One down, 161 to go

Opening day in Kansas City is a big deal; as it should be! When we awoke this morning, we turned on the local news and we watched station after station conduct live remotes from the stadium in anticipation of the opener. By the way, we turned on the TV at 6:00 a.m. As I said, Opening day is a big deal.

The parking lot opened at 8:00 a.m.; seven hours before the first pitch. And yes, hundreds and hundreds of cars were in the lot and tailgating when we arrived at the stadium a little before noon today.

Kauffman Stadium is absolutely beautiful. The huge screen in centerfield is incredible; the players appear larger than life and it’s something you really have to see in person to believe.

Cheryl, Larry, Cathy and myself soaked it all in. We walked around the stadium, taking pictures and making notes of all the food choices in the stadium. It was cold (45 degrees at game time), but baseball was definitely in the air.

The pre-game activities were simply awesome. The Royals went out of their way to honor their alumni including George Brett, Frank White, Bo Jackson and John Mayberry. The first pitch was thrown out by long time Royal Mike Sweeney, who recently signed a one-day contract so that he could retire as a Royal.

We had a fly over by a B-2 Bomber from Whiteman Air Force Base.

And then there was the game…

The Angels had their “hitting shoes” on big time; pounding out 12 hits. Torii Hunter would be the first Angel of 2011 to go yard. Jeff Mathis would be the second. Every starter had at least one hit, except for Mark Trumbo. Weaver picked up where he left off in 2010 with a stellar 6 1/3 innings of two-hit baseball. He also struck out six.



Three Royals would make their major league debuts (out of the bull pen); Aaron Crow, Nate Adcock, and Tim Collins. The Royals made it interesting with Jeff Francoeur and Mike Aviles each hitting a solo homerun.

The Angels bull pen wasn’t sharp, but they got the job done as Jordan Walden, Kevin Jepsen, and Michael Kohn each got credit for a hold and Fernando Rodney recorded his first save of the season.

It was cold out at the park, but watching the Angels win made it worth every bone chilling moment.

After the game we decided to sample some more KC barbecue and headed to Jack Stack’s. As we were leaving the restaurant we ran into Peter Bourjos who was celebrating his birthday with Hank Conger, Rich Thompson, Chris Pettit and others.

When I saw Bourjos I let him know that I was the person who put the video of him learning how to "strut" with Torii Hunter on the web. I knew he had seen it because I learned last Sunday at the Angels/Padres exhibition game that he talked about it (and even demonstrated the strut) while being interviewed at Fan Fest. Bourjos smiled and said, "that was you?" Pettit quickly chimed in with "we've had a lot of fun with that video."

"P-Bo"(Bourjos) was gracious enough to pose for a picture with Cheryl and me; the perfect ending to a perfect day.

And with that I’ll close. Cheryl is fast asleep as I blog and I can barely keep my eyes open myself.

More to come…