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!

Tickets in hand, ready to go!

What I would have written Saturday night, if I could have:

We just wanted to show off all of our tickets!

Chicago, at last!

7 days until we leave.
Well, we have finally done it! We have purchased Chicago Cubs tickets!
We spent far more than we had hoped, but hey... you only live once!
And we may only be in Chicago once. The tickets should get here tomorrow
for the big cross-town rivalry game against the Chicago White Sox.
Seats are on the third deck, but not too far out. And we have a parking pass!

Now we are set. Hotels booked, tickets purchased, packing well on its way.
Is it time to leave, yet?????
The anticipation is thrilling!

Robert's Sportscast

34,331 Giants fans are disappointed as they get swept in a three game series against the Chicago White Sox 5-18-08. The San Fransisco Giants lost 13 to 8 today they had 1 home run but the White Sox had 4 home runs. Orlando Cabera had 2 out of 4 home runs for the White Sox. The pitchers were Matt Cain for the Giants and John Danks for the White Sox. Matt Cain had 6 strikeouts and John Danks had 3. Nick Swisher came in as a pinch hitter for the pitcher with the bases loaded and hit a double to score three men and make it a 9-6 game in the White Sox favor.

Our FIRST game of the season!

21 days until we leave.
But...
Today we saw our first game of the season! Giants vs. White Sox at AT&T Park. This was not only a fun outing and an exciting sneak preview of what is to come. It was also a chance to try some things out and work out some details of routines we will need to make our trip run smoothly. The backpack is now packed with everything we will need to take to games; binoculars, snacks, gum, etc. The camera is charged, and we now know how to download photos and upload them here. We know how we will be saving ticket stubs, as a memento. And Jim has decided to collect a baseball from each park. He bought his first one today.


Our A's Jack antennae-ball came with us to be our official mascot. Here is his picture at AT&T Park to prove to all of you that we really were there!





Robert and Jim kept "The Book" a play-by play recording of the game. Robert got good at it last year, sitting in front of the TV. But this year he will help record each game we go to. Any questions? Just ask him! He will follow this with an entry of his own, telling you the game stats.




Carter had a great time. He learned some things about the game of baseball, like what "top" and "bottom" of the inning means. Jim and I love that he is asking questions! He was his usual social! self, and made friends with all of our neighbors, and Iron Man, too! He wore his Rally Cap proudly, and made sure that both he and I went down the big slide (he is so excited to be tall enough this time!)

Although the Giants lost, all in all I think the Beloves would call this a good first game!

TWO new sets of tickets!

28 days until we leave.
Well, last night we finally bit the bullet and purchased tickets for the Boston Red Sox. We did end up paying WAY over face value for them, but we decided it was worth the peace of mind to have them in hand. We did NOT want to miss out on Boston. Who knows when we would ever have another opportunity to see them again in Fenway Park. We found nice seats -center field bleachers- and the tickets are being mailed to us.



Then today we decided to fit in a Giants home-game before we leave. It seems fitting to start and end our trip with our home teams. We will see the Giants on Sunday, May 18 (we pick the tickets up at will-call). Then we plan to catch an Oakland A's game upon our return.


We are now the proud owners of 15! sets of Major League baseball tickets for this season!

Technological difficulties... Please stand by...

29 days until we leave.
So, here's my latest. I worked tirelessly for WEEKS to create the most amazing calendar of our trip. It is gorgeous! (Some of you have seen it!) It even has the team logo printed on the date we will be seeing each team. I was very proud of it...
until now...
Unfortunately, I am technologically ignorant and made a fatal error. I created it in a program that NOTHING recognizes! I can't email it to anyone, and can't upload it onto this blog so you can all see it. BUMMER! So, unless I can figure something else out, I will have to inform you of our plans some other way. Stay tuned to this channel...

But this has in no way put a damper on our enthusiasm. We are SO exceited, and can't WAIT to begin this trip. Other things seem to be falling into place. We have hotel reservations for Kansas City, and cousin Lesli is looking for someplace (reasonable) in New York. Actually, she recommended New Jersey which sounds like a good idea. Then we can take public transit to the games. Still no tickets to those last two parks, but we (may) have a line on some for Chicago Cubs. You will know more if there is anything to tell.

Map provided!

33 days until we leave.
Today we added a link to Map Maker, so you can see where we are going!
Check it out!

Countdown...

34 days until we leave.
We still do not have tickets for Chicago Cubs or Boston Red Sox.
Wondering if we should be worried about it.