Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

Going to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum here in Kansas City, the birthplace of the Negro Leagues, is a humbling experience. In addition to being a memorial to some of baseball's true greats, it is also a testament to a dark time in our country's history. It is unfathomable that players like Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, Roy Campanella, and Ernie Banks were once segregated from their white counterparts into separate leagues, and vastly inferior conditions. Today, we acknowledge what a player can do, not the color of his skin. If only some of the players memorialized in this museum could have lived to see it.

The idea for integration actually began in the late 1800's, but thanks to racists like Adrian "Cap" Anson and his teammates, a handshake agreement was reached that the Major Leagues would no longer try to integrate the leagues... so the experiment was not tried again for another 50 years!

During that time, the Negro Leagues were thriving. Where the Major Leagues were drawing crowds of under 8,000 fans, the Negro League games were frequently attended by more than 15, 000! Night games were first played in the Negro Leagues, too. A powerful night lighting system was invented by a Negro League manager, and first used in Kansas City Monarchs game in 1930 -- 5 years before being used by the Major Leagues in a Reds vs. Cardinals game in 1935.

And you can't imagine the caliber of player you would have seen playing in the Negro Leagues! In the late 1800's, Harry Moorene (?) held a .300 batting average for 15 consecutive years! Louie "Big Bertha" Santory held a .406 lifetime batting average. It is said that, standing on home plate, he could throw a ball over the center field fence, and could hit a ball even farther. Cool Papa Bell was the fastest player ever to play the game. They say he could run the bases in 11 seconds! Josh Gibson holds records that are, to this day, unmatched by any player, black or white. He hit an average of 70 home runs per season, with the farthest being over 505 feet! One home run he hit one-handed! They say he was the greatest player ever to play the game. And, of course, you have heard of Satchel Paige, one of the best pitchers who ever lived. He claimed he could strike out the first 9 batters in any game, and usually did. Willie Mays and Hank Aaron also played first in the Negro Leagues.

Once black players were integrated into the Major Leagues, the Negro Leagues slowly declined until, in 1960, they were completely disbanded. In 1991, Buck O'Neil (who was the first black manager in the Major Leagues) created the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, here in Kansas City. If you are EVER in the area, you owe it to yourself to experience this piece of baseball history. http://www.nlbm.com/

What a show!

Last night we were treated to one of Ma Nature's best light-shows! This is just one of the thousands of lightning strikes just outside our hotel windows. Talk about your "reality show!"

Robert's Sportscast

Today the Texas Rangers played the Kansas City Royals at 1:00. The Royals beat the Rangers 6 to 5. The Kansas City Royals had two homeruns and the Rangers had two homeruns. A crowd of 15,515 fans watched the Royals win. The pitchers were Hurley for the Royals and Bannister for the Rangers. We are going to stay in Missouri until Monday and that is Robert's Sportcast for today.

ROYALS

Welcome to fan-friendly Kansas City!
What a fun experience!

To begin with, we were met at the gate by Tim and his gang. They work for Fan Relations, and are starting up a "Kids Say The Darndest Things"-style segment for their Diamond Vision between innings. They wanted to interview CARTER!!

Well, you can imagine how funny our social little-guy was, as he answered questions about Kaufman Stadium (How much do you think it holds? "Yots") and his favorite team ("The A's... we ARE A's fans!") They are going to edit his segment and show it at a future Royals game, and we got two free tickets!

Our seats were amazing! We were practically right behind home plate, up under the overhang. We were out of the weather, and could see everything.

At the start of the game we were greeted by the Navy Seal "LeapFrogs," a skydiving exhibition team. 8 divers dropped from planes above the stadium. Several performed stunts, one carried in the Royals team flag, and one brought in a huge American flag. After all were on the ground, the plane treated us to a fly-by!

Kauffman Stadium now has the largest Diamond Vision of any baseball stadium. (They actually planned it that way, waiting for Texas to complete theirs before deciding on the final dimensions.) Note the center-fielder in this picture to show scale.

In addition to having AMAZING production-value for what they show, they use this giant H-D TV to fully entertain the fans -showing a new game, contest, sing along, or fan-cam between every inning. Imagine a lawn mower race, a speed-text challenge, the "Kiss-cam", and many contestant trivia games with prizes, not only for the fan, but his/her entire row! We were also treated to a Hot-Dog cannon (Yes, flying wieners everywhere!), and T-shirts thrown into the crowd.

The Royal's mascot is called Slugrrr. He is a crown-wearing Lion, who seems to like to hang small boys upside down.

We will be hanging with Brandy and Jack for the next few days, here in beautiful Kansas City. We plan to see the Negro League Museum, as well as taking in the Zoo, and possibly the Nelson Gallery (As well as eating our way from one side of town to the other) before heading to St. Louis on Monday.

Roberts sportscast

The San Francisco Giants played the Colorado Rockies with 28,359 people in the crowd. The Giants lost to the Rockies 10 to 5. The Rockies had 2 homeruns and the Giants had 1. The pitchers were Minch, who was the losing pitcher for the Giants, and Cook was the winning pitcher for the Rockies. It was a gorgeous night at Coors Field; 87 with a slight windchill. They started at 7:05 in Denver 6:o5 western. We're off to Kansas City.

ROCKIES

Well, we are actually here. Colorado vs. our home-town Giants! And $1.00 hot dog night in the bargain!

We took the light-rail train, which stops right by our hotel, and dropped us a couple of blocks from Coors Field. Not sure which Carter was more excited about... the game or his first ride on a train. He stood at the window most of the time!

This was, by far, the most intense bag-search I have personally gone through. Even the airport doesn't make you take everything out, so they can see all the way to the bottom. Not sure how they got all the fans in on time!

We got there to see most of batting practice. The Rockies players really played to the fans, waving and smiling, and throwing nearly every ball back into the crowd. We brought our "Give me some pine MEAT" sign, and did get Barry Zito to smile and wave at us. We did have one minor setback... We forgot to bring our gloves! Doh! What are we, amatures? Obviously we don't have the bugs worked out, yet. But it didn't really prove to be a problem. Robert got a ball, anyway. And get this! It was handed to him by Barry Zito's trainer! He may sleep with that ball under his pillow for the rest of the trip.

Our seats were on the 3rd deck. They don't call this area "Mile High" for no reason. See the purple row of seats? You've got it! Excactly one mile up! We weren't quite that high. Row 4 to be exact, on the third base side. Quite a good view of the field, actually. Once the sun went down, it was a beautiful, warm summer night. Perfect weather for a ball game.

This was the second time we have been to Coors Field, and we have to say, it is a beauty!!! Of course, the jury is still out. But I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be our favorite.

Of course the Giants lost. But that didn't dampen our evening. We met many former Bay Area residents, who were happy to see us in our Giants garb. And a special hello to Andy, who sat a row over. A fellow book-keeper, who we met again on the trip home. He's actually a Cubs fan, but don't hold that against him.

Carter fell asleep on the train home. I guess even another ride on the train wasn't enough to make up for a full day of excitement. Next stop, Kansas City!

Day One!

Well, we did it!
We are, amazingly, finally on the road.
I had meant to write a last countdown post yesterday, but once again had technical difficulties. Obviously they have sent a girl to do a woman's work, but I will do the best I can.

So, we set out from Petaluma this morning at 5:41 AM. It was a clear and 52 degrees. Howard and Marilyn pulled themselves out of bed on a Sunday morning to see us off. The drive was uneventful, and we landed in West Wendover (where?) this afternoon about 3:00 to rest up for another full day of driving tomorrow. Who knew that you could pitch a tent, and then boot up your laptop at the campground picnic table?

Our first baseball game is the day after tomorrow in Denver!