By ERIC BARTON
The Kansas City T-Bones announced recently that they will honor former Kansas City Athletics players at this promotion on August 16. It may seem odd for one team to honor another, especially one that fizzled out so famously.
It's a curious thing about sports how fans forget a departing team so fast. Take the Royals, for instance. Here's a team that's likely on its way to yet another 100-loss season. It hasn't made a run at the playoffs in a decade. Yes, a decade. But still you see guys dressed in Royals gear from visor to shoelaces, headphones tuned to the radio broadcast, keeping score at every home game. But if the Royals were to head to, say, the friendly confines of Las Vegas? The City Union Mission thrift store would be inundated with Royals clothes.
So while you don't see any remnant of the long-departed KC Athletics around town, there's plenty of documentation on the Web. Like this sweet photo of Municipal Stadium.
There's also plenty of trinkets for sale on the online auctions. The best of them has to be this asexual doll that any father would surely be proud to give to his son.
There's a scorecard that features what appears to be a steroid-using elephant. If only they had actually let him hit.
If things had been different, this pennant flag might have hung at Kauffman Stadium.
And you might see this jersey around town instead of those new powder-blue jobs.
Instead, the hapless KC Athletics, who had moved here from Philly in 1955, played their last game in 1967. They continued their migration west to Oakland, where thew grew up to become a small-market team that's often the envy of baseball. The Royals, meanwhile, could use some help from that juiced elephant.
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My first ball game was in 1965 and the A's beat the Angels 7-6. You got to walk across the field to go to the parking lot at Municipal Stadium. I have a replica 1963 A's cap with KC on the front.
Awesome stuff. I don't know why the A's get so overlooked here, I think their awfulness is awesome in a way.
I think in a way though, its because the A's were transplants. The Royals were our team, founded by a Kansas Citian - Ewing Kauffman. Still, we shouldn't overlook our roots. Thanks for conjuring up some really cool images.
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