took about an hour to do so). Jimminy, they sure enjoyed their food this weekend! I felt sorry for the rest of the hotel guests that didn't get to eat breakfast that morning . . .
So, how soon can I come back? Would love to see another game before the year is over.
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