The Royals are hot
Under the category of “you learn something new every day,” this summer I spent a few days in Milwaukee. Having never stayed in Milwaukee before, I spent some time walking around the downtown area, sampling the local cuisine and beverages and came across this sign.
Wow, how many of you knew that the American League was formed in Milwaukee? I knew the Negro Leagues were conceived in the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, but never thought about where the American or the National Leagues were formed. The hotel that housed the meeting, The Republican House, is long gone. The Republican House stood at the corner of 3rd and Kilbourn and was a majestic four-story wooden building. It was in Room 185 on March 5, 1900, that a trio of baseball titans, Connie Mack, Ban Johnson, and Charles Comisky along with attorney Henry Kililea and his brother Matt, reached an agreement to break away from the National League. The American League reorganized after the 1900 season, adding teams in Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington whereupon they were recognized as a major league.
The hotel was razed in 1961 and is now a parking lot. It had a lot of local history. It was the first hotel in Milwaukee to have a billiards table as well as the first hotel in Milwaukee to have electricity. It’s been a parking lot for over 50 years but is supposedly going to be the new home of an eight-story Hilton hotel. Makes sense, since the UW-Milwaukee arena is just a block away and the Fiserv Forum, home of the Bucks, is just two blocks away. Much like its metro cousin to the east, Cleveland, I’m not sure Milwaukee gets the respect it should. I enjoyed my time there. The food and drink were excellent. The people were super friendly and helpful wherever I went. The city’s waterfront is impressive, and Miller Park is a sight to see. The Brewers are in first place in the National League Central and appear to be headed to the playoffs. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to check out their art museum or the Harley Davidson Museum, but there’ll be another visit.
Another summer trip took us to San Diego and a chance to see the Padres play. I’ve been fortunate to see several games over the years at Petco Park. I was able to watch Petco rise from the ground and transform the Gaslamp District into what it is today. As Kansas City wrestles with the question of building a downtown stadium, and make no mistake, they are going to build one sooner or later, the city would be wise to spend some time in San Diego and see how to do it right.
Petco has ample nearby hotel space, plentiful dining and drinking options and most importantly, a viable rail system which delivers thousands of fans to Petco’s doorstep. A safe and efficient rail system looks like a key to success. Denver also has a downtown stadium and a light rail system, which drops off at Union Station, about three blocks from Coors Field. Denver’s rail system has been heavily criticized for many things, namely for being slow, having unscheduled cancellations, an unsafe environment with widespread drug use in rail cars and for being a system where you drive to a station, park your car, ride the train, then walk a fair distance to get where you’re going, then hope your car hasn’t been stolen when you return. The San Diego rail (or Boston for that matter) gets you very close to where you want to go in relative safety. Kansas City must get this right. I don’t know anyone in Denver who uses their light rail, unless they must.
The only thing Petco whiffed on was not building enough entrance gates to the stadium. We took in a Monday night Padres-Pirates game which drew over 45,000 fans. Granted, the Padres have the third-best record in the National League (and they’re tied for second in the West, behind the Dodgers) but think about that, 45,000+ on a Monday night for a Pirate team that had lost 9 of it’s last 10 games. The Padres drew over 128,000 people for a three-game early week set with the Pirates. And Paul Skenes didn’t pitch in the series. Amazing.
San Diegans love their Padres. Getting in and out of the stadium was my only beef. The crowd was packed in and moving slowly as security diligently checked every person and purse. If you’ve ever been to a stockyard and have seen a herd of cattle squeezed through a single chute, you get the idea. If Kansas City does this right, they’ll build ample room for the entrance and exits.
Now about the Padres. For a few years, I thought Padres GM A.J. Preller might be one of the worst GM’s in the league, but I was wrong. He’s always had the guts to make a deal, and he’s built a pretty good team in San Diego. Neither Fernando Tatis Jr. nor Manny Machado played in this game, but the Padres had several players who caught my eye.
Starting pitcher Joe Musgrove threw 4 1⁄3 efficient innings, only allowing two hits and no runs and looked great doing it.
Donovan Solano, subbing for Machado at third, was held hitless despite having a couple of hard-hit balls. He did make three excellent plays in the field. He’s hitting .308 for the year and looks like he could be a regular third baseman for just about any team in the league. He’d be a guy for the Royals to target in the off season. If there was any way for Kansas City to acquire him, and shift Maikel Garcia to second, wow. I guess it never hurts to dream.
The Padres prized rookie, Jackson Merrill, was also held hitless but played an outstanding center field. He covered a lot of ground and made several outstanding catches. More on that later.
Paul Skenes will probably win the league’s Rookie of the Year, which is a shame for Merrill, who in any other year, with his .281/.321/.481 slash and 123 OPS+ plus his outstanding defense, would win in a walk away. Merrill is only 21 and looks like a future star.
Lefty Tanner Scott pitched the eighth, and I can see why teams coveted him at the deadline. He was nails.
The Padres closer was one Robert Saurez, a 33-year-old Venezuelan who bounced around the Mexican and Japanese leagues for seven seasons before San Diego found him. He made his debut with the Padres in 2022. I knew something was up when the stadium went dark, and a pyrotechnic show went off on the various scoreboards. Give it to the Padres, they know how to introduce a closer. Fans were going nuts when this guy came in and I soon understood why. His changeup clocked at 92 mph. For comparison’s sake, Frank Mozzicato’s fastball tops out at 88. Saurez routinely clocked triple digits, with a high of 102. Apples and oranges I know, but there’s something about seeing a guy throw over 100. Saurez reminded me a lot of former Royal pitcher Kelvin Herrera.
I was curious to see if Padre fans suffered from closer angst like their Kansas City brethren do. Saurez got Ke’Bryan Hayes on a comebacker for the first out. Bryan De La Cruz fought off the heat and collected his second hit of the night, with a single to right. Old friend Michael Taylor lined out to right for the second out. The Padres let De La Cruz have second, which backfired when Andrew McCutcheon turned in a professional at-bat and stroked a single, scoring De La Cruz. This brought Bryan Reynolds to the plate. The Pirates have a lot of Bryans. Reynolds battled Saurez with a five-pitch at bat before stroking a sinking liner to right-center. It looked like we were heading to extra innings until Merrill, on a full sprint, made an outstanding diving catch to save the game. 45,000 Padre fans exhaled. It took Saurez twenty pitches, but he got the job done. And it was entertaining.
The Padres have a team. A tip of the cap to Preller for putting this squad together.
The Pirates have fallen out of contention by losing 13 of their past 14 as of this writing. They have a few players. De La Cruz looks like a guy who could turn it around with a change of scenery. Ke’Bryan Hayes made some nice plays in the field. Oneil Cruz has one of the strongest arms I’ve ever seen on a shortstop. If he ever forgets how to hit, he may have a second act as a closer.
They’ve got several old Royals on the roster. Besides Taylor, there’s Edward Olivares (hitting .224 and recently demoted to AAA Indianapolis) and Aroldis Chapman. Their pitcher this game was 27-year-old former Cardinal product Jake Woodford, who threw six innings of three-hit ball and looked excellent doing it. It’s hard to know what to make of the Pirates. They’ve got a lot of old warhorses on this team and a few youngsters with talent. They’re not quite deep enough or good enough to make the playoffs, but better than a complete teardown. Some of their guys seemed disinterested, which is the worst fate for fans. Much like Kansas City, they have some players with tantalizing physical abilities where if you allow yourself to be deluded, you can think “if they’d just put it together, they could be a star”.
This has nothing to do with the Royals or baseball, but while in San Diego, we were fortunate to hear Jon Dorenbos speak. If you’re unfamiliar with him, here are the cliff notes: 15-year NFL career as a long snapper, primarily with Philadelphia. He overcame crushing tragedy in his life. Traded to the Saints late in his career where it was discovered he had an aortic aneurysm, which required immediate surgery and ended his playing career. He was so popular with his Eagles teammates they gave him a Super Bowl ring even though he was no longer with the team.
He went on to a career as a motivational speaker, writer, and magician. He finished third in Season 11 of America’s Got Talent.
Dorenbos was a hilarious speaker and had more energy than anyone I’ve ever seen plus he put on an unbelievable magic show. His book is called “Life is Magic” and it’ll be my next read. If you haven’t seen him, check him out. It’s a great day to be alive and a great summer to enjoy a playoff push.
