Baseball Museum 5: Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

Since the Negro Leagues Museum did not open until 12pm on Sunday and we had the afternoon game that day (June 14, 2009), instead of going before the game, we ended up going to it after the Kansas City Royals game. We got there around 4:30pm and it closed at 6pm. It worked out to be just about enough time to see it, but barely. At least it did work out and we did not miss it entirely because it was worth seeing.

The exhibit is mostly a timeline history of colored people playing baseball. Of course, the main focus is on the Negro Leagues, but it follows the history from the 1800s through to African Americans beginning to be allowed into the MLB and causing the downfall of the Negro Leagues. The exhibits have a lot of information and a good amount of artfacts and such.

For the most part the images and things display make sense and are explained by nearby signs. However, quite a few items seem interesting, but have absolutely nothing to explain their significance. It seems they have stuffed too much stuff in this small exhibit and ran out of space to put signs to explain some of the things, which is a shame because some of the cooler looking things seem entirely insignificant because they have nothing identifying them.

At the end of the time line history there is several rows of lockers. The lockers are like a sort of Negro Leagues Hall of Fame, although I am not positive they call it that. Most lockers have the uniform of the player and a plaque telling about their contribution to professional baseball. There is also a display of baseballs signed by people that played in the Negro Leagues including many on Negro Leagues Museum balls, which were signed specifically to be in the museum.

Overall this was a great museum to visit. There is so much packed into it that it really does take some time to get through. I know we did not even really see it all even because we were kind of rushing to get done before 6pm and get some things at the gift shop. Mik even liked the little theater they had with a documentary playing.

Kj’s Baseball Collection: Patriotic Royals

The Royals did not have that great of a selection of balls. I really hoped to find a 40th anniversary since they came in the same year as the Padres or at least Kauffman Stadium one. They had a lot of Kauffman Stadium stuff that also had the 40th Anniversary logo including Mik’s mini bat, but that design was not on any baseballs. At least the staff was helpful and looked around to make sure they did not have any. I ended up choosing one that has stars and stripes on one strip and a white strip that has a blue and red Royals logo.

Game 14: Atlanta Braves 2 @ Cincinnati Reds 7

Today we encountered our first actual rain delay of the trip. Mik and Dad got really impatient with it and kept nagging to leave, but I made them stay until the game was finished or officially canceled. The first rain delay occurred about 45 minutes into the game at the top of the 3rd and lasted until almost 10pm. They then finished the top of the 3rd before calling another rain delay, which did not last very long (maybe, 30 minutes). The game was then finished out with no more rain at all (it sprinkled between the two rain delays and the first two innings before the first rain delay).

The game did not end until almost 12:30am, but I think it was worth sticking it out. Dad and Mik were not so motivated and did not care if we had even a rain canceled game because we have seen a game here before back in 2004 when Ken Griffey Jr was at 499 home runs and going for his 500th. I kind of thought it was important to try to see the whole game of whatever games we go to that do end up finishing. Plus it ended up being a decent game, especially in the 8th inning.

The Reds got on the board first with a run in the bottom of the first inning. They increased the lead with a run in the third and the fifth. The Braves then began to come back with a run in the sixth and a run in the eighth. The Reds then secured their lead with four runs in the bottom of the eighth. The hitting was decent, but there were a lot of walks and the pitching by both teams was not that great. The game kind of dragged on because of the mostly poor pitching. It felt even longer with the rain delay, but I guess if you take out that time it was not that long of a game. Most interesting was there were no home runs at all, which seems a little odd when there was a total of 9 runs scored. Anyways I thought it was a good game and well worth staying until the final out.

Car Sticker Update: Kansas City Royals

Tracking down a sticker for the Royals was almost as hard as for the Twins. At the main Team Shop they had none and the employees really tried to help us find one, so we know we did not miss them there. We ended up getting a simple KC car magnet for $1 there. Later Dad found a player sticker sheet at the upper level shop and got that even though it was $15 because it had two stickers that Dad combined to make a good logo sticker on the American League side of the car for the Royals.

Now the American League side of the car has 5 team logos. That is not how many we have seen, as we have actually seen 6. However, we lost the Chicago White Sox cling on the down pour tornado warning day in Denver. Dad is going to go get a sticker one at Walgreens or the sports store he got the cling when we are back in Chicago to see the Cubs later this week, so if we had to lose one that was the best one to lose.

Mik’s Mini Bat Collection: Kauffman Stadium

Mik found a really cool mini bat of Kauffman Stadium. The mini bat is natural, but the end area has a blue background. On the blue there is a KC Royals logo on the left side. In the middle is an image of Kauffman Stadium. On the right side of the stadium is the Kansas City Royals 40th Anniversary logo. Above the stadium image it says Kauffman and below is says Stadium. Mik was concerned about it costing more than the other mini bats, but it is way cooler looking and very unique to this season.

Mik’s Food Scrapbook: Kauffman Stadium

Mik was not very hungry when we got to Kauffman Stadium for the afternoon game since he had just had breakfast at Panera Bread. He did spot the Lil Orbits mini doughnuts like the good ones he had outside the Metrodome and he had to get those. They were just as good, too.

Accessibility Review: Kauffman Stadium

Parking at Kauffman Stadium was pretty easy and there seemed to be a decent amount of handicap spots in the front row of each parking lot. From there to the stadium is not very well planned, though. About every other van accessible spot has a path leading to the street that goes in front of the stadium. There is no cut out up to this path and then none when you get to the street. Then when you get across the street there also is not a cut out, but it is a rounded curb. There is a cutout way at the corner of the parking lot, but it is literally at the corner and not at the side of the corner where the crosswalk is even located. It is not that big of an inconvenience for Dad pushing Mik, as he can do the curbs, but it is kind of annoying that they seem to have paths right by almost every handicap spot, however, the paths are truly only built for those not in wheelchairs or walkers.

Getting into the park was pretty easy. The security person looked through our bag and then led us to the gate on the side of the turnstiles. We then went to the inside side of the turnstiles to have our tickets scanned. We were early and they only had one person scanning tickets, but I imagine closer to game time they have someone actually at the gate scanning tickets instead of having you back track to get them scanned, as that would be annoying with crowds coming in.

Getting to our seats was not too hard, but finding the elevator kind of was. The guy at the escalator just said there were next to each spiral ramp and we got there and it did not seem to be there. Problem was that it was on the far side of the spiral ramp from where we were and it is sort of hidden at least on the concourse level. It seems obvious when you are on the upper level and if you go straight to it from the gate entrance, but from the main concourse it is not quite so obvious. The elevator is rather small and getting more than one wheelchair group at a time was pretty much impossible, but at least they did not have fans that did not need it trying to get on.

Our seats were in section 411. They were on the third base side and in the upper deck above the visitor’s dugout. The view was great. We could see the whole field for the most part. Dad said nothing blocked his view and Mik had no trouble either because he could roll right up to the bar. Unless I leaned forward the bar blocked the third base line for me, but that is not too much of an inconvenience and at least the wheelchair seats worked for Mik, who actually watched a good part of the game since it was too sunny to play his PSP. There were no cup holders, but this is an older park and no one had cup holders, so Mik did not feel cheated. However, it is kind of sad they are just about to finish their remodel by reopening their Hall of Fame on the left field concourse in July 2009 and their remodel did not include adding cup holders.

Overall Kauffman rates as one of the more accessibly enjoyable parks, especially since the staff was helpful besides the sort of clueless escalator guy. The getting from the parking lot to the stadium is annoying, but at least almost everything else is well done. The only other thing we found not the best was the MLB 2K9 area, which had the computer screens at bar stool height tables and the only ones at easy wheelchair height were at the big screen that was hogged by another kid and probably usually is hogged because it has really comfy lazy boys to sit in while playing. The controllers from the computer screens did reach down for Mik to play, but it is not the best angle to look at the screen to play.