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RMN congratulated EMK on his kick-ass new stadium.
The All-Star Game is coming to Kauffman Stadium. Yay!
The All-Star Game is coming to Kauffman Stadium. Boo!
Bud Selig, Major League Baseball's charisma-allergic commissioner, came to town last week to reveal the poorly kept secret that Kansas City was getting the 2012 midsummer classic. The game will return to Kansas City for the first time since 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon dictated a telegram congratulating Ewing and Muriel Kauffman on their spectacular new stadium.
Sports are covered a little differently today than in Tricky Dick's time. Excitement about the All-Star Game announcement is tempered by the possibility that the media will come to town in '12 and ridicule taxpayers and the Royals for investing $250 $271 million in the Blue Ridge Cutoff.
Beat writers seem to like the new and improved Kauffman Stadium. But the big-timers who get on airplanes only for the Masters, the Kentucky Derby and other debaucheries may not be down with having to commute from Crown Center to Exit 9 on Interstate 70. The pundit beating that Jacksonville took when it hosted the Super Bowl in 2005 should caution the boosters who think All-Star festivities will shower Kansas City in nothing but prestige and tourism dollars.
There are a lot of reasons to think KC will avoid Jacksonville's image slapdown. A long, overly managed, hungover event like Super Bowl week will bring out the bitterness in anyone, for one.
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President Obama checked out the 2009 All-Star Game in St. Louis.
But in the
post-Camden Yards world, All-Star games have come to stand as civic exhibitions.
Look what we did with our downtown! Kauffman Stadium's "moment" will be shared by technical schools and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes building. The blimp will have to drift a few miles west if the network wants a shot of the
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Selig's announcement did not excite the 2010 Royals, perhaps because so few of them will be here in two years. The club got swept in Atlanta after taking two of three from the punchless Astros.
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Don't tell Jason Kendall he's tired.
I'll sleep when I'm dead. Or out of baseball: Club officials were probably not thrilled to see Jason Kendall talking about sleep deprivation. In spring training, his estranged wife filed divorce papers questioning his use of the prescription drug Adderall, which works like a stimulant.
In any event, J-Ken's a major drag on the lineup who continues to play nearly every day, since G.M. Dayton Moore thought it would be a good idea to carry only one catcher. Kendall's backup, Bryan Pena, made just his fourth start on Sunday.
Farm report: Speaking of roster construction, Moore has yet to show he knows how to do it.
O-Royals Alex Gordon and Kila Ka'aihue continue to make the Pacific Coast League their playpen. Most organizations would be able to find spots on the big-league club for two 26-year-olds who just hit and walk and hit at triple-A. But not the Royals, who continue to treat fans to steady helpings of late-period José Guillén and Rick Ankiel quadriceps updates.
Next up: @ Washington Strasburgs, St. Louis Alberts.
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