The Things You Find!

Found this in a display case outside Governor Culver's office. Looks
like he's not afraid to rep his hometown.

R e d redddd h o t hottttt ... The Barons are Red Hot.

This is Iowa?

Yep. Des Moines, Iowa.

Sunday Is Still For Baseball

Yesterday I saw the final regular season home game at Kauffman Stadium home of the Kansas City Royals. They took on the Chi Sox.

Overall impression: It was a beautiful stadium, but I wasn't completely blown away by the overall experience. They are doing some renovations on the place and as you can see from the picture there are sections that are closed off, which is not a problem for the perennial last place team. The renovations should ease the heavy traffic on the concourse and add some new party decks in the outfield. I've been told that Kauffman has become one of the more under appreciated ballparks in MLB, but it definitely had a few negatives. First of all, there are ads everywhere, especially on the outfield wall an in between the fountains. Secondly, the view from the upper deck is of the interstate, which is unfortunate.

Of course the fountains are very nice and bring a nice touch to the place. And I'm also certain that this stadium originated the idea of the open concourse that you now see in all modern day ballparks. They did it back in the 70's way before it became popular. Also, I can see why so many HRs are hit here as it was very windy during the entire game. That same wind however made it quite comfortable to enjoy the game.

Some other interesting aspects were that the PA announcer asked everyone to put their hand over their heart during the National Anthem. I've probably been to over a thousand baseball games and I've never heard that before. Also the big screen is MASSIVE and directly above the batter's eye in the shape of a rectangle standing straight up. I liked both of these unique features in addition to the organ player that played throughout the game and did "Take me out to the ball game".

The fans were great and they turned out well even though there was a Chiefs game on TV. Now my favorite moment of the day was hearing Mark Teahen come out to "Informer" by Snow.

I'll have more later, but I'm in hurry to check out of this fleabag motel im staying...