A month or so ago my friend Jason suggested that he, Tony, Nick, and I go to a Royals game. I had suggested that we expand the idea to make it a full day of events. But our time ended up being a little more limited than expected, so I had planned for us to go the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and then to the stadium for tailgating and then the game and ending with a trip to the casino if people were up for it. But as we got started, we decided we really didn't have time to go to the museum, so we ended up just tailgating and going to the game with a nightcap at Harrah's. The tailgating didn't quite do as planned, as we really didn't have everything we needed, since we didn't do a lot of planning in that area. So we ended up with no lighter fluid and no plates. I sent Jason out on a mission to leverage his charm and social skills to borrow/acquire some from neighboring tailgates, and that worked. So it was fine, but next time we'll have to think it through a little more in advance than while we walk through the grocery store on the way to the stadium.
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I had been hoping the Royals pitcher for the game would be either James Shields, their ace (who unfortunately will probably leave as a free agent after this season) or Yordano Ventura, who is the much-hyped rookie who everyone hopes will be a star for years to come (Side note: I often think about what it'll be like to read some posts years from now. Like will I read this and think "Yordano Ventura? Oh, I kinda remember him. He was good his first year and then fell apart." Or will it be "Wow, that was his first full season. I remember that now! And now he's in the Hall of Fame!" Probably somewhere in between of course, but I still think about that for a lot of different posts.). But it was Danny Duffy, who is a promising young pitcher for the Royals, and fortunately for us we chose the right game. Duffy was phenomenal. He pitched brilliantly and had a perfect game going. After about the 5th inning, the stadium started to buzz as people really started to notice he had been perfect so far. In the 6th, the crowd's intensity really picked up. Alex Gordon made an amazing catch to keep it going, and the place went wild. By the 7th we were all loudly cheering every single out the Orioles made, wondering if we'd see history (there have only been 23 in the MLB history), but that jerk Adam Jones ruined it all with a single with two outs in the 7th. Booo! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Even with the perfect game (and of course the no-hitter) gone, it was still a thrilling game, and the Royals had a typical offensive game, so it was 1-0 heading into the 9th, and the Orioles loaded the bases before Greg Holland shut the door to get the save and preserve the win for Duffy. So it was a fun day and a great game, and it was a rare chance for me to spend an extended amount of time with three of my best friends in the world, and that's an opportunity I don't get very often these days.
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