Kauffman Stadium

When trying to get acclimated to an area and "sightseeing" I usually end up doing one thing first. Baseball.

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again." - Terrence Mann, as played by James Earl Jones, in the classic baseball movie Field of Dreams.

With that in mind, courtesy of The Examiner, off I went to catch the Royals/BoSox game last night.

Let me say this: Kauffman Stadium is one of the most beautiful places to watch baseball that I have ever been to (this was not my first trip, I've seen a few games in years past). The new scoreboard and video wall is as impressive as it sounds and I have always loved the close "feel" of the stadium.

The Royals touched something near and dear to my heart last night with a current promotion that I will throw out there for all you bloggers and community people out there. Donating blood to a community blood center before Friday, August 8, 2007, will get the blood donor two tickets to a Royals game and a Royals T-Shirt. Now, I am a big proponent of donating blood and when you can do something like this that benefits your community and the community is wiling to reward you for it, why not, right?

Back to baseball. :-) The game was very entertaining and had a larger turnout than I expected. I'd say about 75% of the stadium was filled. Josh Beckett was not sharp, not in huge command, but had enough to keep the Royals hitters a bit off balance. That's what you get with an "ace", even when he's not on, he's still in control. Like I said before, I am from St. Louis and a huge Cardinal fan, so it was good to see old, familiar faces in JD Drew, Luis Alicea, and Mike Timlin. I got to see one of the craziest plays I can remember with the "ball on top of the wall" play in left center. If you haven't seen this one, catch SportsCenter on ESPN this morning, it's the Top Play today.

All in All, the Royals lost. Funny side note, they did score in the 7th inning, which makes my tickets worth a free Hot Fudge Sundae! The game was better than the score suggests, the environment was friendly and cozy and I had a good time overall and look forward to going back sometime. Soon, I hope.