Baseball Quest 2007: Day 1
We got off to an inauspicious start, being delayed for an hour (thankfully only an hour) at the start of our trip by a freak tornado in Queens. However, after that, all things were go. We arrived in St. Louis and beat a quick path to Kansas City. We arrived there in time to take in some historical baseball sites before the Royals game with the Twins. We made it to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (the Jazz Museum as well), The Paseo YMCA – birthplace of the Negro Leagues, the former site of Municipal stadium (former home of the Kansas City Monarchs), and paid our respects to the late, great James “Cool Papa” Bell. I had a chance to converse with Cool Papa in Cooperstown, years ago (also with his wife Clarabelle). He was a class act and one of the best dressed Hall of Famers. The game pitted Johan Santana and the Minnesota Twins against the hometown Royals. Santana pitched well enough to win in an 11-4 rout. The excitement was Justin Moreau’s “home run” that was called back and changed to a double. It was irrelevant as Torii Hunter hit the next pitch for a 2-run home run.