The Kansas City Royals did a lot more than win their season opener at Kauffman Stadium
The smells. For me, it’s the smells. They start in the parking lot, because this is Kansas City and people are tailgating again. The air inside Kauffman Stadium carries greetings of popcorn, of hot dogs, of a dozen different flavors of fried carbs. The stale beer smell isn’t here yet. It’s too early for that.
The sounds. For me, it’s the sounds. Floyd the parking attendant is back, still making every person who drives by laugh. An usher gets a small crowd to sing happy birthday to a little girl in a concourse. Section 431 goes bananas when a kid makes a reaching catch on a foul ball, and on the 300 level they boo a fan for missing an easy one.
My god, it feels so nice to hear strangers gathered together and spontaneously cheer (or boo) the same thing again.
The sights. For me, it’s the sights. A well-kept ballpark is still breathtakingly beautiful, and Kauffman is better kept than most. The fountains. The home whites. The silly games played between innings on the video board. Kyle Zimmer’s fist pump. Michael A. Taylor is going to be fun in center field.
All of it. For me, it’s all of it, because for one beautiful (and very long) afternoon, a bunch of us sat and made jokes and watched the shadows move across Trevor Vance’s perfect grass. And it was just the best.
The Royals beat the Rangers 14-10 in the 53rd season opener in club history on Thursday, and no offense to any of the other 52, but they weren’t like this.
“Best opening day I’ve ever been a part of,” said Royals manager Mike Matheny.
He was talking about the baseball, about the Royals going down by five before their first at-bat and coming back, and then falling behind again, and coming back again, and then falling behind again, and coming back again.
Managers love this stuff. The resiliency. The confidence. The idea that no game is ever over. The coaches and players will talk about this for weeks. They also know there’s more going on here this year. For them, and for all of us, too.
Because the Royals have opened seasons after big free-agent signings and parades. They’ve won season openers with walk-offs. They’ve opened seasons with high expectations and stars on the field and everything else. But a season opener has never been this.
Five-hundred and fifty days separate us from the last time the Royals played in front of fans. Baseball is just a game, and a kids’ game at that, but there are times it feels like so much more.
The Royals and Rangers packed enough in to cover five games. The Royals had never scored this much on an opening day. This was the first time in more than 100 years of opening days that both teams scored four or more runs in the first inning. Kyle Isbel became the first Royal in nearly 20 years to drive in a run in his first plate appearance.
Carlos Santana walked three times, which is very on-brand. Nicky Lopez choked up and got two hits, which he is working to make his new brand. Jorge Soler hit a baseball 435 feet. Brad Keller got rocked and Hunter Dozier got hurt (the Royals hope he’s available on Saturday) and Whit Merrifield, Isbel and Taylor had three hits each.
Greg Holland got big outs, again. Wade Davis closed it out, again.
Those would be great stories for other days, and some of them will be. But not today.
There is a tendency to put too much meaning into baseball, and that’s particularly true for those of us who love the sport. But what choice is there right now?
The Royals may or may not be what their fans hope this season. The lineup and pitching are deeper than in recent years, it seems to be a group that’s both focused and comfortable with each other, and the front office and ownership have shown support. You never know.
But here’s what we do know: The Royals in Kansas City and baseball around the country will help lead us back closer to normalcy.
The NFL allowed limited capacity for many games, including at Arrowhead Stadium and in the Super Bowl. But this baseball season will broadcast crowds of thousands on televisions around the country every night.
Depending on a lot of factors including vaccinations and luck, restrictions will soften as spring turns into summer, and continue to soften more as summer turns into fall. Even in the bad seasons, the Royals sell more tickets than the Chiefs. That’s just the math of 81 home games.
So for a lot of Americans, baseball games will be the first time they’ve gathered in crowds in more than a year. For a lot of Americans, seeing those crowds on television regularly could help guide them back to comfort.
That’s not a service that baseball is performing, exactly. They have extremely non-altruistic motivations to sell as many tickets as they can. But these games can be part of the healing process. That’s a real thing.
These smells, these sounds, these sights ... most of them have been gone for 18 months. Piped-in crowd noise from a video game just isn’t the same. We’re back to something closer to the real thing in baseball.
The same can be said for life.
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 8:54 PM with the headline "The Kansas City Royals did a lot more than win their season opener at Kauffman Stadium."