Ultimate Baseball Road Trip (58 page)

In twenty-one seasons—1973–1993—Brett amassed a .305 average and led the American League in hitting three times. His 317 career home runs and 1,595 RBI are tops in Royals history, as are his 137 triples. Brett, who had just slightly above average speed, could thank the expansive Kauffman Stadium outfield and its quick turf for helping him rack up many of those three-baggers. He was an All-Star every season between 1976 and 1988, and garnered the MVP in 1980.

Brett showed his appreciation for how good Kauffman Stadium and its fans were to him by dropping to his knees and kissing home plate after his last game.

Kevin:
Didn’t Wade Boggs do that too?

Josh:
Must be a third baseman thing.

Kevin:
Yeah, they’re always close to home, but not quite there.

http://mlb.mlb.com/kc/ballpark/hall_of_fame.jsp

Located behind Sections 104–106 in left field, the Royals Hall of Fame is a must-visit for any fan. You should plan on spending nearly an hour in the Museum if you’re a serious geek like us. This means you should enter the park right when it opens, an hour and a half before first pitch, and head out there, so you won’t have to miss any of the game later. Or, you can visit the Museum on an off-day. Entering the Museum, fans encounter a tunnel like the one that runs from the Royals clubhouse to dugout, lockers set up to honor Brett, White and Howser, the 1985 World Series trophy, giant newspaper headlines from great moments in Royals history, a giant No. 5 made up of 3,154 baseballs (one for each of Brett’s career hits), a display of White’s Gold Glove Awards, an exhibit honoring O’Neil, a celebration of the minor league Blues and Negro Leagues Monarchs, and more.

Any local parent will attest that the festive play area on the left-field concourse was the best money the local voters spent during “The K’s” 2009 facelift. There’s more than enough here to tucker out the little guys so they’ll snooze peacefully during the crucial later innings. The kids’ paradise features a massive playground, a carousel, a baseball-themed mini-golf course, a miniature field with 100-foot home run fences, batting cages, video games, a stage where children’s acts perform on the weekends, and more.

On the whole, the food at Kauffman Stadium rates better than at most ballparks. While you can still find grub that is bland, tasteless, and odorless, following the guide below will get you into eats that taste more like treats.

In left field, fans find the best fried chicken in the big leagues. With an interest in sampling as many different treats as we could, we ordered a two-piece meal to share, and then wound up going back for another order a few innings later. Then, the next day, we visited the restaurant where Stroud’s has been serving fried fowl since 1933. The cinnamon buns are also delicious.

A tradition in the Midwest, Schweigert dogs can be found deliciously grilled inside the stadium at many stands. We thought the one we got from a cart just inside the ballpark entrance on the first level was the freshest and best.

There used to be a Gates BBQ stand inside Kauffman Stadium but today the
Royals All-Star Barbecue
operates in
its stead. Don’t worry, all of the meat is hickory-smoked on site and it’s delicious.

In the later innings,
Sheridan’s Frozen Custard
is a much-appreciated dessert. Where else can you eat frozen custard while watching a big league game? Not anywhere we can think of. And it’s made fresh daily, so don’t worry about any of that freezer-burn that used to put a damper on your enjoyment of those Bill Cosby endorsed pudding pops back in the 1980s. The several Hot Corner Grills serve
rib-eye
steak sandwiches that are juicy and delicious.
Sluggerrrr’s Training Table
in the outfield offers a menu for kids.

The KC Cantina Mexican stands serve margaritas. We liked these, but recommend staying away from the culinary offerings, especially the tamales. These had Kevin doing his best Fernando Valenzuela as he looked to the heavens for relief.

With its floor-to-ceiling windows and patio seats, Rivals Sports Bar looms over the field in right. The menu features cheesesteak sandwiches, pulled pork and banana splits. A local fan told us the fare is pretty quality stuff but we opted to spend the day roving the different seating areas and eating on the move instead of settling down. That’s kind of our M.O. when we visit a park, whether it’s for the first time or the fifteenth. After you’ve been doing the book research thing for a few games, it gets oddly addictive. You learn to experience the old ballpark in a whole new way.

Josh:
I can eat two different foods, take pictures, and talk into my micro-cassette recorder without missing a single pitch.

Kevin:
You know the game’s been in a rain delay for the past fifteen minutes, right?

Josh:
Like I said, without missing a pitch.

Kauffman Stadium doesn’t look like an older ballpark in Boston or Chicago, and the fans don’t appear as actively involved in the game as at those parks either. However, at Kauffman, baseball is to be enjoyed the way these folks enjoy the rest of life: at a calmer, more laid-back pace. The park is mellow, and so are the fans. And while visitors from the East may consider the experience less emotionally charged than at the hardball palace back home, rest assured that the passion for baseball runs deep in these pleasant Midwesterners, even if they express it less vocally. So sit back, enjoy the fountain, and root for the boys in blue.

A lion with a mane that dips and rises like a golden crown, Sluggerrrr wears number 00 on his back. Among his most
useful ballpark functions is shooting hot dogs into the stands with a cannon. We were slightly disturbed later, though, to observe Slugger walking into a first-level ladies’ room. Slugger has a mane. That means he’s a “he” lion. So what gives?

Josh:
He should meet up with Raymond the next time he’s in Tampa Bay.

Kevin:
I don’t think they take Sluggerrrr on the road.

Josh:
Probably not in their budget, eh?

Remember the tune from the early 1980s “Talkin’ Baseball, Luzinski and Piniella?” Well, the song that has become popularly known as “Talkin’ Baseball,” was originally titled “Willie, Mickey and the Duke.” It was penned by Terry Cashman as a tribute to baseball’s golden era of the 1950s. The Royals have their own version with lyrics modified to highlight Kansas City’s baseball past, and they play it over the P.A. system before the game. We both liked the jingle.

We re-visited Kauffman Stadium for a Thursday night game in August, needing to check out all of the new outfield features, the new Hall of Fame, and the new seats by the water display. In other words, although there was a game going on, we had work to do. Nonetheless, Josh remained preoccupied all night by the darling of his fantasy team, Alex Gordon, who had finally bloomed into the player the Royals had always hoped he’d be, just after Josh had picked him up off the waiver wire earlier in the year. “I bet Gordon gets me four hits tonight,” Josh said, as we chatted with Sluggerrr out by the baseball themed mini golf course at the kiddie area.

“Impossible,” Kevin said.

“He’s one-for-one,” Josh noted.

Later, we were standing on the concourse behind the plate, taking a dog break, when Gordon came up to bat again. “I’m telling you, four-for-four,” Josh said. And wouldn’t you know it, right on cue, Gordon knocked a double off Orioles starter Zach Britton.

“Hmm, you might be on to something,” Kevin said. Then he started thumbing away on his smart-phone (while still juggling his hot dog and beer), before noting, “Actually, he’s never had a four-hit-game before.”

“Well, he’s getting four tonight,” Josh said confidently.

“Right, just for you,” Kevin said.

We were watching the game from the Fountain Bar in left field when Gordon came up again two innings later. And sure enough, he notched another safety. That made three.

Now, Kevin was a believer. “You’re right, he’s doing it for
you
,” he said.

“Really?” Josh replied, “You think he knows I’m in town?”

“No,” Kevin laughed. “But you must be bringing him luck.”

Gordon fell a bit short of Josh’s perfect four-for-four prophesy, but he did wind up four-for-five, with the most hits he’d ever gotten in a game before.

“Where are we heading next?” Josh asked as we searched for the road trip mobile in the parking lot after a 9-4 Royals’ win.

“Texas,” Kevin said.

Josh nodded. “Well then,” he said, “I guess that means Michael Young’s going four-for-four tomorrow.

Young didn’t fulfill the prediction perfectly, either. But he did get two hits, one of which was a long ball, in an 8-7 Rangers’ win.

CINCINNATI REDS,
GREAT AMERICAN BALL PARK

T
he Cincinnati Reds are the oldest professional baseball team, dating all the way back to 1869 when they debuted as a member of the American Association. They waited more than a century for it, but in 2003 they opened Great American Ball Park, which is as gorgeous a yard as you’ll find in the bigs today. It is, in many ways, a fusion of Cincinnati ballparks past, providing the natural playing surface, charm, and the intimacy of Crosley Field at the same riverside location where Riverfront Stadium (aka Cinergy Field) once resided. The Ohio River meanders just beyond the center and right-field fences providing a rustic backdrop for baseball. Embracing a riverboat theme, two smokestacks rise prominently beyond the fence in right-center. They flash lights, blow smoke and launch fireworks at various times during the game. The batter’s eye in dead-center, meanwhile, takes the form of a riverboat. The deck appears high above the field, while the hull is painted black to provide an ideal backdrop for hitting. Between home plate and third base, another distinctive ballpark feature, known as “the Gap,” provides a view of the downtown skyline. It’s as if they cut a thirty-five foot wide notch into the upper deck. It separates the upper deck into two sections and opens the interior of the park to the city, providing lucky folks who work in the buildings along Sycamore Street a peek in at the game from their offices and those within the park a view of the skyline.

There’s plenty more that’s distinctive about Great American too, starting with the fact that it is an incomparably better place to see a game than its predecessor. The first row of seats has been tucked slightly below the level of the playing surface. With innovations like this, it’s easy to see that the architects designed the ballpark with the fans in mind. HOK of Kansas City (now known as Populous) put its stamp on Reds country, serving as the primary architect, while receiving local assistance from GBBN architects of Cincinnati. The designers also drew up prints for a double-decked bleacher section in left field that evokes memories of Crosley, as well as other parks built in the classic era. The exterior of Great American is somewhat similar to that of the other big league park in Ohio. As in Cleveland, the main structure of the seating bowl is supported by huge steel girders, while the façade is made of brick and cast stone.

Most fans enter the yard through a sculpted plaza that features statues of Reds greats from the Crosley era. Inspired by the old park, Crosley Terrace recreates in miniature many of the eccentricities that made Crosley Field unique, but could not be incorporated into the new park. But this impressive entrance is just one of several nods to the Reds’ rich history fans will encounter during a visit to Great American. We’ll fill you in on the others as the chapter progresses.

Making the new park a reality sure wasn’t easy. Financing negotiations dragged on for years and years, largely because the Reds were wary of laying out wads of cash for the project while other teams were cashing their respective cities’ and states’ corporate welfare checks to build parks, or sticking local taxpayers with the bill. Finally in March of 1996 Hamilton County taxpayers approved a one-half percent sales tax increase to fund separate facilities for the National Football League’s Bengals and National League’s Reds. The original price for both stadiums was expected to total $544 million, but the football field alone ended up exceeding that. Great American came in at $297 million. As romantic as the ballpark’s name is, it was actually coined as the result of a naming-rights deal the Reds struck with Great American Insurance Group, which paid $75 million for the honors.

Great American was built on land directly adjacent to Riverfront Stadium. Though the property acquisition costs were relatively low, an enormous section of Riverfront—from the left-field foul pole to right-center field—had to be removed while the Reds were still playing there to make room for the new park’s construction. For two full seasons the Reds played with a huge tarp, known as the Black
Monster, in right-center. It’s ironic that in order to make way for a new yard, the destruction of this huge segment opened the old cookie-cutter to the Ohio River, and with the addition of natural turf, Riverfront finally took on the look of a ballpark itself. Cutting the stadium open was akin to the time Kevin cut the roof off his Corvair to make a convertible.

Josh:
Really, you used to rock a Corvair?

Kevin:
A convertible one at that.

Josh:
I seem to remember Ralph Nader saying the Corvair inspired his book
Unsafe at Any Speed
?

Kevin:
That seems about right.

Sad as it was, the Senior Circuit’s senior member had to play in one of the worst cookie-cutter stadiums ever conceived. And the Reds played there for more than three decades. With four tiers of seating, Riverfront was as sterile a structure as any of its cloned brethren. But the architects managed to find ways to make it even worse. Not only was it built on the edge of the beautiful Ohio River with no view of the water or downtown, but it had artificial turf for nearly all of its life. Worse still, the entire structure was surrounded by parking lots and was even built on top of an enormous underground garage. That’s right, cars were parked beneath the infield while each game was being played. Convenient, yes. Romantic, no. Perhaps all of these black marks combined to prompt Cubs pitcher Jon Lieber to state after pitching the 2002 season opener at the concrete behemoth, “Cincinnati is a great town. But that stadium … it’s just like a big ashtray.” And we must agree. In all of our travels, we have yet to encounter a multipurpose stadium that works—not in Montreal, South Florida, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, San Diego, Toronto, or any of the other places that embraced or still embrace the cost-effective approach to hosting multiple sports in a single venue. Baseball requires a diamond and football requires a long grid. And baseball always loses when architects try to accommodate both. It’s that plain and simple. Yet, for some reason, it took MLB years of foibles to learn this lesson. If only the baseball owners and city planners had spent a few more games in the cheap seats through the years, maybe they would have gotten smart sooner.

In any case, there was mass applause in the Queen City when the Reds finally imploded Riverfront on December 29, 2002. It took 1,275 pounds of dynamite and nitroglycerine, detonated in successive blasts in a counterclockwise motion, before the structure came crashing down with a final angry groan. The dust cloud from the exploding “ashtray” plumed high into the sky, and winds carried the smoke along the banks of the Ohio for miles.

Despite its many unbecoming characteristics, Riverfront was often packed during its thirty-two seasons, and was the site of the most exciting era of Reds history—the glory days of the “Big Red Machine.” It saw its share of unforgettable events too, like the day of its opening in June of 1970. No lesser a baseball light than the great Hank Aaron knocked the first homer in stadium history in an 8–2 Braves win. That inaugural season would also witness the unforgettable moment when Pete Rose barreled over AL catcher Ray Fosse for the decisive run in the All-Star Game. Later that year, the stadium hosted two World Series games, as the Reds fell to Baltimore in five games. But the Big Red Machine was just getting revved up.

Many sportswriters and fans point to the 1975 October Classic—between those Reds of Rose, Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, George Foster, Johnny Bench, and Ken Griffey, and the Boston Red Sox—as the greatest World Series ever played. Bernie Carbo and Carlton Fisk lifted Josh’s Red Sox to victory in Game 6, only to have the Reds rally from a 3–0 deficit in Game 7 on a two-run homer by Perez and a winning ninth inning single by Morgan to win the Series. The Big Red Machine repeated in 1976, when the Sons of Sparky (Anderson) went
102-60 in the regular season, and then won all seven of their post-season games, culminating with a sweep of the Yankees in the World Series. Those 1976 Reds led the Majors in an incredible ten major statistical categories, including batting average, stolen bases, doubles, triples, home runs, runs, slugging percentage, fewest errors, fielding percentage, and saves. Without a doubt, the 1976 team was the best Cincinnati ever produced.

Over the years, Riverfront also witnessed the shattering of two of baseball’s most impressive records. On April 4, 1974, Aaron hit his 714th home run there to tie Babe Ruth’s all-time mark. And then, on a kinder September 11th in 1985, Pete Rose broke the all-time hits record when he singled in the first inning off the Padres’ Eric Show. It was the 4,192nd hit of Rose’s stellar career, and Ty Cobb was rumored to have rolled over in his grave. Perhaps Cobb cursed Rose, because four years later “Charlie Hustle” was handed a lifetime ban from baseball for gambling.

Kevin:
I guess the ‘Charlie Hustle’ nickname wasn’t for Rose’s on-field heroics alone.

Josh:
I’d keep the cracks to myself. In these parts the guy is still adored.

In 1988 Reds lefty Tom Browning pitched a perfect game against the Dodgers at Riverfront. Then, in 1990 the Reds won the World Series over the heavily favored Oakland A’s behind their “Nasty Boys.” No, the Reds didn’t invite a boy band to sing the National Anthem; the Nasties were relievers Norm Charlton, Randy Myers, and Rob Dibble. Their combined ERA in the Series was 0.00 in 8.2 innings. It doesn’t get much nastier than that.

Rose was banned from baseball for life in 1989, after admitting that he consorted with gamblers and sometimes made wagers. He denied at the time that he bet on baseball. Then, in his 2004 autobiography he admitted that he sometimes bet on the Reds during his time as manager. Still later, he tweaked his story further, stating in an ESPN Radio interview, “I bet on my team to win every night because I loved my team, I believed in my team. I did everything in my power every night to win that game.”

For the record, we both think Rose’s ban should be lifted. While we don’t necessarily want to see him in the dugout filling out a lineup card ever again, we think some leniency is in order in this age when Tiger Woods’ carousing is considered symptomatic of a disease, just as Josh Hamilton’s substance abuse was. Anyone who’s ever stood next to Kevin at a Craps table in Vegas will attest that gambling is every bit as addictive as any other vice. Heck, even Alex Rodriguez has been investigated by MLB for allegedly playing in high-stakes illegal poker games at a Beverly Hills hotel with Hollywood darlings like Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio. Sure, betting on baseball games is different and a whole lot worse. But gambling is a national obsession that runs almost as deep as our passion for the Grand Old Game. Or maybe it runs a little deeper. Rose exercised terrible judgment and got caught up in a pattern of self-destructive behavior. And for that, he paid a hefty price. Now it’s time to let him partake in the periodic ceremonies that honor the game’s greatest living legends. And oh yeah, a plaque in Cooperstown is in order too. They should put right on it that he was banned for gambling. But they should mention too, his otherworldly 4,256 lifetime hits.

Josh:
Both of the game’s most notorious betting scandals involved the Reds: the Black Sox lost to the Reds in 1919, then the ultimate Red bet on games.

Kevin:
Are we hitting the Riverboats after the game?

Josh:
For some reason I’m not in the mood.

Unfortunately, Rose’s banishment doesn’t even rank as the saddest single memory in recent Reds history. In 1996 tragedy struck when home plate ump John McSherry collapsed and died of a heart attack in the first inning of the season opener against the Montreal Expos. The players and remaining umpires opted not to continue the game. But that somber moment notwithstanding, the Reds’ years at Riverfront were wildly successful and mostly joyous ones.