The park is 35 years old this season but looks about 15. It still has that clean, wide-open look, with the waterfalls in centerfield and water jets in right. Unfortunately it also still has the miserable Royals as tenants.
They are doing a $250 million renovation. It will expand the exterior and the concourses, and gave the outfield the mall-like look that they have in Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia and other places.
The first part of the renovation is already in place. It is a gargantuan video scoreboard that definitely did not come from the stock at Best Buy. It has the clearest picture I've seen. It overdoes it with stats -- it gives you so many numbers that by the time you find what you want the batter is out.
They are claiming that this is the world's largest stadium monitor and that it will hold this distinction until Jerry World opens next year.
I was saddened because I assumed the new board had replaced the old Royals logo board -- the one with the crown that was a signature feature of Royals Stadium. But an usher, who had time on his hands with the crowd at just 22,000 or so, pointed out to me the disassembled crown in the construction area in right field. They will reassemble it on top of the new Royals Hall of Fame in left field, so rejoice, the crown lives on. And the new board also will get its own crown -- if they design it to scale, it will reach to the moon.
More random observations:
* They have a prominent Jackie Robinson memorial in center field that has his number, faux signature and, obscenely enough, two Dodge vehicles on top to appease a Royals sponsor. I'm among the camp that contends baseball overdoes it with Jackie Robinson, with such gestures as retiring his number in places such as Tampa and Phoenix, which didn't even have teams when he played. But the guy played in KC with the Monarchs, so I guess the Royals have cause.
* I forgot to go to the late Buck O'Neil's seat, which is painted red in contrast to the blue of all the others. One honored spectator sits there each night.
* Slugger the Royals' lion posed for a picture with me.
* They have a small, out-of-the-way display of famous Royals of the past such as George Brett and ... and ... well, I'm sure there were others. Yeah, Paul Splitorff. The team's 1985 World Series trophy is there and surprisingly has no expression of gratitude to Don Denkinger. It's not an impressive section, but as they are constructing a new one I'll give them a pass. Right, Bret Saberhagen too.
* They had not one but two variations on the dot race, probably because these are more fun to watch than the Royals. One hot dog defeated two others in the first one. It was a yellow hot dog, so it represented mustard in a battle of condiments. Later lawn mower No. 1 defeated two others in a race sponsored by John Deere.
*Idiots were on the scoreboard trying to guess the meaning of words. According to one, the military building near Washington with five sides is called the Pyramid. According to another, a TKO in boxing is two knock outs.
*Nothing special in food selection, though they did have barbecue. Prices were more reasonable than Milwaukee.
*The usher with time on his hands also pointed out that the infield grass had been torn out and replaced during this season. Sure enough -- it's obviously a different shade than the rest of the field and might even be different grass. Take a look next time your Rangers are here.
*They made us park I think in Kansas City, Kan. I suppose this was in anticipation of Royals fans needing parking spaces, but each fan would have needed to bring three cars to stretch out to where they stuck us.
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