For those of you who don't want to be bored, please skip this post.
Since the Royals opened their season on the road this year (by sweeping the "major league's best" Detroit Tigers, last night was our first trip to Kauffman Stadium. I took all four boys with me but no DW. It had rained all day on Friday and was about 41 degrees when we left home at 6:50 for a 7:10 game at the stadium 15 miles away. DW had no desire to go and sit out in the cold and the rain because she is one big baby. As we left, DS10 was not happy with me because we weren't going to make it there by the first pitch. He was right but it is hard to get home from work and out to the stadium on time if you work a full workday plus I had to send a quick PM to a good friend before I left home for the evening.
We arrived at the top of the second inning but there was still no score (that means the game is still 0-0, PJ -- oh wait, PJ is not reading this, so there is no reason for me to explain basic sports terms to her).
Kauffman Stadium is undergoing major hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars renovations from October 2007 to a scheduled full completion date of Opening Day 2009. It was much, much too cold to walk around and take pictures last night so I don't have any construction shots to bore you all with except this one which is a fence covering banner that shows a drawing of what the outfield area will look like when completed:
The first thing you will notice when entering the seating bowl area of the stadium is either the gorgeous grass field (found at most Major League ballparks -- I'd like to see how good those guys play if they had to play on the rough fields my kids play on instead of in the cathedral like settings they get to play in) or North America's largest HDTV set:
Seriously, as part of this past off season's renovations, the old video board and the old scoreboard were torn down and the largest video display board in North America -- all HDTV -- was installed. Here is a pic that shows its size better:
You may also notice in the above pic the scoreboard at field level in the left hand side of the pic. This "out of town scoreboard" (so called because it shows the scores of major league games going on in other cities) is also new this year.
Here's a pic showing the perfect game field and a rare sight last night of the Royals having the bases loaded
:
The pic above also shows the view from our seats or at least the seats we sat in. We actually had tickets for the upper deck, outfield corner, but it was way too cold to sit up there if you didn't have to and, since we know people
, we didn't have to. So, we sat on the lower deck in the Field Box seats right behind third base.
As I said, we didn't just sit there on our own as others so rudely do
. I went and talked to the supervisor of the ushers and usherettes on the lower deck, a gentleman that I have known for years and years, and he told me to go ahead and sit in that section. So, we go to the section and find what appears to be five empty seats in a row about 14 rows back from the field and file into sit down. Like I said, I was looking for five empty seats -- because I had five people? No, because I wanted to seat four people and have a space between us and the next group of fans. But, wait you say, you have four boys and you -- well, as we filed in to the seats, that occurred to me. You see, normally the youngest doesn't go with us. I mean he started to late last year and he might this year a lot but I still didn't have him in my mental count (yes, we DID make it home with DS7 at the end of the night).
So, the five of us file into the row with the five empty seats between the aisle and a guy in his 50s or 60s sitting there with a female friend, daughter, wife, whatever. I lead the men in and sit down next to the guy who continues to keep his elbow over the armrest where it is now planted in my side. I didn't say anything because we are in seats that are not really ours even if we were told by the ushering supervisor that we could sit in that area. I try to just ignore it figuring he will shift his body eventually but he continues to keep his elbow there. WTH? After a couple of batters, he tells me that he has season tickets for the seats he is sitting in AND the seats we are sitting in (so he knows that they are not really our seats -- busted!). He suggests that I trade places with DS10 so that we (us two adult men) can both have the elbow room we need. I apologized, explained that we had sought permission to sit there (not sure if he believed me or not), and he said it was no big deal. Here's a pic of DS10:
It's a perfect incognito pic (almost as good as hiding your face behind a glowing Sprite) and one that I need to have taken of myself so I can post a pic of myself for y'all.
So, one good thing about having a ball club that has not done very well in the Win-Loss column the last four years is that there are lots of empty seats on the lower level to sit in. Except for when you're playing the Twins because the Minnesotans travel well -- there is ALWAYS a large group of Twins fans from Minnesota at Kauffman when the Twins are in town, moreso than any other team (course I think they may also be the closest American League team to Kansas City (besides the Royals, of course)).
The other good thing is that the Royals give coupons to fans that attend games the last weekend of the season that are good for $10 off a ticket to a game the following April. I usually end up with about 40 of those coupons and so I cashed in five coupons for five $9 tickets which meant the tickets cost me nothing. I did have to pay $9 for parking though so Rob's cost so far for five to attend a major league baseball game: $9.
Another thing that losing teams have to do to draw crowds is to offer promotions. Last night was a Dodge Buck Night meaning that pop, peanuts, and hot dogs were only $1 each. Now, there is a gimmick to Buck Night and that gimmick is that the pop is only 12 ounces instead of 16 ounces, the peanuts are a smaller bag (maybe 3 ounces instead of 5 ounces?), and the hot dogs are 1/8 pound hot dogs instead of 1/6 pound hot dogs. BUT, it's still a pretty good deal compared to paying three times the cost for about 20 - 25% more product.
So, DS7 and I headed to the concession stand in the fourth innning and purchased 10 hot dogs, 3 Dr. Peppers (they did not have Diet Dr. Pepper on tap, they had Diet Pepsi but, ugh, I mean, really, who in their right mind would drink Diet Pepsi even if it was the only diet pop available?
), and 2 Mountain Dews. Cost: $15. Here's a pic of my concession helper, DS7:
Since DS7 went with me to the concession stand, I put ketchup only on his hot dog, mustard only on my TWO hot dogs, and left the other 7 plain. If they had had condiments packets available, I would have taken them back to the other DS's but they didn't. If the other DS's had cared enough, they would have gone to the concession stand with us. DS7 carried his Mountain Dew and his hot dog back to the seats and I carried -- with a small drink tray -- the other four pops and nine hot dogs. But got back without spilling or dropping anything.
Total cost for Rob to take five people to a major league baseball game and feed them: $24.
One of the things the Royals have done for years, once per game, in the middle of a later inning is the Kiss Cam. They pan the crowd with various cameras looking for couples that they then zoom in on and display their picture on the video screen so that all in the stadium can see them kiss. It's actually a pretty fun thing and each time usually consists of a couple or two that are aged somewhere from 75 to 600 years old which makes for a cute moment. I had to wonder how this would translate to HDTV but it seemed to be ok:
I didn't get any pics of it but there are some things you do NOT want to see on a giant HDTV board, such as a 350 pound man with pale white skin dancing in the stands shirtless in freezing weather.
DS12 wanted some peanuts from the peanut vendor that came by so we bought two bags. Ugh, two more dollars out of Rob's wallet bringing the total cost of the night for the five of us to $26 for parking, admission, drink, and food. Here's a pic of DS12:
(He's got to flash a sign cuz he's the 
cool one. )
Snow came in in the ninth inning (that's the final inning, PJ) but we stayed because it was a very, very light snow. So light you could hardly see it (though you could feel it). It was about the same type of snow that fell in Orlando in January 2003 and the whole city freaked out.
We also stayed because... Every Friday night is NOT Dodge Buck Night but every Friday night IS Fireworks Friday so after the game ended, the fireworks came (the next pic shows the final score of the game):
We then walked quickly back to our car and drove home and never hit any traffic because we turned right where everyone else turned left.
-- Rob
Post pics! We're curious as to the face behind the wit.
Glad the sleepover went well.
Looking forward to the podcast.
Hiya, Lil G, WT, Allie, and anyone else I may have missed.
The girls had a great time. I got to talk to a couple of other Mamas while in line for exciting games like HipHopHopScotch (think DDR) and Think-o (Plinko only homemade).
Wow. 
