Joe Schulman is the author of a new column in the Kansas City Star about becoming a fan of a new baseball team. He has written for ChopTalk, the Atlanta Braves' magazine. Joe is a freelance writer in Atlanta, and he and his wife, Cady, are avid Braves fans.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Off to CooperstownSince I started this blog about a month ago, I've had several people ask whether I'm going to get to a KC game.
The answer right now is no, and you can blame my wife.
See, she's a huge baseball fan and grew up in Baltimore watching Cal Ripken Jr. Since we started dating two years ago we have been planning our trip to Cooperstown to see him get inducted.
Well, he was voted in this week and we already have our hotel booked. The truth is, we want to do both trips. Unfortunately, as it stands, the trip to NY is going to be expensive and we don't think we can do both.
That's the bad news. The good news is I'm not leaving the Royals after a year. I became a fan and I will always be a fan. We've already been talking about next year heading up to Kansas City for at least one game.
When I started this blog, I always planned on going to a Royals game. I think you have to go. But my wife comes first and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Things can change and there's always a chance a KC trip is in the cards for this year. But we'll have to see.
Now a question for everyone: Have you been to an induction at Cooperstown? Any words of advice?
Back to Ripken now. How could he not be unanimous? Same with Tony Gwynn. The two did everything asked of them in their careers. I won't go through the numbers because they're pretty well known, but I just don't see a reason not to vote for either guy. Any ideas?
On to the Royals. I just keep more and more excited about the season. I'm not predicting playoffs or anything, but I think we're going to see an excited team with plenty of support from the fans. I see them mimicking the recent success of the Tigers where they build and build until they take the league by storm.
I think most fans I've talked to feel this is a building process and the team is going about things the right way: One step at a time until the team reaches the top. Having a stable, strong team for many years is better than producing only for a single year and then falling back into the cellar.
One last question for the day: What do you think of Mark McGwire's poor showing in the HOF voting? I'll post about it more tomorrow, but I want to hear from you guys too.