Negro Leagues
Baseball Museum
Kauffman Stadium
Kansas City, MO
Minnesota Twins
at Kansas City Royals
July 17, 2003
By
Ken Schlapp
Our Odyssey continued with an early
rising for a 9 hour drive from Florence, Kentucky to Kansas City,
Missouri (not Kansas for all you confused geographers, Kansas City
Kansas is a whole 15 minute drive across the state line!). Our plan
was to go right to the game, but since we made good time driving, we
went right to the Negro Leagues Museum instead of doing so the
following morning. And to our surprise after traveling with Paul
for three strait days, we don't hate each other yet.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is located on 1616 East 18th
Street in Kansas City Missouri and is open from
 9 AM to 6 PM
Monday. The museum is in conjunction with the Jazz Museum and there
is a $6 entrance fee for either museum or a discounted rate (I
believe the combined rate is $10) for the two museums combined.
Based on time we only went through the Baseball Museum. I only wish
that we got to the museum 2 minutes earlier, because as I was buying
our tickets for the museum I asked the cashier if Buck O'Neil is
around often, she just pointed to where he was walking out the door
to go home. She said that he is always happy to talk to fans, but I
didn't want to stop him from getting home. For those of you who do
not know who Buck O'Neil is, he was a star player for teams such as
the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues. In addition, he was
the first Afro-American coach in the Major Leagues and very
influential in making sure that this museum exists to remember the
traditions of Black Baseball. He is also most remembered for his
colorful interviews in Ken Burns Baseball documentary.
As far as the museum is concerned, it's an absolute must if you
visit the Kansas City area. This is the best place to soak up
information on the Negro Leagues and it's players. As you walk
through the museum you follow a path that leads you through a
chronology of Black Baseball from the 1800s to the present; from the
first Afro-American to play Major League Baseball, Moses Fleetwood
Walker, to Jackie Robinson and beyond. Note that Jackie Robinson
was the first Afro-American to play Major League Baseball in the
20th century, but not the first to play Major League Baseball. They
show two movies describing the History of the Negro Leagues and of
Afro-Americans in baseball. They also have a locker designated for
each of the Negro League players that have made it to the Baseball
Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. However, my favorite part of
the museum was the replica field with statues of the best Negro
League players at every position, such as Satchel Paige on the
mound, Josh Gibson behind the plate and Cool Papa Bell in the
Outfield.
One thing that stood out to me during our entire visit was how
friendly and helpful the staff at the museum was. The museum shop
is also worth walking through because you can buy all sorts of
souvenir memorabilia from the Negro Leagues, such as replica Kansas
City Monarchs jersey's, caps, and books about the Negro Leagues (of
which I bought two).
Our "Royal" treatment out Kauffman Stadium started out with great
seats on the field level right behind home plate (compliments of the
Royals). We couldn't have asked for better seats to see the game.
Technically, the only better seats are the "Crown" seats that cost
$140 per game (for season ticket
holders only) and the price includes all the food and drink you
want. Other than those seats, the Royals offer the lowest average
ticket prices of all the Major League teams. For instance, our
seats would have cost us $21 (not season ticket price), but in any
other stadium, these seats would have been much more expensive.
The night was also a good one for the Royals as they defeated the
Twins by a score of 14-6, with the main highlight being the Royals
12-run outburst in the 6th inning, which was the biggest inning in
team history. The Royals were trailing 3-1 going into the bottom of
the 6th, but they put together 9 hits, 2 walks, and 2 HBPs to have
their historic inning. The inning even got a little interesting
when after a ton of runs had already scored; Aaron Guiel was hit by
a pitch by JC Romero who was immediately tossed from the game for an
intentional HBP. Ron Gardenhire (the Twins Manager) rushed out in
defense of his player and was tossed as well. The funniest part
about this is that it was clear as day from where I was sitting that
Guiel was hit with a curveball and Romero shouldn't have been
tossed! Personally, I think they need to do away with all of this
warning the pitcher stuff and go back to letting the players police
themselves and be responsible for their actions, not to mention
letting the pitchers throw to the inside of the plate. But I guess
that is pretty difficult to do in the American League where the
pitcher can hide behind the DH.
The biggest contributor during the game was Designated Hitter Ken
Harvey, who went 4-5 with 3 doubles and 5 RBI. Ibanez also had 3
hits and two RBI. Although Kris Wilson came in and gave up two runs
in his one inning of work, he came in just in time to benefit from
the 12-run 6th to pick up the victory. No surprise to me that Kenny
Rogers was the goat giving up 7 runs in 5 innings. I can't help but
cringe every time I hear his name or see him because of the way he
choked under pressure and walked in the winning run of the 1999 NL
Championship series against the Braves to knock the Mets out of the
playoffs.
I'm beginning to pick up a Midwest trend with Kiss Cam showing up at
this game as well as in Cincinnati. You know the cutesy thing where
the jumbotron highlights two fans that are sitting next to each
other to entice them to kiss. It can be funny when the two people
they highlight don't even know each other. Aside from that, the
Royals do have an organ player in place of loud obnoxious music to
maintain that good old baseball feeling at the stadium. Note that
the biggest perk to the fans came from the Royals play because they
amassed more than 12 hits, which means that you can turn in your
ticket for a dozen donuts at Krispy Crème Donuts. This may have
been the biggest cheer that I heard from the crowd this night.
Overall, there is no denying that the fans were rooting for the
Royals, which just happen to be the surprise team of 2003. The
slogan for the Royals is "Believe", in which the relatively young
team appears to be doing as they are playing exciting baseball and
making their fans happy. Tonight's win brought them to within two
games of the first place Twins.
I wrote about the game first in this article because we had our real
"Royal" treatment the day after the game. We had an appointment
with Morrie Carlson (the man in charge of Kauffman Stadium tours) on
the morning of June 18th. He has to be one of the nicest men I've
ever met, and it was obvious that he takes pride in the Royals and
his staff's ability to both inform and entertain all the fans that
come to take a tour of the stadium. He guaranteed us that the
treatment would be the same whether or not he was conducting the
tour himself and whether or not someone in the audience was going to
write about the tour.
We were on the regular tour with other fans (although we didn't have
to pay), which made it more fun because we were able to interact
with others as well. While on the tour you get to learn things like
the jumbotron is the second largest in the world, and that the
fountains in the outfield do represent the largest fountains in the
world. The fountains come on after the Royals hit a home run, but
once again, the home team did not hit a homer during the game so we
didn't get to see it live! Morrie took us to see the Royals Hall of
Fame, which is located on the Plaza level behind section 107, where
you can see their 1985 Championship trophy, and the members of the
hall. You know that George Brett guy is there, plus McRae,
Quisenbury and others. You also get to see some things during the
tour that you would not during a game; You get to sit in the dugout,
visit the press box and interview room, see the batting cages where
the players workout before during and after the games.
Interestingly enough, the players find the "tee" to be the most
useful tool to practice their swing. He also took us down to see
the underground tunnel that leads to Arrowhead stadium (where the
Cheifs play football) and informed us that the tunnels can hold
about 40,000 people safely in case of a tornado.
Overall, even if you don't get to see a game at Kauffman Stadium,
you should take the tour and walk around. You can even get a nice
view of the stadium from above on the highways and roads that lead
to the stadium from the top of a hill. It's just a beautiful
stadium. It will be worth your time, even if to only talk to some
extremely nice and helpful people! They even pointed out to us that
we need to try some BBQ food since we were in Kansas City. So, of
coarse, we obliged by going to "Gates", which is a local chain that
is famous for good food and yelling, "May I help you" as soon as you
walk in the door. Although it's not quite clear what they are
saying, but you get the picture.
Finally, we went to go see the site of Municipa l Stadium on 22nd
Street and Brooklyn Avenue in Kansas City (not too far from the
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum). This is the Stadium that the Negro
League Kansas City Monarchs, the Minor League Blues, and from
1955-1967, the Kansas City A's (now playing in Oakland) called
home. The Royals also played there until Kauffman Stadium opened in
1973. The Stadium is gone now, but there is a plaque on the corner
commemorating the old stadium, while construction is going on in the
lot behind the plaque.
Bottom line - go visit Kansas City to see a beautiful stadium, a
great museum, and even a pretty good young baseball team!
Basic trip facts:
* Stadium # 4
* Old Stadium Sites visited - Municipal Stadium (Total - 1)
* Miles traveled - 632 via Car (Totals: Driving - 1,651, Subway -
20, Air - 3,196, Total - 4,867)
* States, provinces and/or commonwealths passed through - Kentucky,
Indiana, Missouri and Kansas (Totals: States - 11, Provinces - 0,
Commonwealths - 1)
* Seats - Section 102, Row L, Seat 5 - Field level right behind home
plate
* Prices: Parking - $6, Beer - $5.50, Bratwurst - $5.50, Program
(including pencil) - $5.00, Souvenir Soda Cup - $3.50
* Credit Card giveaway - Royals T-shirt
* First Pitch - 7:10 PM
* Attendance - 16,359
* Results - Royals 14, Twins 6, W - Kris Wilson:, L - Kenny Rogers:
S - None:
* Home team record to date - 5 wins, 1 loss
* Record of "team I was routing for" to date - 1 wins, 5 losses
* Lodging - Overland Park, Kansas |
