What a difference a day makes

The weather was perfect (game time temperature was 62 degrees); the seats were awesome (six rows from the field, just beyond third base) and yet somehow it all went so wrong as the Angels fell to the Kansas City Royals 2-1.

Losing is bad enough, watching your team lose in walk-off fashion in an opponent’s stadium is not the best experience you can have for sure.

It’s kind of hard to explain and something Cheryl and I never experienced before. There’s something about being far from home while watching your team go down the way the Angels did that’s just surreal.

Again, it’s hard to explain. In case you don’t know the details – Kila Ka’aihue hit a homerun in the bottom of the 9th off Michael Kohn to give his team the walk-off win.

In many ways, game two was quite contrary to the opener. First of all there were only 13,302 fans in attendance (as opposed to 40,055 on Thursday) and it was a fast game; lasting just two hours and twenty-three minutes (as opposed to three hours and fifteen minutes the day prior). It was seventeen degrees warmer and the thing that was most different… the Angels lost.

I guess going 162-0 wasn’t realistic.

Highlights of the game included Mark Trumbo getting his first hit of the 2011 season; Howie Kendrick going yard in the first inning; Dan Haren pitching seven solid innings and Jordan Walden coming through in a clutch situation with two strikes outs in the 8th. It was also nice to see Erick Aybar get a couple of hits.

Low lights?

Let’s just say that Jeff Mathis looked a little more like the Jeff Mathis we saw last year; going 0 for 3 and air mailing a throw into centerfield while trying to throw out a runner stealing second; and of course the walk-off homerun given up by Michael Kohn. The Angels went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and just couldn’t get things going.


Sadly, we won’t be at the game on Saturday as the Angels portion of our road trip ends.

We started the day with a trip to the Negro League Baseball Museum (unfortunately, you can' take photos inside the museum) and the Harry S. Truman Library.

Along the way we ran into several Angels fans; some from California, some from Oklahoma, Kansas and other places around the country. We even ran into Hank Conger’s dad, who was with Chris Pettit’s dad at the Negro League Baseball Museum. Also at the museum, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles, Lyle Spencer of MLB.com and Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times.

Earlier in the day while having breakfast, we saw Mickey Hatcher walking down a street in the Country Club Plaza area of Kansas City.

More details will come later. Right now, I need to get some sleep before yet another early flight….