Anyone who hangs out with possum-like creatures is A-OK with The Nest.
It’s Wednesday, so it’s time once again for Marilyn’s weekly Serendipitous Photo Story Prompt! Last week, I dug out a photo I took in 1987… a year when it still took days to see the results of the pictures you captured. Today, I’m going to go all the way back to…… last night.
I’m currently on Day Two of my annual baseball trip to Kansas City, which took a bit of an unexpected turn over the weekend when my Dad, who has been my constant companion on these trips, wound up in the hospital with a blood sugar level only the Hubble Telescope could see. Since he’s still recovering from that (and yes, from all accounts he’s doing fine now), I thought I might have to go it alone this year. But my youngest sister kinda surprised me when she volunteered to go in his place… and it is from her cameraphone that today’s featured photo, taken by a third party bystander, comes from.
Yes, we ate at a Burger King on the way here, but that’s not where this picture was taken. It was taken at the ballpark! What was this Renaissance man and woman doing there, anyway?
Since 1969, Kansas City has been the home of the Royals… a team that was often described as baseball’s model expansion franchise due to all of the success they had during their first two decades of existence, when many other new teams are often still struggling to establish themselves. Those glory days occurred during the reign of team owner Ewing Kauffman, however he died in 1993 and the team languished in the power vacuum of a trust until Mecca-made man David Glass bailed them out and ran the franchise just like he would have one of the stores. From the mid 90’s through the early years of this decade, the once proud Royals were one of baseball’s constant laughingstocks… and formerly proof of how small market teams were unable to compete in the Steinbrenner eat Steinbrenner world of Major League Baseball.
Say goodbye to all those playoff appearances, Ewing!
But a funny thing happened last year. A young, upstart Royals team featuring what looked like the latest crop of washed up prospects snuck into the playoffs via the wildcard and suddenly became an unstoppable force that swept its three fellow American League challengers in October, and came within one game of winning the World Series. After two decades of getting to enjoy sparse crowds, I knew it was going to be a bit of a different experience this year in the afterglow… and that brings us to our royal couple my sister is posing with up there.
Stand back, my subjects, or you will all be beheaded!
Me and Nicole spotted them while walking through the parking lot before the game, and oh boy did we get a good laugh out of that. If you think I’m mercilessly funny at mocking anything and everything that catches my view, you should see the two of us together. We’d make a hell of a Beavis and Butthead team. Nicole immediately pointed out “It’s Henry VIII!”, one of ten zillion running jokes between us and we were hysterically laughing about it as we followed the yellow brick road all the way up to the stadium gate.
And no, I didn’t just use yellow brick road as a figure of speech…
Thanks to an American League pennant in 2014, Kansas City fans are once again excited about their team… apparently enough to dress up like complete fools when coming out to the old ballpark. Despite the temperatures being in the upper 50’s with a light rain during the middle innings, the place was rocking as the Royals tossed a shutout against the Cincinnati Reds 3-0 with the pitching matchup of young studs Johnny Cueto and Yordano Ventura living up to the billing. It also was all wrapped up in just over two hours, making it one of the quickest games I’ve ever attended…
Rob Manfred would approve.
Those silly timers they installed in ballparks this year that are supposed to keep between innings breaks to just two minutes and thirty seconds were pointless, as most of the time, the action started up again with plenty of time left on the clock. Of course, that may be a different story tonight with the much less prestigious matchup of Jason Marquis and Jeremy Guthrie on the mound…
Assuming it stops raining before game time…
I’d very much like to leave the popcorn bucket at home…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
that was my first thought too, you met Henry VIII…he is still alive and visited a game with wife n° 9 :o)
Yes, I think sis is lucky she didn’t become the next beheading…
Hey, Squirrel — a neat and very timely read. Marilyn and I are visiting old friends and the conversation is non stop from books to old movies to baseball. The baseball chatter zipped back to the 50’s and old ballparks. That included the Kansas City A’s or as some folks called them “The Yankees Triple A Team West”. It’s the team that included a young Roger Maris, Hector Lopez, Vic Power and a little lefty named Bobby Shantz.
They all wound up on the Yankees to the chagrin of Brooklyn Dodgers nation.
Fast forward ahead to the 70’s and 80s with the Whitey Kerzog K.C. Royals. Brett, Willie Wilson and Hal McRae, etc. drove members of Red Sox nation crazy.
Those were the days!
Most of the highlights they like to relive at The K are from those late 70’s, early 80’s glory days… it seems the Royals and their fans want to pretend the 1990’s and 2000’s never happened. But just as I have a special fondness for the generic, mediocre “Breweryball” early 90’s Cardinals, I also love many of the guys from that forgettable Herk Robinson/Allard Baird era in Royals baseball. Damon and Sweeney and Randa and Quinn and Beltran and more long-since forgotten pitching prospects than you can shake a fungo bat at. You think your Sox staff is struggling… the Royals just recorded two straight shutouts for the first time since 1992! 23 years! No team has ever come close to that record of pitching futility…
Seems to me that King Hank 8 there and his lovely bride [whichever one] would inspire the fans to do something more creative than put a popcorn container on top of their heads. But then, I’m not from Kansas, so maybe it makes perfect sense. Hope that your dad is on the mend.
I think putting popcorn buckets on your head may be more of an inspiration borne of a different king… the King of Beers.
Lol! Hadn’t thought of that. Bet that you’re right.
Ahhhh Royals Stadium! You’re not too far from my old stomping ground, 100 miles due south, Nevada MO. I’ve been there many a time! I was also so happy to see the Royals do well in fairly recent past – since the early 80s and the days of George Brett, there wasn’t much to watch… xx MH
I have seen two decades of shitty Royals baseball on all of these cross-state trips I’ve made. It’s much easier to watch when you’re not a fan of the team. I once saw them blow 9th inning leads in both games of a doubleheader…
Sounds about right. .. many a heart broken!
Baseball and the boys of summer. I hope this is a good one for you. It does not appear to be a likely good one for us, but as they keep saying, the season is long and maybe Bosox management will get their heads extracted from that sunless place and do something about pitching!
As long as the gates continue to open early and the rain stays away, it will definitely be a good one. Maybe a little offense would be nice, though… I do prefer a slugfest to the pitchers duel…
Damn man, you’re just right down the road! Hop on I-35 and head north, come see me and Evie Cat! 😉
I think your state is the closest one to where I live that I’ve never been in… and all the times I’ve been out here, but never had the urge to drive up just to check Nebraska off the list. I’m on the way home this morning. I shall wave in your general direction though (with virtual scritches for Evie!)
In all honesty, there isn’t a hell of a lot here worth seeing except the zoo. We have a World Class zoo, complete with a gorilla that cracked the glass of its enclosure when taunted by a small child.
Awesome! Sounds like feeding time…
They are very nice costumes, although I did the king was a Burger King king until I read further. 🙂
He looks just like him, only without the completely creepy looking plastic head.
Thank goodness. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near someone wearing that creepy plastic head. I think I’d rather take my chances with King Henry VII around!
Your sister looks like she would be heaps of fun! Good on her for “stepping up” and I hope your Dad is OK! I loooove the queens frock. What fun it would be to wear/prance about in. 😀
It’s good to be the queen…. or at least get to look and act like one. 😉
A Royal success, sir. Enjoy it. May it last.
Well, they’re on their own until next year. I’ve won four in a row for them just by showing up…
You did yeoman work, sir!
It’s just like Goth Weekend in Whitby. There’s two a year – one at the start of May and one at the end of October. May is either baking hot or freezing cold and raining. October is always freezing cold and raining. And yet, despite the heat, there are people wearing many layers and long coats and much makeup. And despite the rain and the cold, there is plenty of skin on show and waterproof mascara (and that’s just the men…)!
Some people will dress up just because they can.
LOL… have you seen the people who attend comic-con events? The place I often have lunch at on my days off is right across from a convention center that hosts a few of those events a year. Last time, a full grown middle aged woman walked by us wearing a nifty little handmade Rainbow Dash costume. It’s good clean fun for everyone, but not quite my thing!
Next time there’s a convention, take your camera to lunch and get some photos. It’ll give you something else to post when you next run out of ideas!