Welcome to Kansas City!

Adam and Chase grew up in Kansas City, so they had no choice but to be Royals fans. It is kind of engrained in them from birth. The Royals won the World Series in 1985 when Chase had just turned 1 and Adam was only 6 months old. It’s a common bond they share and obsess maybe too much over. At the 14 previous stadiums on the trip they watched and cheered for the home team but spent quite a bit of the game looking at their phones getting updates of the Royals score.

Needless to say, the two of them were very excited for the Kansas City leg of the trip. Rex and Steve were also excited because the two KC boys had been building it up all season! When Biking for Baseball was formed almost 3 years ago, being in Kansas City for the 2012 All Star break was a huge part of our plan and something we’d been looking forward too the whole time. We were very proud to take part in the All Star festivities and to see firsthand how great a baseball city Kansas City really is. The team, stadium, and city all looked amazing to the nation and baseball community this week, and the fans showed how passionate they are for the team.

 

The week started with the team biking to Kauffman Stadium for the Futures Game and Celebrity softball game. After attending hundreds of games at The K in their lives, this was the first time Adam and Chase had biked to the stadium. As they got their first glimpse of the stadium going over one of the many hills on Blue Ridge Cutoff, they were overcome by emotions ranging from excitement to relief to a sense of accomplishment. “We made it!” Granted, we were only halfway on our whole trip at that point, but biking to Kauffman Stadium for the first time was a HUGE landmark on our trip.

We biked into the huge ocean of parking lot at the Truman Sports Complex. If you aren’t familiar, Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Chiefs, and Kauffman Stadium, home of the Royals, share a common parking lot in what is the Truman Sports Complex. Tailgating is huge in Kansas City*, and not many people bike to the stadium, so we got some strange looks from people. We didn’t care because were so happy to be there. We chatted with some parking workers and got a picture from the parking lot.

*Especially for the Chiefs, but the Royals have some great tailgating fans too!

The trailer met us in the parking lot and we went into the stadium for the Futures Game. The Futures Game is basically a minor league All Star game with players from any level of minor leagues. The teams are made up of American players versus International players. There was a lot of talent on the field, many of them will be contributing for their major league teams very soon. Players such as Orioles prospects Manny Machado and Dylan Bundy, Rangers prospect Jurickson Profar, and Cardinals prospect Kolten Wong played in the game.

Kauffman Stadium was completely sold out for the All Star Sunday including the Futures Game. This was our first Futures Game, but we read many national baseball media say stadiums are usually at 50-60% capacity for this game in other stadiums. This was just the first of many times this week KC would show they have passionate baseball fans. Royals super prospect Wil Myers was given 2 standing ovations, and Royals prospects Jake Odorizzi and Yordano Ventura were the starting pitchers for the U.S. team and International team, respectively. The U.S. team took advantage of a 9 run inning and won big. We spent parts of the game watching and part of the game exploring the gorgeous Kauffman Stadium and the Royals Hall of Fame in left field. 

We were sure to be in our seats for the Legends and Celebrity softball game. Royals legend Bo Jackson was the captain of the American League team that featured George Brett, Rickey Henderson, Joe Carter, Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassell, actor Eric Stonestreet, and KU basketball coach Bill Self. Ozzie Smith, Dave Winfield, Chrissy Teigen, Steve Garvey, Jennie Finch, Carlos Bocanegra, Jon Hamm, and Haley Reinhart were among others that participated. It was a fun game and very cool to see the stadium before the All Stars came to the field on Monday for the Home Run Derby. Here’s a shot Steve took that we put on twitter and was found by KC Mayor Sly James that he put on his website.

Monday morning was time for us to relax a bit and for Chase and Adam to see family. Without any sort of plan for the day, the B4B team decided to head to the All Star Fan Fest at the Convention Center in downtown KC the afternoon before the Home Run Derby. What a great idea it was! The Fan Fest is a baseball fan’s dream. There was A LOT of interactive stuff for kids, such as batting and speed pitch stuff, and plenty of opportunities to get autographs. There was even a baseball clinic part of the fan fest in which the drills they used were very similar to ours. It was a cool thing to bring a kid to, but they also had a traveling Hall of Fame exhibit and a really nice section dedicated to baseball in Kansas City and the Negro Leagues. We got our picture taken with this years Royals team!

As we excited the Fan Fest, we saw a woman who looked very familiar. She was on her phone and looked pretty important, if important is actually a way for a person to seem. After a few double takes from the B4B team, we decided it was Haley Reinhart, American Idol star and Celebrity Softball game participant from the night before. When she finished her call, we talked to her and asked for a picture. Haley was very nice and very short. Nice to meet you, Haley!

From there we went to the Kansas City Social Media Command Center. What a name, right? For the week of the All Star Game, KC decided to have a team of social media strategists monitor any and all tweets that had to do with Kansas City and the All Star Game. They responded to questions people had about the city and made visitors feel welcome. They had responded to one of our tweets and invited us to check the headquarters out. It was incredible, there were about 20-30 people being delegated tweets to respond to in real time. We met some great people and they shared some valuable insight into the social media realm. Thanks @VisitKC!

Because we are a non-profit with a limited budget, we were priced out of the market for Home Run Derby and All Star Game tickets. We watched both events from the comfort of Adam’s parent’s house, so we got the ESPN version of the Boo-debacle in the Home Run Derby. Without going any further into it other than saying KC has very passionate fans of all sports*, and Joe Posnanski does a great job of conveying our opinions here.

*Chiefs, KU, Mizzou, K-State, Nebraska, and Sporting KC fans are mostly Royals fans too!

After taking part in Fan Fest and the KC Social Media Command Center, we headed back to Shawnee to have some great home cookin’ and relaxing time during the Home Run Derby. The whirlwind of our stay in KC was only just beginning.