Visiting Royalty
That’s an incredibly pretentious title for a post about going to a baseball game, eh?
So it was just a baseball game. And a SkyShow.
Truman Sports Complex
The renovations to the Truman Sports Complex cost $250 billion in the form of a 3/8s percent sales tax increase. I’m not entirely sold but my two complaints are minor.
The Rivals Sports Bar and outfield experience are nice. For the first time, there is a true 360 experience at Kauffman Stadium- outfield seats right in front of the famous fountains. The expanded concourses make getting around easier. The stadium as a whole feels fresh and modern. These are not insignificant changes. Kauffman is unique in that it was built before the conceit to build “retro” style ballparks like Camden Yards in Baltimore. The charm of old ballparks was in the architect’s attempts to blend the stadium into the neighborhoods the inhabited. Since outfield dimensions aren’t uniform this sometimes forced odd concessions to reality like Fenway Park’s Big Green Monster and the wells in Wrigley field where grounds crew equipment is stored.
Some of the new parks lack the justification and suffer from the resulting contrived cuteness. Does Enron Field really need a hill in the outfield?
A Modern Classic
Kauffman is a different, nearly-unique breed of stadium, one I wouild call a modern classic similar to the Taj Mahal of baseball, Dodger Stadium. Clean, almost sleek in a way but built for excellent sightlines from all seats, Kauffman is built for watching a baseball game first and foremost.
Although Kansas City flirted with the idea of a retro ballpark downtown, the voters made the sane decision to clean up the jewel they already had.
Now for the complaints: the ballpark needs more ATMs and more bathrooms.
The Game: Hochevar and Butler Give a Glimpse into the Future
I’ll let this statement from the fan blog Royals Review sum up the game:
I’d say Hochevar’s mini-comeback has continued.Seriously though, how bad is the National League? Hochevar threw a complete game on just 80 pitches.A month ago Hochevar couldn’t get the A’s out. Now he’s throwing a 3-hit complete game against a supposed contender in the NL Central?
The NL Everyone: Corpse Dead Royals Easily Defeat Reds – Royals Review
Luke Hochevar was the number 1 overall pick in the 2006 Draft and needs to be a consistent major league starter to be considered anything other than a bust. Building on last Saturday’s win in Toronto he showed in an 80 pitch shutout that he can be an effective starter. Add a Billy Butler home run and a couple of vitally important building blocks gave the Royals fans [a near sellout crowd] hope for the future in the midst of a season that is rapidly spiralling out of control.
KC Sky Show
After the game we were treated to the KC Sky Show. Debi and I were expecting a big fireworks show, which we got. That big fireworks show was wrapped in a multimedia commercial about the Kansas City Royals.
Here is the official description from the Royals’ website:
As part of the season-long 40th Anniversary Celebration, the 2009 Sky Show will be a tribute to 40 years of Royals fans. The show will feature fan-generated content submitted through the Your Royals Moments page. It will be a complete audio-visual experience blending pyrotechnics, special effects, high-definition video and a choreographed musical score. In addition to world-class fireworks, the event will feature on-field special effects, the iconic Kauffman Stadium fountains and CrownVision – the world’s largest HD videoboard. With the addition of the new LED ribbon boards throughout the stadium, the show will truly be a 360° experience.
The Royals were selling Passion, Commitment, Tradition and The Experience. Parts of the show where they included union-scale actors pretending to be fans talking about why they love the Royals were laughable- “Joe the Plumber” laughable.
And to be honest, they really missed the point. That point hit home when Royals Hall of Fame Third Baseman George Brett came out of a big white box labelled “Tradition”.
You see, more than any other person alive, Brett IS the Royals. And he represents a period from 1975-1989 when the Royals were among the elite in the American League.
The Story
Before free agency, you could build a franchise for 10 to 15 year runs if you had a few elite players and a productive farm system. The Royals had those and regularly won the AL West. But the New York Yankees denied the Royals trips to the World Series in 1976, 1977 and 1978. They finally got to their first World Series in 1980 but lost to the Philadelphia Phillies but five years later broke through with a World Series win against cross state rival St Louis.
Since then the Royls have wavered between mediocre and utterly hapless. If you need the uglier details of the past 15 years you can read KC Star’s columnist Joe Posnanski’s annual article on the team’s ineptitude. Suffice it to say that the Royals have squandered most of the goodwill built up during the 70’s and 80’s to the point that many people consider Kansas City to be a football town.
But that’s not the case. In the midwest at a time when the Evil Empire [New York] has conspired with Washington to destroy the economy, Kansas City NEEDS the Royals to win and to win in the right way. We’ve spent the better part of the past twenty years watching the worst elements in our society being feted for their achievements no matter what it took to accomplish them. Our national discourse has become disingenous and meaningless and this poison seeped through to baseball where the game is played under a cloud of suspicion because of the steroids scandal that the owners of MLB brought on themselves because they needed fans in the seats after the 1994 strike.
No, the Royals are not about passion, commitment, Tradition and The Experience. But no marketing person could dare tell the truth because the truth doesn’t fill the stadium.
But anyone hearing the crowd chanting “LUKE LUKE LUKE” during Hochevar’s gem and anyone who saw the crowd erupt for George Brett during the KC Sky Show knows the truth.
The Royals are about hope and love.
