My whirlwind tour of the central time zone took no breaks on May 25, when I flew out of St. Louis in the morning, took the tour of the Louisville Slugger Factory and then ventured to Cincinnati for a night game.  The idea for the stop in Louisville actually came about because of how much trouble I had trying to book a cheap flight from St. Louis straight to Cincinnati.  This may get confusing but try to follow along… For some reason it was hundreds of dollars cheaper to book a flight to Louisville and take a bus to Cincinnati than to fly straight there.  There was even one wacky scenario where I found a flight to Louisville that went through Cincinnati that was actually cheaper than just buying a ticket to Cincinnati directly.  It was as if they were paying me to buy two flights and then simply not board the second plane.  Anyway, after spending hours looking into flights I decided I would fly early in the morning to Louisville and go take a tour of the factory.  So at 7:40 a.m. I was flying from St. Louis to Louisville (that translates to getting picked up by a cab before 5:00 a.m.) and around 10 I was inside the building, trying to figure out what to do with all of my luggage.  I didn’t have a lot with me throughout the trip— I had one small laptop bag and a smaller camera bag that I took to each game, and one carry-on sized suitcase that I tried to drop off somewhere before I went to each stadium— but it was enough that my belongings were annoying in several places like Louisville, Anaheim and Miami for various reasons.  The people at the factory were very nice, however, and let me store their bag with them.  Then I was off to enjoy a video about Louisville Sluggers (voiceover by James Earl Jones!) and then the museum itself.  The museum was interesting but I found that it had barely been updated in the four years since I had been there back in 2003.  The video was probably identical, it featured Sammy Sosa in a Cubs uniform more prominently than any other player.  There was a lot of Ken Griffey, Jr. in it too, but no Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols or any other young stars.  Some of the historical exhibits seemed like they could use some updating too.  The coolest exhibit I saw though was one of Babe Ruth’s bats where he had actually cut tiny notches around the logo on the bat for each homerun he had hit with it.  Look closely at this picture and you should be able to see it.  Aside from that exhibit, the neatest thing about the factory is how personalized everything is.  I watched a billet of wood sit in a machine and heard a lady say, “This bat will soon belong to Vernon Wells.”  In a matter of seconds a machine had sawed that billet to the exact dimensions of Vernon Wells’ liking.  They had cubbies of bats that showed the names of which players would receive them.  I felt guilty picking up the bats because I had a cold, but I grabbed A-Rod’s and swung it around anyway.  (He didn’t appear to catch a cold in early June, which is good because I would have felt bad).

After a quick lunch I wandered over to the Louisville Greyhound Bus Station at 12:30 for a 4:00 bus.  I had a minor problem catching my bus from Pittsburgh to Cleveland and I knew that for a 7:00 game I absolutely had to be on the 4:00 bus so I got there three and a half hours early and sat in line.  Well, I guess you could say I started the line.  I don’t have much to say about that experience, except that I wouldn’t recommend spending that much time in a Greyhound station very often.  The other thing that worried me was that the bus had to be on time.  Then of course it wasn’t.  The bus left around 4:25 and I checked into my hotel in downtown Cincinnati at 6:45.  I knew this was my most hectic day of the trip and I was worried that I would miss the first pitch for the first time, but I hustled the five or six blocks to the stadium and got to the gates at 6:58 with a pre-printed ticket.  Somehow, at 7:03 I was sitting in the fourth row behind the home dugout with a $7 chicken sandwich and a bottle of water.

Since I’ve already mentioned food (the chicken sandwich was mediocre) I need to point out that it was in the Great American Ballpark that I had the best individual food item of my entire trip.  In most cases I tried to avoid eating at major chains— for example, I didn’t eat at the Outback Steakhouse in Tropicana Field even though the idea of eating a $7 bloomin’ onion was tempting— and instead tried to get the food that was sold from typical stadium vendors.  However, going into Cincinnati I was told that I had to try the Skyline Chili.  And if you love food as much as I do, you should someday get some Skyline Chili too.  I walked up to a concession stand in the upper deck around the seventh inning and saw that they had chili for $9.  I couldn’t believe that a bowl of chili would set me back $9 but I had to find out why, so I walked closer and saw that this was served “3 or 4 ways.”  Having no idea what that meant, and feeling like a stupid tourist, I asked the man what that meant.  He then explained that three ways was spaghetti, chili and cheese, and that it didn’t matter if I wanted 3 or 4 because the “4^th way” was onions which were located at a condiment kiosk 20 feet away.  In my head I’m thinking, “Spaghetti and chili, what are you talking about?” but I ordered anyway.  The man who made my chili thought it was funny (and quite obvious) that I had no idea what I was getting into, so he was laughing at me while he prepared my meal.  He filled a giant triangular Tupperware with linguine that filled it to the brim.  Then, he laughed and filled it in more with giant ladles of chili.  Lastly he covered the whole thing with a heaping mound of thinly shredded cheese that filled a big lid and he closed and sealed the dish.  I chose not to add onions simply because I didn’t think it was wise to open this gigantic dish until I was safely in my seat.  That proved to be a wise choice because by the time I found a seat I liked the entire thing had pressure-cooked my meal and melted the cheese all over it.  The $9 turned out to be a bargain because it was the best individual food item I had at any stadium in the country.

The game itself turned out to be pretty exciting… well, let’s say interesting, but most of the excitement didn’t start until the 10^th inning.  However in the sixth inning I was standing in the right field seats when Ken Griffey, Jr. blasted his 574^th career homerun into the bullpen just to my left.  As my trip has gone on I have discovered that one of the coolest aspects of it is that not only do I get to see every stadium, but that I also get to watch almost every starting position player in the league play in person.  Of all the players I’ve seen, Griffey is one of my favorite to watch, simply because when he is hitting well he has the sweetest swing of any player I have ever seen.  I remember being a little kid when Griffey was on Seattle and playing video games that would allow you to create your own players.  I remember one particular game that would let you select a swing from many current major leaguers and I would always pick Griffey.  For that at bat he showed that same swing I had watched as a little kid, that same swing I saw so many times in the video at the Louisville Slugger Factory that morning (I told you, the video hadn’t been updated in years), and the same swing that had propelled 574 homerun balls over the fences.  Watching Griffey swing is one of those simple pleasures that anyone who enjoys a night at the ballpark can appreciate.

Long post today because of the Louisville Slugger Factory, I’ll wrap this up tomorrow with extra innings, some more about the stadium itself and my trip to the Pete Rose exhibit at the Red’s Hall of Fame.  Plus I have a bunch of pictures I’ll put in tomorrow.

Sorry for the long amount of time in between posts again, at this point I should be able to update pretty regularly since I’m done 29 out of 30.  I’ll try to get back in the habit of posting every 2 or 3 days but stop me if you’ve heard that one before.

Anyway, for those of you who I left hanging about my game in St. Louis…  I mentioned in the last post that an afternoon game in St. Louis is an excuse to take off a whole day from work, so needless to say I waited in another long line before I finally got into the stadium for the game.  At first I was impressed by the Cardinals fans that there were so many of them in line long before the game but then I realized that the line was so long because there was only one gate open at my particular entrance.  Getting into the stadium took an annoyingly long time and it was probably just a ploy to have people buy merchandise from the outside vendors who were selling all sorts of Cardinal memorabilia.  The outside of the stadium was nice though, there were bricks in the ground commemorating the greatest moments in Cardinals’ history and they were all pretty interesting to read.

My timing in St. Louis was pretty interesting; I was there on the day it was announced that Josh Hancock’s father was filing lawsuits in the aftermath of his son’s death.  I had a few interesting conversations with St. Louis fans about the differences between the way people reacted to Hancock’s death versus Darryl Kyle’s death a few years back, and the differences between Hancock’s death and Tony LaRussa’s DUI earlier this year.  For the most part I found St. Louis fans to be knowledgeable on most subjects I talked to them about and it was neat to see a stadium where you can see, as one fan put it, “Little old ladies with scorecards behind home plate.”  Aside from the more somber discussions I had during the game, I found a typical day game crowd with beach balls in left field and people out enjoying the sun. 

One of the first things you notice in Busch Stadium is how much they display the fact that the Cardinals have won 10 World Series titles.  They show it everywhere, even on the scoreboard before the game and on top of the dugouts.  The stadium also had a very good feel to it.  Often a “good feel” can be hard to explain but I’ll try to offer several explanations.  St. Louis fans wear their colors very proudly and there is an abundance of red in every crowd of people you see.  The stadium also has red seats, which is rarer than you would think, and it creates the illusion of the stadium being entirely packed.  There were a lot of fans there that day (44,296 of them) but if you look at my picture at the top you can’t even tell which seats are full and which ones are empty.  The stadium is also very clean looking, with a great view of the city, beautiful grass and colorful scoreboards.  All of this provides a “good feel.”

I like the scoreboards at Busch because of how informative they were.  They had a large color board that handled most of the typical stuff you would see on any main scoreboard, but they also had a big out of town scoreboard to its right that showed a lot of information about the games going on elsewhere, and they had scoreboard over each bullpen that focused on pitching stats.  They were all very easy to see as long as you weren’t in the outfield, where you can’t see the boards above the bullpen. 

As for the game itself, it wasn’t really that interesting.  St. Louis was going for the sweep against Pittsburgh in a match-up of two teams that really weren’t doing too well in the standings.  St. Louis scored two runs in the second inning and then coasted to a 3-1 win.  Aaron Miles had two of the biggest hits of the game, an RBI single in the second and a line drive that hit pitcher Tom Gorzelanny in the sixth.  Gorzelanny then left the game, but it didn’t make much of a difference because Pittsburgh only mustered five hits all game.  The most exciting moment of the game for me was in the eighth inning when I was sitting on the third base side and was hit in the back of the head by a t-shirt that was launched from the field.  I didn’t realize it had deflected off the people behind me and I couldn’t recover quickly enough to nab the shirt.  It was picked up by some guy who had just caught a foul ball two innings before… I guess he’s glad he skipped work. 

Food:  I didn’t have very good food at Busch.  I paid $5 (which is pretty cheap) for a “jumbo” hot dog that was anything but jumbo.  I also paid $7 for “wing bites” which looked pretty good but I was kind of thrown off by the fact that the lady working there had no idea what I was talking about when I tried ordering them.  I noticed that they were selling ravioli during the game and I found that kind of surprising, but later I was told that I should have ordered them.  I had no idea until after the game that toasted ravioli were known somewhat as a specialty to St. Louis.

Jerseyof the Game:  Most of the jerseys I saw were players still on the team.  I also saw a McGwire jersey or two, which was to be expected.  The jersey of the game will go to the man in the Edgar Renteria jersey because it gives me a chance to offer this trivia question:  Who is the only player to have the last at bat of the World Series twice, once to win the series and once to lose it?  Edgar Renteria, with the Marlins in 1997 and the Cardinals in 2004.  [Note: I am not positive if this is true or not.  I know Renteria has done it but I’m not sure if anybody else has.  I will be researching it soon though, anybody want to do it for me?]

More home cooking: With St. Louis’ win the home team improved to 10-2 on my trip by a margin of 84-45.

One last note:  While I didn’t write anywhere near as much as I could have about Darryl Kyle’s death, I found it interesting as I traveled the country to note how much of an impact his death had on several teams.  He was on the Cardinals when he died, but both the Astros and Rockies have a little memorial in his honor.  The Astros have a small DK below their 1997 division champions flag and the Rockies have a 57 located in their bullpen.  See below:

Once I left Kansas City I took
the flight across the state of Missouri to St. Louis for a Thursday
afternoon game at the new Busch Stadium. Typically an afternoon game for me means an absurd hour to be flying
that morning and then sleeping my way through my routine until the first
pitch. But the trip to St. Louis was a little exciting in that it
marked the beginning of my busiest 48 hours of the trip. Each of those two days would begin with a
flight before 7:00 a.m. (which translated to a wakeup call at 3:45 in Kansas City before a taxi
picked me up at 4:15). In those two days
I would fly from Kansas City to St.
Louis, check out the city, go to an afternoon game, get up the next
day and fly to Louisville for a tour of the
Louisville Slugger Factory, then hop on a Greyhound Bus that sent me through Indianapolis to a night game in Cincinnati.

Needless to say I was a little bit tired when I landed in
St. Louis, but feeling the first inklings of a cold I wanted to trudge forward
almost out of spite. To date the trip
had been a tremendous success— no missed flights, no rainouts, I wasn’t sick of
baseball yet… there was no way that a runny nose and a few early flights would
deter me from accelerating the pace of my trip. So I landed in St. Louis and arrived at my host’s office building (a friend of my parents’) earlier in
the morning than he did. I dropped of my
luggage and started walking towards the stadium.

As soon as I got to the stadium I learned something about St. Louis. I knew ahead of time that the Cardinals had
one of the most loyal followings in all of baseball, but here I got to see it
firsthand. I arrived at Busch at
approximately 9:37 a.m. for a 12:10 p.m. start time. Let’s just say I couldn’t even see the ticket
window from the back of the line where I was standing. In many cities an afternoon game is a reason
to take the afternoon off, but in St. Louis an afternoon game is a reason—
almost an obligation— to take off the whole day. Everybody in my line seemed to be waiting for
the special “First Pitch” tickets, which offered 125 pairs of some sort of
special bargain
for good seats. I simply
wanted anything that would get me into the building but I was stuck waiting in
the same line. All of a sudden, after 10
or 15 minutes in line, the First Pitch tickets were sold out. But just when I thought I was out of luck
altogether to the floodgates opened. Now it was every man, woman and child for himself to get in line for the
other available tickets in the stadium. Over
in the corner I saw a ticket machine that seemed wide open despite the long
lines of people at the windows, so I headed to it. Then, as hundreds of people now
occupied the spot in line I had formerly held, I thought to myself, “Oh my god,
I think I just fell for the oldest one in the book.” Why
would everybody be waiting in line if this machine could print tickets for the
same game and price as the window? I
was convinced that I had just cost myself a ticket to the game and that I would
have to pay an exorbitant amount to a scalper to avoid flying back to St. Louis later in the
summer. But somehow I followed the
machine’s instructions and got a ticket to the game faster and more easily than
everybody in line and I’ll never understand why more people didn’t realize my
shortcut. Ticket in hand, I made my way
to the Gateway Arch, about a 15-20 minute walk from Busch.

I realize that the Gateway Arch has nothing to do with
baseball, but it’s something that I simply have to write about because I’m
ready to grant it the title of “People-Watching Landmark of the World.” This place is insane. First off, I was really impressed by the
whole exhibit, mostly because I didn’t realize how much there was to do
there. I got there and walked around the
arch taking pictures, but then I discovered that there was a whole underground
museum that was one of America’s
national parks. I knew that there was a
way to go to the top of the arch, but I didn’t
realize that this included a
huge exhibit down underground. It had a
neat museum not just about the creation of the arch, but about our country’s
westward expansion in general. The
museum’s main display is built in a semicircle where each decade creates a new
layer that cleverly makes the museum literally expand. Get it? Then there’s the ride up to the top. You go in this tiny little pod that would have been uncomfortable if it
was just me inside. Instead it was me and a family of four. The claustrophobic little sphere feels like a
rickety ride you would experience at an amusement park, like when a roller
coaster slowly takes you up a huge hill before releasing you down into a series
of loops. It felt more like the Tower of Terror than a national park. I’m not saying that because I was afraid that
I would fall down to my death on the banks of the Mississippi, it just wouldn’t
have surprised me much if we went all the way to the top of the arch and then
simply freefalled down the other side for the sheer fun of it.

Once you get to the top of the arch is where the people
watching really gets fun. I have never
seen such a large group of people running around taking pictures and shooting
home videos so frantically in such a small area before in my life. The top of the arch itself is about as
claustrophobic as the pod that takes you up there. It felt almost like an airplane with no seats
if you want a good comparison for the width of the arch, the low ceiling and
the crowds of people. Everyone and their
mother is fighting over a good spot at the windows so that they can shoot a
video of the mighty Mississippi River and there is a constant soundtrack of
loud noise that sounds like a ninth inning rally. Actually a lot of the people there were in Cardinal
red jackets and hats, on their way to the game much like myself that
afternoon. Personally, I headed straight
for the other side of the arch, which had a view of the city. That’s where I could snap these photos of
Busch Stadium (which were naturally more interesting to me) and where I could
see the
Edward Jones Dome (home of the Rams) and some other city landmarks
(like the Budweiser Brewery slightly more in the distance). Then I took in the Mississippi, saw a little
more of the view, laughed at how funny some of the other people looked, and
then headed down in my escape pod well before the “suggested time”
recommended. I came, I saw, I left.

I checked out a little bit more of the museum because it
interested me (I’m an American Studies major) and then I took the walk back to
the stadium where another long line greeted me at 11:00 sharp.

Looks like I’m close to my usual length and I haven’t even
gotten inside the stadium yet! Sorry
about that everyone, but my blog contains a lot of the interesting information (well, interesting to me at least) that probably won’t make it into my book.  The book will be a lot more in depth but might do a better job of staying on topic.  At least now you learned something about an
interesting national landmark…back with more about Busch later.

I’m in the middle of reading Jayson Stark’s new book, The Stark Truth, about baseball’s most overrated and underrated players of all time. I bring this up now because in his introduction he lists the 10 best ways to remain underrated, a list that includes, “Spend your career in the central or mountain time zones.” So as I spent a week losing myself in the past and present of baseball in the middle of our country, I realized that Kansas City might be one of the most underrated baseball towns in the country. When you think about baseball’s history in the central you think of the Cardinals and their 10 championships, the Cubs with their futility and bleacher bums, the Black Sox scandal and maybe the Astrodome. But Kansas City is a very culturally significant place on the landscape of American baseball. For that reason, no trip to Kansas City is complete for any baseball fan without a visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Kansas City is a great home for such a museum because the Kansas City Monarchs were basically the New York Yankees of the Negro Leagues, and the museum does a great job of not only showing the history the Negro Leagues but the entire civil rights movement. They have a very interesting timeline of important dates that help paved the way for equality for all people— not just African American male baseball players. And they even have a video that was narrated by James Earl Jones! If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend everyone goes in to learn as much as I did about such an interesting time and so many interesting people.

Once I got to the baseball game, I also decided that I really liked Kauffman Stadium. While many of the new stadiums try to win the fans over by being flashy, Kauffman is just classy. The only thing that makes stadiums like Fenway and Wrigley stand up to the new glitzier parks is that they have an old character and a rich history. Well the Royals have been playing in Kauffman for 35 years, and while it is nowhere near Fenway or Wrigley or even Dodger Stadium, you get the feeling that if they play there another 65 years Kauffman might actually catch up. Maybe. One reason the stadium is so nice is because people aren’t allowed to go in the outfield area where they have their nice fountains and large crowned scoreboard. They have a huge section of the stadium that fans simply can’t walk around in. I’m a firm believer in the fact that people typically tend to ruin nice things, so I assume that keeping people away from the nice fountain and grassy area is what keeps it looking so pristine. Kauffman just has that charm about it of being different from any other park you’ll ever walk into that makes me think it could be very celebrated if it’s around in the year 2070. Even though there are few people and seats in the outfield (except one level near each pole), the stadium still seats over 40,000 people because the seats around the infield and behind home plate tower high above the field. They create such a huge wall that with nothing blocking the winds from the outfield I can’t imagine the wind ever blows  out in that park. Are there any Royals fans out there who know if that’s possible that want to save me some research?

Another reason Kansas City is an underrated baseball town is because is they haven’t had much success lately. Let’s just say that the 90’s and 2000’s were littered with more 90-loss seasons than championships. This once proud baseball franchise (see: 80’s) now struggles to win games and draw fans. So when I was standing outside the stadium and a man said to me, “You better hurry up and get inside, they’re only giving free t-shirts to the first 20,000 fans,” my natural reaction was, “20,000?? What are they going to do with all those extra t-shirts?” In case you were wondering, the final attendance that night was 19,776.

Despite having less than 20,000 fans in attendance, I found that those there were very attentive, excited fans who loved their team. They certainly provided a home field advantage and those t-shirts served as great rally towels during the Royals’ comeback. The Royals were down early when Victor Martinez hit a two-run homer in the first inning, and trailed 3-0 after Jason Michaels hit an RBI double in the fifth. But when the Royals hit three singles in the bottom half of the fifth to score a run the fans went wild. It sounded like they had tied the game. An inning-ending double play and a wasted opportunity for more runs didn’t even discourage the fans, because they started right back up in the next inning. And when Mike Sweeney hit a game-tying homerun in the sixth the stadium was electric (see: fountain). Sweeney is the Royals’ consensus favorite player because the man who wears the captain’s “C” on his jersey has happily suited up for the Royals in 13 straight years now and the fans seemed just as happy to watch him perform well as to watch their own team win. The game was a little anti-climactic because the seventh inning would have made for a perfect ninth. In the top half the Royals survived having two on for Grady Sizemore (he struck out) and then a wild pitch. Then in the bottom half of the inning the Royals loaded the bases for Mark Teahen with two outs. In came Aaron Fultz, who was 3-0 with a 1.98 ERA at the time. Fultz threw four pitches, all were balls, and he left with the Indians trailing 4-3 after walking home the winning run. I say that the seventh would have made a great ninth because 4-3 was the final score and the Royals fans sat through a couple of scoreless innings after their team’s furious comeback.

The food: Kansas City is famous for their barbecue, and for good reason. As I moved from the chili in Texas to the barbecue in Kansas City, I probably went through the stretch of my trip where I gained the most weight. There are great places to eat all over the city, but Arthur Bryant’s is one of the most famous and it’s located very close to the Negro Leagues Museum. I could have spent hours at Arthur Bryants just hanging out and trying the different kinds of sauces. Many people were just hanging out, and I sat there eavesdropping on a conversation that went along the lines of, “If _______ died tomorrow do you think he’d be a Hall of Famer?” (They said Jeter and A-Rod, yes; Pujols, no). As for the stadium itself, there was one place that seemed to have the best authentic barbecue, as opposed to the regular stadium sandwiches, but I forgot to write down the name of the place. If you’re ever in Kauffman Stadium though, you’ll know the right place to go when you see it. Or when you see the line for it. This was a $15.25 meal that was almost worth it, save the drink rip-off explained below. I had a gigantic barbecued beef sandwich that was overflowing and almost as difficult to pick up as the hot dog I ate in Houston. I also got a side of baked beans even though it cost $3.00 (when in Rome…) but they too were worth the steep price. The beans were in a large container and were more like a stew because they actually had more chunks of meat in them. My only complaint is that the place basically forced me into a large souvenir-sized soda because they didn’t sell water or smaller cups. If you want to pay less for a drink you have to buy it elsewhere, but don’t try waiting in a different line with the colossal sandwich and side of stew.

Play of the Game: In the third inning, Jason Michaels flied out to center and Grady Sizemore tagged up and went to second. Second! They didn’t get any runs out of it, but with a player like that on your team you often will.

Obscure Jersey of the Game: I spotted somebody wearing a Jeremy Affeldt jersey, which was interesting because Jeremy Affeldt spent five years shuttling between the Royals’ bullpen and starting rotation. Want to learn more? Baseball-reference.com says that the most similar pitchers to Jeremy Affeldt are Bryan Hickerson, Chris Peterson and Taylor Phillips. I hope that jersey was a gift or that the fan is actually a member of the Affeldt family.

Old School Facilities: I mentioned that Kauffman could grow better with age, but some parts of the stadium already outdated… the bathrooms actually have troughs! Ladies, if you’re unfamiliar with the male bathroom phenomenon known as the trough, imagine walking into a bathroom and seeing 40 men relieving themselves into a really long bathtub. I could understand if they had troughs at Wrigley (they did) or Fenway (they didn’t), but in Kansas City?

Home Team Back on Track: A big win by Texas followed by a Royal comeback put the home team back at 9-2 on my trip, outscoring the opponents by a margin of 81-44.