{"id":677,"date":"2013-06-22T15:14:15","date_gmt":"2013-06-22T19:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ldbaseballtour\/?p=677"},"modified":"2013-06-23T20:46:35","modified_gmt":"2013-06-24T00:46:35","slug":"a-royal-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ldbaseballtour\/2013\/06\/22\/a-royal-mess\/","title":{"rendered":"A Royal Mess"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Game 18: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO<\/span><\/p>\n

Chicago White Sox vs Kansas City Royals – Friday, June 21, 2o13<\/span><\/p>\n

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We took an early flight out of St. Louis and arrived in Kansas City before 8:00 AM. We rented a car at the airport and drove to our hotel. The lady at the counter was really nice and found us a room to check-in early. We took turns taking a nap (we were really tired!), posted the Cardinals blog, and then drove to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM)\/American Jazz Museum. We got a combo ticket for both places, stepped across the street to a Louisiana Cajun diner for lunch, and then got started at the NLBM.<\/p>\n

The NLBM is a fantastic place! If you are a baseball fan, or even a history buff, and haven\u2019t seen this place, please put it on your bucket list. It tells a remarkable story of the beginning and end of the Negro Leagues with amazing displays of the teams, players, owners, and other key events of the times. We started our visit by watching a short documentary titled \u201cThey Were All Stars\u201d narrated by Oscar-winning actor James Earl Jones. It was so well done, we ended up getting a copy of the DVD at the store. We then got to walk through time, thanks to the thoughtfully laid-out exhibits that progressed in chronological order. There was a statue of Rube Foster, the man who founded the Negro National League, at the beginning of our walk and we learned about the many teams that played including the hometown\u2019s Kansas City Monarchs. There were individual stalls of the many famous players of the league like Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Satchel Paige, and Buck O\u2019Neill, among others. Just about everything you might have wanted to know about the story of Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball\u2019s modern-day color barrier in 1947, is chronicled here. As it turned out, the film 42, his story of Robinson\u2019s ascent to the Dodgers and history, was first screened at this museum, the day before it was released nationwide. Harrison Ford, who played Branch Rickey (the man who signed Jackie Robinson), and Chadwick Boseman, who played Robinson in the movie, were on hand for the screening.<\/a> It\u2019s a fabulous movie and a potential Oscar nominee. Whether or not you are a baseball fan, you will likely enjoy it very much. We were also especially proud of the Cleveland connection to the league. The Indians owner Bill Veeck, signed Larry Doby who became the first African-American player to play in the American League (less than three months after Robinson made his debut with the Dodgers<\/a>), and Satchel Paige, who became the oldest rookie in the majors at the age of 42! Both Doby and Paige were on the Indians team that won the 1948 World Series! Wow!! We finally got to see, near the end of our visit to the museum, the Field of Legends \u2013 a replica ballpark with statues of some of the more prominent players of the leagues in their respective positions. This visit was truly memorable!<\/p>\n

After the NLBM, we went to the American Jazz Museum that was right across from it. This, too, was quite a place. At the front of the museum was an alto saxophone that was signed and donated by President Bill Clinton. Inside there were beautiful and rare exhibits of jazz pioneers such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker, among others. We also learned about the different instruments used to create jazz, and how rhythm, melody, and harmony come together to make this beautiful and distinctive genre of music.<\/p>\n

We then took a ten-minute drive to Kauffman Stadium, and got there about an hour and a half before game time. It was fun to see fans tail-gating at the parking lot. We also got a good view of the Arrowhead Stadium next-door, home of the Kansas City Chiefs. As usual, we walked around the outside of the park first and took pictures. It was another hot and humid day. Thankfully, once we went in, we were able to get into the Royals Hall of Fame, which was air-conditioned. There we listened to a talk about the team\u2019s history by a man in early-1900s baseball gear sporting a Rollie Fingers-type mustache. We then saw a really well made short film of the Royals that essentially underscored some of the things that we had just heard in the lecture. Once the movie was done, we continued to tour the Hall, see the many exhibits, and take more pictures. We saw Gold Gloves and Cy Young Awards won by the Royals players and, of course, their 1985 World Series trophy. This is definitely George Brett territory! Pine Tar, World Series, and all.<\/p>\n

We finally got to our seats that were in the second row down the left field line near the foul pole. The view was great! Starting for the Royals was Jeremy Guthrie who was actually Cleveland\u2019s first round pick out of Stanford University in 2002. After five years with the Tribe, he was let go, but has managed to stay in the Bigs as a starter. Today, however, he was going to have a rough one. The game began with a lead-off walk to Alejandro De Aza followed by a double to Alexei Ramirez. The next batter Alex Rios sent a grounder toward Miguel Tejada who threw out De Aza at the plate when he tried to score on the play. Chicago, however, was relentless. The next batter, Adam Dunn, walked to load the bases and then Guthrie served up another walk to Paul Konerko that brought in Ramirez from third for the first run of the game. Chicago scored another run in the inning on Conor Gillaspie\u2019s sac fly to right that scored Rios and made it 2-0. Things got pretty ugly for the Royals in the top of the third. The inning started with three straight hits to left field. Ramirez led off with a single and was promptly brought by Rios who hit a double. Dunn followed with an RBI single that scored Rios. Then, after Konerko lined out to center, Gillaspie singled to right. The struggling Guthrie who, as a Royals starter, has never lost to the White Sox, was lifted after just two and one third innings. Former starter Bruce Chen came on to relieve Guthrie, but there was no relief to be found. His second pitch to Dayan Viciedo was crushed to left for a three-run homer that put an exclamation mark on the carnage. Chicago added two more in the sixth to make it 9-0 when De Aza smacked a two-run homer to right, behind Gordon Beckham\u2019s double. The Royals escaped the shutout in the bottom of the inning on Eric Hosmer\u2019s solo shot to center. The final score of the game was 9-1.<\/p>\n

We walked around the ballpark during the game and took more pictures from various angles. This is a beautiful ballpark with an unusual scoreboard with fountains on either side of it. After the game, we stayed back for the fireworks, which were spectacular. That, along with the fact that this was a Friday game, probably explained the large attendance of nearly 34,000 fans.<\/p>\n

After the game, we drove back to the hotel and turned in. Our next game is the last one on this leg. We will see you soon from there. Bye now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Game 18: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO Chicago White Sox vs Kansas City Royals – Friday, June 21, 2o13   We took an early flight out of St. Louis and arrived in Kansas City before 8:00 AM. We rented a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":428,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ldbaseballtour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ldbaseballtour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ldbaseballtour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ldbaseballtour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ldbaseballtour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ldbaseballtour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":680,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ldbaseballtour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ldbaseballtour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ldbaseballtour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ldbaseballtour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}