Kansas and a City in Missouri

In April 2020, I was supposed to do a trip out to California to see the Dodgers with stops along the way in Louisville and Wichita.  Those cities were in states that I had driven through and that was it.  I got to Louisville in August 2021, but I still hadn’t been to Wichita.  Wichita is not that far from Kansas City and the Dodgers were playing in Kansas City this year so I wanted to combine those two cities in one trip.  The problem is that there isn’t an easy way to get from Wichita to Kansas City without renting a car (which I didn’t want to do).  There’s no train options and the bus options were not at convenient times.  I looked into flights on Kayak and that wasn’t working either.  Then I thought of Southwest.  I did my first two legs of this trip on Southwest.  To get from Wichita to Kansas City, I had to fly to St. Louis and then back across Missouri to Kansas City, but the flights were short and it wasn’t too expensive.  The last leg of the trip was a direct flight back to New York on JetBlue so I made it work.

I was originally supposed to be in the second game scheduled in Wichita in 2020.  The Marlins triple-A affiliate moved from New Orleans to Wichita and I was going to go to the game the day after their home opener.  Of course, that didn’t happen.  With the reorganization of the minor leagues a couple of years ago, Wichita’s team became the Twins’ double-A affiliate.  I got to Wichita fairly early and just relaxed until the game.  I was tired after getting up early for my flight and it was 102° anyway (the highest temperature I’ve ever been in was 109° in Phoenix).  I walked to the stadium and it was hot.  I walked around the stadium and got myself a hot dog with chopped onions and pico de gallo and a Warbeard Irish Red from the Walnut River Brewing Company in El Dorado, Kansas.  I usually wouldn’t get toppings like that on a hot dog, but the condiment choices were ketchup (which has no business being put on a hot dog) and yellow mustard (which really should just be called yellow because it’s not mustard).  The beer was not very cold, but I’ll give them a pass because it might have been tough to keep the kegs cold with the heat.

As for the game it was the Wichita Wind Surge hosting the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (the Royals’ double-A team).  The first batter of the game homered for the Naturals homered and then they didn’t score again.  The Wind Surge tied it in the bottom of the first with an RBI single and then scored two more with a homer in the third for a final score of 3-1.  The box score said that the temperature was 99°, but my phone said 97° when the game started.  Attendance was 3,787 and the game took two hours and 29 minutes.  The stadium was pretty good.  There could have been some more food options.  They had some local beer, but not a huge selection.  It was a good stadium, but it probably won’t rank in my top five minor league stadiums when I update my minor league stadium rankings.

This was my view for the first pitch.

This ended up being my view for most of the game.

Here’s the view from right behind home plate.

I spent three days in Kansas City so I think I’ll break this part of the post down by talking about museums first, then food and beverage, and then the baseball.  I got to Kansas City early on Friday morning.  It was too early to check in at my hotel so I dropped my stuff off and then went to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  It was a cool museum that you can probably check out in an hour or two.  There’s a lot of information on the history of the Negro Leagues and even going back before that.  The first all-black professional baseball team was the Cuban Giants.  They started in Philadelphia in 1885, but then they were hired to play for summer entertainment for guests of the Argyle Hotel in Babylon on Long Island.  The Kansas City Monarchs were the best team in the Negro Leagues.  Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson were probably the two best players from the Negro Leagues.  There’s a mini field in the middle of the museum with statues of some of the most famous players at their positions.  There’s also a statue of Buck O’Neil where one of the dugouts would be.  Buck O’Neil was definitely a star in the Ken Burns baseball documentary.  I could listen to that guy talk about baseball all day.  There was a lot of stuff on Jackie Robinson.  He played for the Monarchs before the Dodgers signed him.  Of course, it was good for Jackie Robinson and other black players to get a chance to play Major League Baseball, but the negative side effect of that was that it destroyed a huge black business as the Negro Leagues came to an end.

After the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, this is the best baseball museum I’ve been to.

Satchel Paige’s age was always a question, but he ended up playing in the Majors in six different seasons after integration, including three scoreless innings for the Kansas City Athletics at age 58 (maybe) in 1965.

Sadly, Josh Gibson was just 35 years old when he died three months before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.

On Saturday I went to the National World War I Museum.  It was opened in 1926 as the Liberty Memorial.  Congress made it the official National World War I Museum in 2004.  I would say it wasn’t as good as the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, but it was a very good museum.  I know a lot of stuff about history so I’m always looking for things I didn’t know.  I also like any connections to Catholicism.  I found one that surprised me.  Britain used Joan of Arc in their World War I propaganda.  And then I found out later in the museum that the United States also used Joan of Arc in their propaganda directed towards women.  There were a couple of other things that I didn’t know before that stood out to me.  I knew that American soldiers in World War I were called doughboys, but I had no idea where that came from.  US soldiers training along the Rio Grande would get covered in the dust of the adobe soil so they were called adobes.  That became dobies and then that became doughboys.  And lastly, any student of World War II learns about the Navajo Code Talkers.  But the US had Choctaw Code Talkers in World War I and the Germans never broke their code.

The tower has been around since 1926.  You can go up to the top, but I chose not to.

There was a big display on trench warfare.

There was a British poster that was very similar.  This one is not nearly as famous at the Uncle Sam I Want You poster, which is also from World War I.

John J. Pershing was the only army officer given the rank of General of the Armies of the United States during his lifetime.  The same rank was given to George Washington in 1976 and Ulysses S. Grant in 2022.

There were other museums that I could have gone to.  I went to the Harry Truman Presidential Library in Independence (right by Kansas City) in 2014.  There’s also the College Basketball Hall of Fame.  I thought about going there, but the reviews I read made it sound more like a place for kids to play games than college basketball’s version of Cooperstown.  So I passed on that.

There was some good food and beverage to be enjoyed.  I usually don’t eat meat on Fridays even when it’s not Lent (except for solemnities, we just had Meat Friday on June 16 for the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus).  So on Friday I went to Grinders.  It was walkable from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  It was on Man v. Food.  It’s supposed to do New York pizza and Philly cheesesteaks.  The twist with the pizza is they add a chili bomb where they add tots, chili, Cheez Whiz, and onions on top of a slice of pizza.  That’s what was featured on Man v. Food.  I would have tried that, but I didn’t want the meat in the chili so I just had a regular slice.  It was good.  I wouldn’t say it was New York quality, but it was pretty close.  It was very thin.  It reminded me a little bit of Little Vincent’s (but even thinner).  What I really could have used on the slice instead of chili was cold cheese.  The non-meat food options at the game were pretty limited.  I ended up just getting nachos and cheese.  That’s not something I would usually get, but it got the job done if I wasn’t going to have meat. I think in all of my travels over the last decade, I think the only other place outside of the Pizza Belt where I’ve gotten pizza is Anchorage, Alaska. Of course, I’ve also had deep dish pizza in Chicago, but deep dish pizza is not pizza:

On Saturday, it was time for meat so I went to Q39, which was also featured on Man v. Food.  On Trip Advisor, it was the second highest ranked barbecue place in Kansas City.  The highest ranked spot was Joe’s (which was on Man v. Food back in the Adam Richman days), but that was on the Kansas side of Kansas City and it wasn’t at all convenient for me since I wanted to get to the World War I Museum after lunch.  This time I didn’t have what was featured on Man v. Food (the burnt end burger).  I had the Mr. Burns sandwich for two reasons.  First of all it’s named after one of the best Simpsons characters.  Second of all, it was a sandwich with burnt ends, pepper jack cheese, onion straws, and barbecue sauce.  Kansas City barbecue is known for burnt ends and hearing people talk about them, it sounds like a life changing experience.  I also had a Brew 39 Amber Ale, which was made by Kansas City’s Martin City Brewing Company.  The sandwich was very good and this was probably the best beer of my trip.  That night at the game I just had a hot dog with honey mustard (definitely not my first choice, but it’s a better option than yellow).  It was solid.

Excellent.

Sunday was an afternoon game.  I thought about just getting a hot dog again, but after having nachos and a hot dog at the two previous games, I wanted something that was more Kansas City.  Grinders (where I went on Friday) has a stand at the stadium that sells sandwiches (you can’t get the pizza there) so I had a Philly cheesesteak.  It was good, but I’ve definitely had better in Philadelphia.  I also had a Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat to drink.  It was the only beer I drank during a game in Kansas City.  I always like to have a beer at a game, but since I was going to four games on four straight days, I didn’t feel like I needed a beer each day.  On Saturday, I got a beer with lunch because it was cheaper than a beer at the game, but I wanted to have at least one at a game in Kauffman Stadium.  It was a solid beer, but not as good as the one I had the previous day.  Since it was an afternoon game, I still had to get dinner.  I felt like just relaxing at my hotel so I got Slap’s BBQ delivered.  Slap’s is another highly ranked barbecue place in Kansas City and it was featured on Burgers, Brew, & 'Que.  I got three ribs and burnt ends.  It was all very good.  But I would say that burnt ends at both locations were not the life changing experience that people have made them out to be.  And the ribs were very good, but it’s not like having Kansas City barbecue has ruined other barbecue for me.  I had barbecue in North Carolina in 2019.  It’s been a while since I had Texas barbecue (excluding brisket tacos at a Ranger game back in April).  If I’m back in Texas anytime soon, I’ll have to get some barbecue.  But I would put Old Fields Barbecue in Huntington right up there with any barbecue that I’ve had.

As for the baseball, Friday night was fun and Saturday and Sunday were stupid.  On Friday, I had a standing room ticket.  I wanted to go with one really cheap option and standing by the fountain in the right field is pretty cool.  I ended up sitting for about half the game way down the right field line since there were a lot of open seats.  Mookie Betts led off with a home run and then hit another in the third.  He drove in two more runs with a single in the fourth and a double in the eighth.  Mookie Betts has been outstanding this season.  He ended up starting in right field, second base, and shortstop (a position he never played before this season) in this series.  He did make an error at shortstop, but he has been generally good at all three positions.  Jason Heyward had three hits and drove in two runs.  Bobby Miller pitched five and two-thirds and allowed three runs.  It was all Dodgers with a final score of 9-3.  The box score says it was 97°.  It was hot, but definitely not as hot as it was in Wichita.  Attendance was 22,006 and the game was two hours and 57 minutes.  I stuck around for the fireworks after which were pretty cool.

If you’re going to be watching the game standing really far away from home plate, this is the place to do it.

This was right before Mookie Betts led off the game with a home run.

On Saturday, I got to the stadium and it was sunny, but it said that it was a rain delay.  That seemed pretty silly, but the rain did come and it rained hard for a while.  I was sitting in the upper deck right behind home plate.  I moved up several rows to where the seats were covered and kept dry.  The rain delay lasted for an hour and 25 minutes.  There was still a possibility of more rain, but they got the game in without any further delay.  Julio Urias (2020 World Series hero) was making his return after more than a month.  His first inning was a combination of bad pitching and bad luck.  He gave up three bloop singles.  There were two runs scored on sacrifice flies (one was caught by the second baseman, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that before).  So there was bad luck, but also he couldn’t get anybody to swing and miss.  There were a lot of foul balls when strikeouts would have limited the damage.  Urias gave up five runs in the first inning.  The Dodgers ended up losing 6-4.  They definitely had chances, but they couldn’t complete the comeback.  It was 75° when the game started and it got a little cold as the game went on.  Attendance was 21,004 and the game took two hours and 44 minutes after the rain delay.  They had fireworks again after the game.  It would have been a great view of the fireworks from where I was sitting, but I was checking the weather and it looked like the rain was just about to start again and I wanted to beat the rain on my walk back to my hotel if possible (I did).  I got to pretty much see the whole show as I walked back, but it definitely would have been better to watch from my seat.

The rain led to a rainbow over the field.

This was my view for the second game of the series.  The location could be better, but this is still an excellent stadium.

Sunday was an afternoon game and it was bad.  I’ve never been to a Fourth of July game, but this was on July 2 (our actual Independence Day).  I was sitting up high a little bit off to the first base side.  I was in a great spot because I was in the shade for the whole game.  If I was down a few rows, I would have been in the sun for the whole game.  The box score says it was 82°, but it felt a lot hotter in the sun.  It wasn’t bad in the shade.  The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the second inning and the Dodgers tied it in the fourth.  Then the Dodgers gave up eight runs in three innings.  The Royals won 9-1.  David Peralta had three hits for the Dodgers and the rest of the team had three hits.  Tony Gonsolin was the starting pitcher and he was bad.  Victor Gonzalez was the first relief pitcher used and he was bad.  The Dodgers ended up using infielder Yonny Hernandez to pitch the bottom of the eighth.  I think it was the only time I’ve seen a position player pitch other than when Kiké Hernandez was the losing pitcher for the Dodgers in Philadelphia when he pitched the sixteenth inning (the Dodgers lost that game, but it was an awesome game, unfortunately Rob Manfred decided that he doesn’t want to have fun games like that anymore).  Seeing position players pitch used to be interesting, but it happens so frequently now that it’s not interesting anymore.  Anyway, this game had 19,058 fans and it took two hours and 40 minutes.

This was my view on Sunday afternoon.  Day games are more fun than night games as long as they’re not too hot.  Fortunately, I was in the shade for the whole game.

So it wasn’t a fun series, but it was fun to get to three games at Kauffman Stadium.  It’s an old stadium.  The location is bad (it’s right by Arrowhead and they’re both surrounded by parking lots and they’re not close to anything).  But inside the stadium is fantastic (even though it’s old).  Back in the day, it was one of many stadiums that had astroturf and was symmetrical, but it was the best of those stadiums because it wasn’t used for football, they had the waterfalls in the outfield, and it wasn’t completely enclosed by seats.  Now there’s grass and it’s been renovated and it looks fantastic.  And unlike when I was growing up, so few stadiums are symmetrical now that I like the symmetrical design.  There’s been talk of the Royals getting a new stadium.  My vote would be no on that.  They could definitely have a cooler location.  If they could just move this exact stadium downtown, that would be cool, but of course they can’t do that.  If they do build a new stadium, I hope they go in the Yankee Stadium direction (at least in some ways).  Build it in a better location (unlike Yankee Stadium), keep the dimensions the same, keep the waterfalls and fountains in the outfield, and just make the inside of the stadium more modern and nicer.  I’d be okay with that.

I do have one criticism to mention about Kauffman Stadium.  They had displays with the pitch type, speed, and vertical and horizontal break.  I did not trust the information about how the pitches were breaking at all.  Four seam fastballs were routinely shown with more break than curveballs and sliders.  There would be four seam fastballs where it said 16 inches of vertical break and sliders with three inches of vertical break.  The whole point of high spin rate is to minimize vertical break on four seam fastballs and to maximize the break on breaking balls.  So that seemed weird.  But other than that, Kauffman Stadium is awesome.

When I last did my stadium rankings (after getting to the one current stadium that I hadn’t been to), I had Kauffman Stadium ranked sixth out of the stadiums that still exist (behind Dodger Stadium, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, PNC Park, and Petco Park and just ahead of Oracle Park and Target Field).  I have been to all of those stadiums for at least two games now and after three more games at Kauffman Stadium, I’m keeping it in that same spot.  The next stadium in my rankings is T-Mobile Park in Seattle.  I’ve only been to one game there, but it was also very good.  I have now seen the Dodgers play at 15 different stadiums (that includes two for the Mets).  If I could see them play at any more places where I haven’t seen them play already, I would pick Baltimore (because I could get there without flying), Minnesota (the same city where they won the 1965 World Series and a very good stadium), Seattle (the best stadium that I haven’t gotten to twice yet), and St. Louis (just because Dodgers-Cardinals is a rivalry).  Anyway, I will be going to at least one game at Citi Field.  I just got to an independent league game at a stadium that I hadn’t been to before (I’ll get to that probably in my next blog post).  We’ll see if I get to any games other than that this summer.

200 Is the New 300

After Oklahoma and Texas, the final stop on my Easter vacation trip was Los Angeles.  Unfortunately, I did not get to see Clayton Kershaw pitch while I was there.  He won his 199th career game in San Francisco while I was in Texas.  And he won his 200th game back at Dodger Stadium when I was back in New York.  I have no been to 13 games at Dodger Stadium, all during Kershaw’s career.  Sadly, Kershaw has only pitched in one of them.  Fortunately, it was a really good one.  While it would be awesome to get more opportunities to see him pitch at Dodger Stadium, I have gotten to see him pitch in other places ten times. I’ve seen him pitch a bunch of great games at Citi Field (the best of those was in 2015), another great one at Citizens Bank Park, and solid starts at Nationals Park (before the blog, but here’s the box score) and Yankee Stadium.  As I covered in my last post, he’s one of the top five left-handed pitchers of all time.  But where does he rank in Dodger history?

I think based on just regular season performance, Clayton Kershaw has passed Sandy Koufax as the best player to ever play for the Dodgers.  It took me a long time to feel comfortable saying that, but when you combine 2011-2017 for Kershaw stacking up pretty well against 1961-1966 for Koufax plus Kershaw’s longevity clearly surpassing Koufax, I think Kershaw has him beat at the best player ever for the Dodgers.  But I would still call Koufax the greatest Dodger ever because he was part of four World Series Champions (although barely part of the team in 1955) and he was just ridiculous in the World Series in 1963 and 1965 (two World Series MVPs with complete game shutouts in Games 5 and 7 of the 1965 World Series).  Kershaw doesn’t get enough credit for the really good games he’s pitched in the playoffs (there are a lot of them, but people want to focus on the other ones).  But Kershaw has only won one World Series so far (hopefully there will be more).  So while he doesn’t match up with Koufax in the postseason, let’s not forget that Kershaw should have two championships and he was awesome in the 2017 World Series in the 11 innings he pitched at Dodger Stadium (one run with 15 strikeouts, five hits, and two walks) when the Astros weren’t able to cheat and he was really good in the 2020 World Series.  He was 2-0 with a 2.31 ERA and 0.86 WHIP. He had a dominant performance in Game 1 and a gritty performance in Game 5 (two runs in 5 and two-thirds) in a game they probably needed to win (the series was tied 2-2 and after the way they lost Game 4, they probably would have lost the series if they lost Game 5).  If not for Corey Seager, he might have been the MVP.

While Kershaw is no longer the pitcher he was from 2011-2017, he is still very good and will occasionally show flashes of what he was like back then.  He was fantastic against the Mets to get his 200th win.  He’s got a chance to pass Don Drysdale for second in franchise history this season (209).  He will most likely need at least two more years after this year to pass Don Sutton for the franchise record (233).  If he wants to keep pitching and can stay relatively healthy (like making 18-25 starts per year), he could definitely get there (he’s 35 years old), but it seems like it’s a year to year thing with him at this point.  But also, like Koufax, his win total is pretty much irrelevant at this point.  They’re two of the top five left-handed pitchers in the history of baseball and they are both clearly ahead of Don Sutton in terms of where they rank in Dodgers history even if Sutton has the franchise wins record.  The big number for pitchers was 300 wins.  I don’t think we’re going to have another pitcher win 300 games again unless there’s a change in the way the game is played.  Justin Verlander is the active leader with 244, but he’s 40 years old.  The only other active pitchers ahead of Kershaw are Zack Greinke with 223 (39 years old) and Max Scherzer with 203 (38 years old).  The first active pitchers on the list younger than Kershaw are Madison Bumgarner (33, but just designated for assignment) and Gerritt Cole (32) at 134 wins each.  So 300 is not looking likely anytime soon.

I’ve seen five of those 200 in person and none of his  88 losses.  I’ve also seen six no-decisions (the Dodgers are 5-1 in those games).

Anyway, I got to California on Thursday afternoon and Sean picked me up at Burbank (I try to avoid LAX at all costs) and it was a relaxing day.  It would have been nice if the Dodgers had a home game, but they had a day off after winning a series in San Francisco.  The one California-y thing I did was get In-N-Out.  I think the last time I had In-N-Out was four years ago.  It feels like something I should do any time I’m in California.  It ended up being good to just relax because I was pretty tired from not getting a lot of sleep with my travels over the previous few days.

On Friday, I had some plans.  My first stop was USC.  I went to see two of my former students, Patrick and Briana.  I taught Patrick for three out of four years and Briana for four straight years.  They go to USC and I don’t have anything bad to say about them so that tells you what kind of people they are (we’ll get to USC people who I have something bad to say about at the end of this post).  I’m looking forward to when Briana graduates and gets a job with the Dodgers (pretty much the whole reason she went to USC).  Along with Lorenzo (who I would see later in the day), they rank ahead of 2008 NBA Champion Brian Scalabrine (1.8 points per game in 48 regular season games and 0 games played in the playoffs that year, but he is still a beloved Celtic) and 2020 World Series Champion pitching coach Mark Prior on the very short list of USC people that I like.  Anyway, we had talked about the possibility of doing a Dodger Stadium tour, but that didn’t work with Briana’s class schedule.  So I just met up with them a little after 2:00 and they showed me around.  We started at the Our Savior Parish/USC Caruso Catholic Center.  Then we got lunch and walked around the campus.  It was cool seeing the baseball stadium, which included the Mark Prior Bullpen.  I haven’t been to many college baseball stadiums, but I do know that there’s a wide range of college baseball stadiums.  Some are like minor league stadiums and some feel closer to high school fields (Notre Dame’s definitely isn’t like a high school field, but it also doesn’t feel much like a minor league stadium).  USC’s stadium definitely had the feel of a minor league stadium.  So it was good to see Patrick and Briana.  Sean picked me up from USC and we were off to the Dodger game with a stop at Philippe’s.

Much like Mr. Feeny teaching Corey, Topanga, and Shawn, I just kept teaching them every year.  Unlike Corey, Topanga, and Shawn with Mr. Feeny, they didn’t need me.  A trained monkey could have been their teacher and they would have done well. 

We met Lorenzo at Philippe’s.  It’s only like a mile to Dodger Stadium so it’s a good place to stop on the way to a Dodger game.  I think this was my third or fourth time at Philippe’s.  I first heard of Philippe’s from Man v. Food.  It’s where the French dip sandwich was invented.  There are different options for meat, bread, and cheese and you can choose single dip, double dip, or wet.  I went with the beef on a French roll with cheddar cheese and wet.  It was excellent.  Wet might have been a little too messy, though. I’d probably go with double dip if I ever go again. Unlike anywhere else I went on my trip, they had real mustard.  It would be awesome if they had a Philippe’s stand at Dodger Stadium.  At the very least, they should have Philippe’s mustard as an option.  I’ve never had it on a hot dog, but I would like to try it on something other than a Philippe’s sandwich.  It’s a unique mustard.  There’s yellow mustard (which, as I’ve covered before, isn’t mustard), honey mustard, Dijon, spicy brown, etc.  I’m partial to spicy brown.  Philippe's mustard is spicy, but it’s kind of an orange color.  I can take a lot of spicy brown mustard without much difficulty, but you have to be careful with the Philippe’s mustard.  I added a small amount to my sandwich.  After Philippe’s, we were off to Dodger Stadium.

We got to the stadium in the 6:15-6:30 range.  I wanted to go in through the center field gate because I hadn’t seen the Sandy Koufax statue yet.  Jackie Robinson was the first to get a statue and rightfully so as he’s the most important player in baseball history.  Now Sandy Koufax has a statue also.   It was cool to see the Koufax statue.  The next statue (and probably the last one until Kershaw gets one some day) should be Vin Scully.  When Koufax’s statue was unveiled last year, Vin wasn’t there, which was probably a sign that he wasn’t doing too well.  When I heard that he died last August, I was as sad as I possibly could be about somebody who I never met dying.  I covered how much I miss him back in October. He was the greatest broadcaster of all time and probably the most beloved figure in the history of the Dodgers.  I was wearing my Vin Scully shirt to the game since it was my first one at Dodger Stadium since he died, but it was in the 50s so I kept my sweatshirt on the whole time.

The Dodgers are two for two on statues.  You could have made the case for Vin Scully getting one before Koufax, but I think Vin probably would have been against the idea.  But now, the Vin Scully statue should get announced on the anniversary of his death and then unveiled next year.

After checking out the Koufax statue, we went up to the loge level because there’s one stand with a very good craft beer selection.  I know about that stand from my last couple of trips to Dodger Stadium, but they really need to do a better job of making good beer widely available throughout the stadium.  When I was there in 2021, I got Kershaw's Wicked Curve, which was from the Buzzrock Brewing Company in Torrance, California.  I had to get it because of the name, but it was legitimately good and I would drink it again even if it wasn’t named after my favorite player.  They didn’t have that one this year so I got another beer named after one of my favorite players, Andre Ethier’s Walk Off Blonde from the Tarantula Hills Brewery in Thousand Oaks, California.  It wasn’t as good as Kershaw’s Wicked Curve, but it was good and again, I would drink it again even if it wasn’t named after Andre Ethier.  Then we were headed up to our seats.  I stopped to get a Dodger Dog.  There are other food options, but if I’m only going to get to one Dodger game this year, I had to have a Dodger Dog.  Philippe’s and Dodger Dogs were a good way to celebrate Meat Friday after Lent.  Sadly, yellow mustard was the only option.  I know I’ve had real mustard at Dodger Stadium in the past, but the last couple of times I’ve been there, it’s only been yellow mustard.  I’m going to have to try to find some real mustard packets to smuggle into the game the next time I get back to Dodger Stadium.

I had that whole pregame schedule planned because I didn’t want to miss three innings of the game standing in line for food and beer now that the pitch clock is shortening games.  I got back to my seat from the Dodger Dog stand just in time for the Cody Bellinger tribute video.  It was awesome being there for Cody Bellinger’s first game back at Dodger Stadium.  Justin Turner, Kenley Jansen, and Kiké Hernandez haven’t returned to Dodger Stadium yet.  Joc Pederson and Corey Seager have.  Along with Bellinger, all of those guys should always get a good reception at Dodger Stadium for what they did throughout their time with the Dodgers.  I think everybody would have hoped for more from Cody Bellinger as a Dodger after he was Rookie of the Year in 2017 and MVP in 2019, but besides that, he was the 2018 NLCS MVP, he made a great catch to take a two-run home run away from Fernando Tatis that would have given the Padres a 5-4 lead in the playoffs in 2020 in Game 2 of that series, he hit the home run that gave the Dodgers the lead in Game 7 of the NLCS to complete their comeback against the Braves in 2020, and then he hit a home run in Game 1 of the World Series to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.  He did a lot that Dodger fans should always remember him fondly for.  He got a good ovation after the video.  And then he was getting another ovation when he came up for his first at bat and got called for an automatic strike because he wasn’t in the box in time.  I’m really happy about how the pitch clock is improving the pace of play, but that was ridiculous.  There should be some umpire discretion there to not call a strike.  That was an automatic strike that could help the Dodgers, but no Dodger fan actually wanted that strike called.  So that’s one thing that needs to be fixed with the pitch clock.

This was our view in Section 1 Row N of the Reserve Level for the game.  My ideal seat at Dodger Stadium is this section, but down lower than we were.  It’s right above the broadcast booth that Vin Scully spent decades calling games from.

Pete met us at the seats after the top of the first.  It had been two years since I last saw him so it was good that he was able to make it to the game.  It was a bad game for the Dodgers.  Noah Syndergaard gave up three runs in six innings (definitely not a terrible start, but not great either).  Chris Taylor and Max Muncy hit home runs for the Dodgers and it was 3-2 Cubs.  Then the eighth inning happened.  Andre Jackson gave up three home runs and then another one in the ninth and the Cubs won 8-2.  Oh well.  That made the Dodgers 8-5 in games I’ve been to at Dodger Stadium.  It was the first time I saw the Dodgers lose at Dodger Stadium since 2018.  This might be a down year for the Dodgers, but it was a fun day in Los Angeles.  Hopefully I’ll be able to see at least one Dodger win in person this year (I am planning on getting to some more Dodger games this season and not just in New York).

It was Friday Night Fireworks after the game.  I’ve done Friday Night Fireworks three times before I think.  They let fans out on the field.  The last one was two years ago and we stayed in our seats.  But the other times we went on the field.  We tried going out on the field this time, but we didn’t make it before they cut it off.  So we watched the fireworks from right by the field.  The game took two hours and 20 minutes.  Attendance was 52,298 (the only game I’ve been to at Dodger Stadium with a bigger crowd was Opening Day in 2013).  The temperature at the start of the game was 59°, but I actually felt colder at the game in Oklahoma City when it was 75° at the start of the game (it definitely dropped into the 60s and there was some wind).  Hopefully I’ll get back to Dodger Stadium for a couple of games in 2024.

It was a bad game, but it’s always good to be at Dodger Stadium.

I first debuted my Sports Villain Power Rankings a year ago.  I updated the rankings in the fall and it’s time for another update (especially after saying nice things about USC people).  I’m just going to do a top 15 this time because after this, I’m inducting my first class into the Jim Sports Villain Hall of Fame.  Let’s start with the active villains:

15.  Kevin Durant- The good news is that if the Suns win, then Monty Williams wins, and if the Suns lose, then Kevin Durant loses.

14.  Lincoln Riley- He was on the list last year and I said that he had the potential to move way up.  The only reason that he’s not higher on the list is that it’s the spring and not the fall.  He’s brought back USC as a team of hired mercenaries, just like when Pete Carroll was the coach.

13.  Brian Kelly- I will never root for Brian Kelly unless LSU winning could directly help Notre Dame.

12.  Manny Machado- He was one of the most dislikable Dodgers ever and now he plays for the Padres.

11.  Fernando Tatis- I initially had him ahead of the next five people.  He is a cheater, but he never cheated the Dodgers out of a World Series championship.

6-10.  (Tied) Jose Altuve, George Springer, Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, and Yuli Gurriel- The Astros cheaters from 2017 who are still in the Majors.

5.  Rob Manfred- The pitch clock is mostly good.  The shift restrictions are good.  But he handled the Astros cheating scandal terribly and I will never forgive him for the DH in the NL or the runner on second base for no reason in extra innings.  I’m also anticipating that there will be some really stupid realignment that gets rid of the NL and AL whenever expansion comes.

4.  Trevor Bauer- I’m limiting this to people who are active and you could argue that I should take Trevor Bauer off the list because he is definitely not active in Major League Baseball this season.  I’m leaving him on here because the Dodgers still have to pay him this year and he has messed up so many things for them ever since they signed him.

3.  Caleb Williams- He’s the most dislikable college football player since Reggie Bush. I hope Jordan Botelho sacks him a few times and Benjamin Morrison intercepts him a few times in October.

2.  Anthony Davis- Everything about the Lakers is dislikable.  In my lifetime, they’re always built on players that force their way to the Lakers rather than having any loyalty at all (with the exception of Kobe Bryant).

1. LeBron James- If the NBA playoffs are going on and the Lakers are in the playoffs, LeBron James is an obvious number 1.

There are some pretty big villains who didn’t make the top 15 for various reasons.  Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll, and Jim Harbaugh are all top 15 possibilities when it’s football season.  Kyrie Irving ranked number 1 when I first did this last year, but the sports cancer that is Kyrie Irving killed the Mavericks so quickly that they didn’t even make the playoffs (I had him at 17 when I was working on a draft of this post).  He’ll very likely be back in the top ten when the 2023-2024 NBA season starts.  And he’s a lock for induction into the Jim Sports Villain Hall of Fame when his career is over.  The first Baseball Hall of Fame class was five absolute legends so this has to be five players/coaches who are no longer active who are as villainous as they come in my lifetime as a sports fan.  Here we go:

Barry Bonds- He played for the Giants and he ruined the two greatest records in baseball by being the biggest cheater in the history of the sport.

Tom Brady- He played for Michigan and the Patriots and cheated to win more Super Bowls than Joe Montana.

Reggie Bush- The most famous sporting event I have ever attended was the 2005 Notre Dame-USC game.  Notre Dame would have won if USC didn’t have a highly paid professional football player playing college football.

Phil Jackson- Those first three were so obvious.  Now it gets a little more interesting.  There had to be a Laker on here and it’s Phil Jackson by the process of elimination.  Magic Johnson as a basketball player is really before my time (I remember him as a basketball player, but I don’t remember him winning a championship) and he was part of the group that rescued the Dodgers from being owned by Frank McCourt so he’s a hero for me, not a villain.  I don’t remember Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a basketball player and he was excellent as Roger Murdoch in Airplane! Shaquille O’Neal is likable from everything else in his career besides his time with the Lakers.  Kobe Bryant was actually drafted by the Lakers and wasn’t a mercenary or somebody who forced his way to the Lakers.  I didn’t like him, but he’s not the type of person that makes the Lakers so dislikable.  Also, he was a practicing Catholic and went to Mass on the last day of his life.  So I can’t put him on here.  LeBron James will instantly be a Hall of Famer once his career is over, but he doesn’t qualify now.  So it was between Phil Jackson and Pat Riley.  Pat Riley is a double villain for his time with the Heat, but I don’t remember his time with the Lakers.  Phil Jackson never would have won so many championships without Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant and he was always so smug. I hate smugness. Smugness is not a good quality.

Rafael Palmeiro- This one might come as a surprise.  When I was growing up, I had a friend whose father would sometimes get tickets that were in the first row behind the visitors’ dugout at Yankee Stadium.  I probably sat in those seats for three or four games.  Whenever the visiting team would come off the field, we would ask for a ball (back when there was no screen behind the dugout).  One time, Rafael Palmeiro tossed a ball to somebody and pointed at me and said he would get me after the next inning.  And then he never did.  So I always disliked him.  I didn’t know at the time that he was a cheater.  Later on he would go on to lie under oath to Congress about taking steroids.  So he is an all time sports villain for me.

There are some big villains left out, but you have to leave some people out if you’re limiting it to five. So I didn’t include Matt Leinart, Mark Sanchez, Rex Ryan, Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Dwyane Wade, or Jim Boeheim (I’m probably forgetting some). It’s kind of like Cy Young (49.1%), Rogers Hornsby (46.5%), Grover Cleveland Alexander (24.3%), Lou Gehrig (22.6%), Jimmie Foxx (9.3%), and Lefty Grove (5.3%) not coming close to getting elected to the Hall of Fame in 1936.

Anyway, Easter vacation was fun. I already have something planned for the summer, but I won’t rule out doing a quick weekend baseball trip before that, but I don’t want to schedule anything in advance since I’m going to try to focus as much as possible on the NBA and NHL Playoffs until the summer. Sidney Crosby is not in the NHL Playoffs this year so there’s no hockey villain that I really want to see lose. I really don’t like that the Islanders have two Notre Dame players on their team. I want them to score a whole bunch of goals and for the Islanders to lose high scoring games. But we have plenty of NBA villains (there would have been a few more if I went beyond 15 on my active villains list). Hopefully they will crash and burn in the playoffs.

Let’s Go Celtics!

Let’s Go Rangers!