Going to Game 6

This Royals postseason has been magical.  I've always been a Cubs fan, but after having lived in KC for 22 years, I've become a pretty serious Royals fan as well.  I don't get to see many games, even on TV, because of my schedule, but I always want them to do well, and I closely follow everything about the team.  They amazingly made the playoffs this year, causing the whole city to get swept up in their sudden success.  I had considered trying to go to a playoff game, but I've been traveling for work for some of the games, and the cost of tickets has deterred me as well, as the city's decades-long unquenched thirst for postseason baseball has resulted in sky-high prices.  During the ALCS, I looked on StubHub to see what World Series tickets were going for, and even the cheapest ones were in the $800 range, which I wasn't able to do.  The Royals didn't close out the series in San Francisco, making Games 6 and 7 in KC move from  "if necessary" to necessary.  Yesterday I checked prices for Game 6 and saw they were still close to $400, which was still a whole lot of money.  But then I got a call from my friend Jason who offered me a ticket for face value ($200), and I could hardly say yes fast enough.  So today I did something I never really thought I'd do: I went to the World Series.

Jason and I left our respective jobs early to get to the K in plenty of time to hang out and enjoy it.  I saw Royals broadcaster Rex Hudler and made sure to get a picture with him.  Jason and I took a few pictures of us, but I really liked this one where Taylor Swift somehow marketed her way to the forefront of our picture.  We saw all the news stations with their tents (and Brian Busby, Phil Witt, etc.).  Some station left a microphone on the ground, and Jason couldn't resist commandeering it and leading a fake broadcast.

ESPN had their set in the parking lot too, though of course it was much bigger than the local stations.  It was cool to see Curt Schilling, Karl Ravech, Barry Larkin, and John Kruk so close, and it was also really interesting to see how the production of the show worked.  All the fans could be around the set, but most people congregated behind it so they could get on TV including one costumed fan who made a poster that had a decently clever tie-in with Batman/bats and Commissioner Gordon / Alex Gordon, except he's such a big fan of both Batman and the Royals that he couldn't spell "Gordon" right?  Oh well.  Soon, though, it was time to go into the game...

Our seat were behind home plate.  Waaaay behind home plate, but still behind home plate.  I actually think my seat was literally the center-most seat and was actually straight back from the plate, which gave a pretty cool perspective.  The stadium was electric, and the fans were LOUD.  I've never been to a baseball game like that.  It was like being in the student section of a K-State football game.  Everyone was pumped up and ready to go.  The Royals got the scoring started in the second.  On the left was when Nori Aoki was up with the bases loaded, before he singled in the second run of the inning.  On the right is when Hosmer pounded the ball in the dirt in front of home plate and it bounded like a superball into the outfield and into the gap for a double after being hit into the ground inches in front of home plate, which is hard to do.  You can see the ball to the left of the second base umpire as it heads for the gap.

On the left the players are running around the bases, and on the right the stadium has erupted in utter delirium.  The Royals would go on to score seven runs that inning, all but destroying any hopes the Giants had of winning the game.

With the game mostly in hand, we decided to walk around the stadium to see what else was going on, eventually settling in some seats in the lower level that had been abandoned by Giants fans who were probably too disgusted to watch another inning.

The score was 10-0 at this point, so it was just a matter of time.  On the left is the final second of the game as Gregor Blanco swings through a pitch for strike three, followed by the beautiful Kauffman Stadium fountains shooting high in celebration.

The Royals won, forcing a Game 7, which is going to be crazy.  It's almost literally unbelievable to think that the Royals have a chance at a World Series title.  They are one game away from making it happen.  This city will go bonkers if it does.  I'm pretty sure I'll be watching tomorrow's game from home, and that's okay.  I may someday go to another World Series game, but I easily may not.  But as a fan of baseball and a fan of the Royals, I'll never forget the day I had the opportunity to go to a World Series game in Kansas City and see the Royals put 10 runs on the board and shut out the Giants to force a deciding Game 7.

Picnic in the Park with Kellidley

 Today we went on a picnic at the park with the Keelers. We had lots of fun.

Hudson enjoyed the water and eating sand. Joshua wasn't excited about the water this time so he mostly played on the playground equipment.

The girls really enjoyed the water, though, and spent a lot of time pouring.

Later, everyone else played on the playground too.Clara pretty much though Hadley was the coolest person she's ever seen. However, she was confused about all the new names and just called both Hadley and Kelli the same name: Kellidley. So you could hear her yell, "Kellidley, look at me!" every time she thought she did something awesome, which was a lot of the time.

We had a fun time hanging out and hope we can do it again sometime.

Dads and Kids Playdate

My friend Jason and I had been trying to find a time to get Joshua and his daughter Hadley together for a playdate. We had tentatively planned to go swimming last Thursday, but the weather didn't allow it. But we both had time tonight, so we met at Chick-fil-A for dinner. They are closed on Sundays, so they had a Father's Day promotion today for dads to get free shakes, which was a nice surprise for me (and for Joshua, since I shared).

We then went to the park by our house.  I brought some play equipment, including our tee ball set and some other balls.  Joshua and Hadley took turns using the bat to hit the balls around the grassy area.

Here Joshua contemplates the power of his plastic weapon and also prepares to hit a pitch.

We then moved over to the playground area, where Joshua climbed to the top of the rock-climbing thing that's not actually a rock, which he hasn't done before.  He also climbed on top of the pretend rock thing, which also isn't actually a rock, but it does look like one.  And he was able to make the purple spiral thing (I apparently have no idea what anything at this playground is really called) spin on his own without needing help, which pleased him.

Hadley and Joshua had fun playing together.  Joshua also gave her some tips on the finer points of one of his areas of expertise: rock throwing.

Joshua then noticed a "flag" in a nearby tree, though it was actually a kite.  Jason decided we should try to throw some of the balls at it to try to knock it down.  I've done this plenty in my life, though not so much recently and not with kites specifically, and I know how it goes.  One ball gets stuck, so you use another ball to get that one out, and it might get stuck, and at some point you have multiple balls stuck, but you eventually recover them all.  And lo and behold, one of the balls got stuck.  It was the blue grippy one that Joanna and Kirk gave us, and I could see it was wedged pretty tightly.  When we started throwing the balls, I knew what my backup plan was to guarantee we wouldn't lose any balls, and sure enough, it was time to execute it.  So...  I climbed the tree.  Up and up I went, until I was high enough to reach the ball and throw it down.  Then, I did what any sane person would do: attempt to take pictures while in the tree.  I successfully did that without dropping my phone or my entire body, and I then climbed back down.  I actually really like climbing trees, so it was mostly enjoyable and kind of nice that I had a built-in excuse to do so, and I'm pretty sure it was the first time in a few years since the last time I had a good excuse.

Jason and Hadley had to leave, but I wanted some time to play with just Joshua, so he and I spent another 45 minutes or so by ourselves, which was really nice.  Tomorrow is Father's Day, so I'm already in the mood for that, and I'm thankful to not only have time with just my children, but also to be able to spend time with my best friends and their children on occasion as well.

Almost Perfect

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.