Kansas City, here I come

I got up Saturday morning and ran on the treadmill at the hotel. We finally left a bit before 11 for Kansas City. We stopped in Columbia and ate at Chili's. We got to the hotel (Drury Inn and Suites) about 3:30 so we had time to rest a bit before the game (at 6:10pm).

The weather was a bit warmer so we just went with bringing coats. You can walk from the Drury Inn to Kaufman Stadium (home of the Royals). It's right next to I-70 (you actually walk on an overpass over I-70 to get there from the Drury). You have to walk down a steep grassy hill, but that's it. We got in and found our seats were better than expected. We were in the 200 section behind the Yankee dugout. I had seen the tickets listed as row HH, so I thought we'd be in the back of the section. Turns out they count rows from the field, so HH ended up only being about 35 rows up.

We watched the players warm up. I noticed CC Sabathia warming up (he's a big guy and very hard to miss). Turns out he was going to pitch instead of the originally scehduled starter (Joba Chamberlin). Sabathia is one of the best pitchers on the majors (even though he got hammered on opening day) so Jonathan was happy about that. I didn't recognize hardly any of the Royals starting lineup. I've heard talk of them being a dark horse in the AL Central race, but I have a very hard time believing that... The Yankees were missing A-Rod and their high dollar new first baseman Mark Texiera didn't play either. Jonathan's favorite (Derek Jeter) played though.

The Yankees picked up a couple in the first on an RBI double by Jorge Posada. Sabathia looked strong in striking out two Royals in the first. In the third, Jeter singled, stole second and went to third on a Johnny Damon ground ball. Nick Swisher (subbing for Texiera) hit a a slicing fly ball toward the right field line. I thought "Jeter will score on that catch since the right fielder is running toward the line to catch it and won't be able to make a strong throw home". Next thing I know, the ball falls fair and Swisher ends up with a triple. Matsui doesn't get him home from third with one out, but Posada gets another big double with 2 out to make it 4-0. Sabathia gives up two lead off singles in the 4th, but strikes out Billy Butler and coaxes a DP out of Alex Gordon to escape unscathed. In the 5th, Nick Swisher hits a two run homer to make it 6-0.

I decide at this point to look for the elusive polish sausage I didn't get the night before. I went all the way around Kaufman stadium and nobody sells them! Unreal. I had to settle for a jumbo hot dog and and big pretzel instead. I'll say that the food choices at Busch Stadium are much more varied.

Sabathia finally left in the 8th since he was close to 110 pitches. The Royals finally got a run in the 9th (prompting a sarcastic cheer from their remaining fans). There were quite a lot of Yankee fans there (besides Jonathan) who were ecstatic with a 6-1 win. We walked back to the hotel and went to bed.

We got up the next morning and headed out. We stopped for Bible Study and worship services at the Eastside church of Christ in Columbia Missouri. We later stopped in St. Louis to try and eat at Lion's Choice. We were again thwarted as it seemed the whole franchise was closed for the holiday. We stopped at our old standby (McDonalds). The trip home was uneventful. Jonathan and I had some nice father son discussions. We did wrestle over the radio. I did listen to the Cardinals Astros game and heard Kyle Lohse pitch a shutout for a Cardinals sweep of the Astros.

We got back about 5:15. I wasn't starving but I decided to try out the Midnight Truffle Blizzard at DQ (it came highly recommended by my son Josh). I was not disappointed, it was great! It probably has thousands of calories, but it sure was good. We went to church and it was good to see Donna and Josh. Josh even brought me a leftover Arby's roast beef (he didn't quite finish their 4 for 5.00 deal).

It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. We are eagerly awaiting the NFL schedule release on Tuesdays. The Giants play at Arrowhead this year (it's right next to Kaufman Stadium) and we hope the game is scheduled such that we can go..