Treking at Kauffman

There are three main reasons to go to a baseball game, besides the game itself. First, there’s the park experience. Next, discovering the hometown faves and unique foods (think fried Twinkies). Finally, it’s watching the fans.

We visited three parks in May – Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, the Metrodome in Minneapolis and Miller Park in Milwaukee. Miller Park was the best of the three, but more about that later.

At Kauffman Stadium we expected the entertainment to be led by the best pitcher in baseball this year, Zack Greinke, who had a 0.60 ERA and 7 wins going into the game against the Cleveland Indians. But Greinke had an off-day for him, exiting after 6 innings. The Royals led at that point, 3-2, but went on to lose, 8-3, as their bullpen went into freefall.

Midway through the game we noticed a fan, a young man probably taking the afternoon off work on a glorious Thursday afternoon, reading a book between innings. Turns out he was more than halfway through “Star Trek: Destiny: Lost Souls,” one of the latest in that series. Captain Jean-Luc Picard has to stop the soldiers of Armageddon as they lay waste to worlds. You could cast Greinke in the lead role and the Indians as the evil soldiers, but in that case Picard is gone (living to fight another day) and Armageddon wins.

We’d (at least I had) been looking forward to some famous Kansas City barbeque at Kauffman. The New York Times did a story last year about the best ballpark food and listed the barbeque from the Gates and Sons Bar-B-Q stand at the stadium. Turns out that the $250 million renovation of Kauffman Stadium, completed in 2008, saw the exit of Gates. There’s now another BBQ stand but we opted for what one of the customer service reps said was the best food – the $9 chicken quesadilla at the Rivals Sports Bar past right field. If we go back to Kauffman, we’ll be looking for something else to eat.

Kauffman Stadium is one of the oldest MLB parks, opening in 1973. The renovation has made it feel new, and much of it is. The concourse is twice as wide as it was, opening up space for more vendors and concession stands. You also can walk the main concourse clear around the park, stopping in centerfield to enjoy a fountain celebration (photo), and the cascading waterfalls in left field ($7 game tickets for the Fountain Seats). Kauffman also has what is the biggest JumboTron in any park I’ve been in.