YCS On Location IV: Can we tour all 30 parks collectively?

It began with an opening day trip to Miller Park in Milwaukee, then a brief layover in Dallas, then hit the Nation's capital when Matt recently continued YCS's version of [Insert name of favorite traveling pre-game show here], aka: Not broadcasting anything, drinking beer, watching baseball, and telling you about our exploits. Following Matt's report on a trip to RFK in Washington, it's time to bring you a YCS On Location report from another ballpark that I'd be willing to bet most of our readers have never visited: Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mizzurah.

I spent the weekend in Kansas City for the weekend to visit the girlfriend and meet her family at a graduation party. It was there that I was introduced by her crazy 83-year old great aunt as her "fiancee" which just about caused everyone in the kitchen to do a spit take before order was restored. With my leading lady playing tour guide around her home town for three days; sadly, things to do in KC ran thin very quickly. Ask yourself. After getting yourself some decent BBQ, as a tourist, what would be the first 5 things YOU would do in Kansas City?

Luckily, the Royals were at home Friday night to play against the Phillies, where it was "1980 World Series Rematch Night" so we all got lapel pins that I have no idea what I'm going to do with. I found it a little odd to be coining it a "rematch" when that series took place before the birth of a good portion of today's rosters.

Kauffman Stadium (or "The K" as the public address announcer referred to the structure several times) is in the middle of bufu [expletive deleted] nowhere and is a solid 20-30 minute drive in rush hour traffic from downtown Kansas City. About the only thing it is convenient to is Arrowhead Stadium, however, since the Chiefs and Royals rarely if ever play on the same day, any sense of convenience is lost. Arrowhead shares the parking lot and the same early-1960s cement molded exterior architecture with Kauffman that marred many a ballpark untill baseball's recent building boom. Tickets start at 7 bucks and as far as I could see, even in the upper deck there wasn't a bad seat in the house.*
* = read on and you'll see.

In a little bit of Soldier Field in KC, the stadium that is ghastly from the parking lot is gorgeous in the stands. The much-famed fountains in the outfield are pretty sweet and shoot off and light up different colors in between innings and during pitching changes. The Royals have also introduced their own version of the Brewers sausages/Pirates pierogies/Nationals Presidents races, with blood rivals Ketchup, Mustard and Relish. Three costumes that looked like they were made at the last minute with mattress foam, masking tape, and finger paint. Relish won on Friday night. I'm told that he never wins, so I feel like I witnessed something truly special.

Speaking of special things that I witnessed, I got to see former Cub Mark Grudzielanek knock one off the left field foul pole to put the Royals ahead and send the 19,121 in attendance into mild delight. *Late in the game, in one of the more bizarre features of the park (besides the fact that they advertise in the fountains for the cheap off-brand hot dogs that I ate in college when I had no qualms about putting anything of questionable composition into my body), reared its ugly 5 million heads. Remember how I said how the upper deck had a great view of the field? That is untill about the 8th inning when thousands of moths descended on "the K" and were inexorably drawn to the shining lights. Needless to say, it kinda took the magic out of a summer night at the ballpark, but a decent post-game fireworks show fixed that.

All in all, aside from some small scoreboard technical difficulties , Kauffman isn't a terrible park to watch a game in. The interior was lucky to escape the dreary cookie-cutter effect of many stadiums buit in its time, and has a fairly knowledgable fan base (aside from the kid who asked his dad "Is is halftime?" during a pitching change). So if you've got 7 bucks, and don't mind being in the middle of the Missouri hills, "the K" is "OK" [rimshot].