A Fitting Farewell

Yesterday, barring a miracle, I made my final visit to the soon-to-be old Yankee Stadium with Lee Mazzola. Speaking of miracles, I discussed with another friend a couple of weeks ago the fact that this would be my last game there, unless Lee happened to invite me to a playoff game. Then, of course, I realized that there probably weren't going to be any playoff games. Now, especially after yesterday's game, I think we can safely remove the word "probably" from that statement.

Lee and I haven't had much luck attending Yankee games together, particularly at the stadium. I would somehow like to figure out their overall record in home games we've been to together, but I'm assuming it's significantly below .500. I'm not going to say that yesterday was typical, but the outcome certainly was. In fact, I think we even had a complacent feeling that this one was in the bag when the Yanks led 6-2 after 6 innings. But, one Robinson Cano error on a routine double play ball, an unsuccessful Damaso Marte/Edwar Ramirez bullpen effort, and an unfortunate A-Rod clutch "failure" later, and we wandered out of the stadium shaking our collective heads after a 7-6 defeat. Making matters worse was the fact that, as one stadium vendor had frequently reminded us, the Yanks are opposing Roy Halladay today.

Nevertheless, we made the most of the day and the subsequent evening, as we always do, particularly when Jon Pauley is involved. Still, yesterday seemed a fitting farewell to the old stadium, not to mention the Yankees' season, and their streak of 13 consecutive postseason appearances.

18th & Vine

The neighborhood of Kansas City commonly know as 18th and Vine is considered by some to be the birthplace of jazz, or at least a newer style of jazz born in the 1930s. It is also in this neighborhood, at the Paseo YMCA, that Rube Foster and other future executives of the Negro National League met to discuss the organization of the league in 1920. This quaint little section, located just east of downtown, is now the home of two fine museums, each celebrating their respective, and uniquely American, traditions.


The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum was founded in 1990 to preserve the history of African-American baseball. Negro League baseball existed prior to the formation of the Negro National League in 1920, but it was Foster's vision to create the league that is now considered the first lasting professional league for African-American players. Unfortunately, health problems resulting from a gas leak that nearly asphyxiated him took his life in 1930, and that first league folded the following year. However, a new Negro National League was formed in 1933, followed by the Negro American League in 1937, and African-American baseball flourished until Major League Baseball became fully integrated in the late 1950s. Rube Foster, honored primarily for his accomplishments as the chief pioneer of the Negro Leagues, but also for his playing and managerial careers, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.

The museum is an impressive tribute to this rich history, which dates back to the mid-19th century, well before the official organization of the Negro National League. In addition to the standard baseball artifacts, many of the exhibits include the artwork of the period, so unfortunately, the taking of photographs is not permitted. However, it costs just $8 for admission to both the Negro Leagues Museum and the neighboring American Jazz Museum, so I highly recommend a visit if you ever have the opportunity. One of my favorite aspects of the Negro Leagues Museum is a time line of events of the Civil Rights movement that places the history of African-American baseball in its historical perspective.

A few other interesting facts I learned there:

• J.L. Wilkinson, the original owner of the Kansas City Monarchs, was the only white member of Rube Foster's trusted inner circle. In 1930, his Monarchs became the first professional team to play night baseball. He was elected to the Hall of Fame, with 16 other Negro League and pre-Negro League greats, in 2006.


• Buck O'Neil, the first African-American coach in Major League Baseball history, and honorary Chairman of the Board of the museum until his death in 2006, was never allowed to set foot on a Major League field.


• King Solomon White, also inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006, wrote the first definitive history of African-American baseball, titled Sol White's History of Colored Baseball, in 1907.


• The nearby Paseo YMCA (shown below with "God Bless Buck" graffiti on the boarded-up door), the original Negro National League meeting place, is the future home of the John "Buck" O'Neil Education and Research Center.

Finally, I'll finish with a trivia question: Of course, everyone knows that, in 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers, with Jackie Robinson, became the first major league team to integrate; and most everyone knows that, later that year, the Cleveland Indians became the first integrated American League team, by signing Larry Doby. What may not be common knowledge, though, is who was the third team to integrate (also in 1947) and who was the player?

East St. Louis Toodle-Oo

Friday afternoon, upon arriving in Kansas City, I ventured down to 18th and Vine, the birthplace of jazz, and also around the corner from where the original organizational meeting of the Negro National League took place in 1920. This historic district is now home to two fine museums, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum. Not surprisingly, I spent more time in the Negro Leagues Museum, so I'll write more about that later. But, I will say that, while viewing the Duke Ellington display at the Jazz Museum, I decided that I need more jazz in my music collection. The particular composition that caught my ear was "Sugar Rum Cherry", his interpretation of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", from an album called Three Suites.

Yesterday, my trip brought me to its final destination, the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis, for a day game between the Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves. This was, in fact, Fox Sports' Game of the Week, but I doubt my face appeared on national television, as my seat was not nearly as good as for the games at Miller Park and Kaufmann Stadium. Actually, I was very happy with it, though, as it was in the shade, and the weather was sunny and in the low 90s, and I had neglected to wear or bring any sunblock. I think I need some lessons in boy scouting after this trip, because my preparation has been seriously lacking at times.


The seat was pretty comparable to where I was in the Metrodome, except at Busch I was in left field, versus right field in Minnesota. Due to the new stadium design, though, this vantage point was considerably better, with the seats in this section angled for a better view of the field, and no people walking up and down the aisles to contend with. Well, in fact, I was in the last row of the section, up against the wall, so it was kind of a moot point anyway. This was great, too, because it allowed me to stand up and take all the pictures I wanted.

It's hard to say exactly why, but I think I like this stadium a little better than Miller Park, although it's a close call. One thing I find curious that is missing here is a Cardinals Hall of Fame, or any type of tribute to the rich tradition of this team, other than the retired numbers displayed above the VIP seats in center field. Miller Park didn't have this either, but the Brewers don't have the history that St. Louis baseball does. The Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians, both teams that have existed for over a century, as the Cardinals have, are ahead of the curve on this one. Why the Cardinals aren't, I don't know.


What they do pay tribute to, in a classy but subtle way, are their pitchers who have been struck by tragedy in recent years. On the back wall of the home bullpen are "DK 57" and "JH 32" decals, to honor Darryl Kile and Josh Hancock, both Cardinals pitchers who died during the 2002 and 2007 seasons, respectively.

One thing I really appreciated about Busch Stadium was their out-of-town scoreboard. Rather than just the standard display of the score, inning, and uniform number of the current pitcher of games in progress, theirs included information on the current situation of each game, including number of outs, runners on base, and who was currently batting. Miller Park just gave the standard information, as did the Metrodome and Kaufmann Stadium, although I'll cut them some slack considering their age.

I have to admit that I left early again. It started to rain late in the game, then with two outs in the top of the 9th, with the Braves leading 5-4, it started to pour, and the game was delayed. With the rain looking like it was going to last for a little while, I knew the delay would be at least an hour, and I had more driving ahead of me for the night. I definitely crammed a lot into the end of this trip. So, I took off, and turned out to be correct that play didn't resume for a little over an hour, time that was much better served driving east into Illinois. As I listened on the radio, the Braves rallied to score three runs to extend their lead, and the Cards went down meekly in the bottom of the 9th to lose 8-4. So, this time, my decision paid off, as I didn't miss anything special.

This is the end of my trip. I'm sitting in the airport, waiting to catch a flight back to Boston, as I write this. I've now visited a total of 27 major league parks in my lifetime, including 19 of the current 30. I have to say that my 2004 trip worked out a little better, as the logistics of the games worked out quite nicely, but this was a very memorable trip as well. Hopefully, it won't be another four years before I do something like this again, although now that I've been to all of the parks in the Midwest, it will be difficult to work out another road trip such as the last two. Still, I look forward to more baseball journeys as I work towards my goal of making it to all of the current major league parks.

Point of Know Return

The trip reaches its western-most point today, and tomorrow heads back east, although, in terms of miles, it is well past half over. In fact, after two quick games (tonight in Kansas City, Saturday in St. Louis), I'll be on a flight and back in Boston by Sunday night. As always, there are mixed emotions about this. The good thing about getting older is that, after being away from home for more than a week, I tend to want to get back. This, of course, softens the blow of the end of vacation, but doesn't completely negate those end-of-vacation blues.


Forget what I previously said about my seat at Miller Park being the best I've ever had. Tonight at Kaufmann Stadium, I sat in the 5th row, directly behind home plate...literally. My 9th row seat at Miller Park was actually just to the right of center. The ticket price for tonight's game: $37. I think you can still get a standing room only ticket, or a bleacher or outfield grandstand seat, for a little less than that at Fenway.

I also take back my somewhat critical comments of a couple aspects of the Metrodome. Kaufmann Stadium also has trough-style men's bathrooms, but, unfortunately, no mango hand soap. More importantly, though, there was some type of promotional game or gimmick between every half inning: trivia, a "Name that Royal" baby photo contest, text message contest, hot dog race, etc. The only difference between this and a minor league game is that the Royals actually did a pretty good job of not holding up the game in the process.

There was a Casey Fossum sighting at the ballpark tonight. During pre-game warmups, I spotted a skinny goateed player with very distinctive facial features, wearing the uniform number 49 for the Detroit Tigers. I was pretty certain it was Fossum, one of two major league players named Casey whom other people have called my look-alikes. I verified later that it was, in fact, Fossum, whom I've lost track of over the past couple of years. My other look-alike, Casey Blake, is a slightly higher profile player, who is a little easier to keep tabs on. He recently was traded from the Cleveland Indians to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I designated this a no alcohol night, but I did drink a few of Kansas City's own Boulevard Pale Ales yesterday. This nicely hopped brew, which I'm considering the second best beer of the trip so far, was also available at the stadium, in addition to the standard Anheuser Busch products.


Detroit won the game 4-3, and it was a pretty exciting finish, that I have to admit I missed. I left early, with Kansas City trailing 4-1 in the top of the 9th. In my defense, I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow, but the leaving early to beat the traffic thing is also a product of getting older. Fortunately, the Royals comeback bought me some time as I searched the parking lot for my car. Losing my car seems to be a theme of the trip, and completely out of character for me, as I also couldn't remember where I parked in Madison the other day.

As I walked through aisles and aisles of cars that weren't mine, I was taunted by the cheers I heard from inside the stadium. But, at that point, I knew there was no turning back. Eventually, I looked at the photo I had taken of the outside of the stadium on my digital camera when I arrived, to realize that I was looking in the wrong location of the parking lot entirely.

Overall, Kaufmann has a lot in common with the Metrodome, as would be expected, considering they're both older stadiums. The concession areas weren't very congested, but, of course, the attendance was an especially woeful (for a Friday night) 18,361. The food selection was, not surprisingly, pretty limited as well. The major edge Kaufmann earns over the Metrodome, however, is that it is much more aesthetically pleasing, making it possible for it to survive as a modern venue with the renovations that are to be unveiled next year.

Baseball Lesson of the Day: Tonight's game ended with David DeJesus being thrown out at home plate, by Brandon Inge to Fernando Rodney covering, trying to score the tying run on a pitch that Rodney threw to the backstop. I spent considerable time looking at all the online box scores trying to figure out if this was ruled a wild pitch or a passed ball, when I realized it was neither. Since DeJesus failed to advance, and the game ended on the play, so the other runners are considered as not advancing as well, it is neither a wild pitch nor a passed ball.

How Many Ways to Balk?

When I included the "Baseball Lesson of the Day" at the end of my Miller Park post, I had intended it would be something I'd do for each park visit. After all, there would probably be some interesting scenario at each game to provide such subject matter. Well, for yesterday's game there was, but it was a little too much to write about in one paragraph. So, I've decided to write about it separately.

There were two guys sitting next to me at the Metrodome (a young man and his grandfather, I presume) who got into a discussion about how many ways there are for a pitcher to balk. My initial reaction was to think that there are infinite ways, but I suppose that was being too technical. I guess they actually can be broken down into categories. So, not really knowing the answer to this question, here goes, from the top of my head (you'll have to take my word, I didn't look this up).

The pitcher...

1. Hesitates, or stops, in his delivery to home plate.


2. While in contact with the rubber, fakes a pickoff throw to first base.


3. Steps on the mound without the ball.


4. While in contact with the rubber, fakes or throws to an unoccupied base.


5. Moves from the windup to the set position without stepping off the rubber.


6. While in the set position, fails to come to a complete stop before delivering to the plate.


7. Fails to step directly toward the base when making a pickoff throw.


8. Fails to step directly toward the plate when delivering a pitch.


9. Delivers to the plate while the catcher is not in the catcher's box.


10. Hesitates or stops in the process of coming to the set position.


11. Drops the ball while in contact with the rubber.


12. While in the set position, breaks his hands while not in the process of delivering to the plate, and without stepping off the rubber.


13. While in contact with the rubber, makes any movement associated with his delivery to the plate without completing such movement (i.e. delivering a pitch).


14. Delivers to the plate while not in contact with the rubber.

As you can see, there is quite a bit of gray area here. For instance, is #13 really just another way of describing #1. Kind of, but not exactly. #11 and #12 are pretty close as well. Regardless, these are the ways I could come up with so far. I'm not even going to discuss the infractions that can be a balk under certain circumstances, just the standard scenarios. I'll look this up eventually and update this with the complete list.