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| Courtesy: Kansas City Royals |
My uncle from Kansas City got me hooked on the Kansas City Royals when I was a kid. Every time he visited Omaha, we’d go out on my grandparent’s front porch and listen to the Royals game on the radio. He’d talk to the radio as if the players could hear him giving them advice or cheering them on.
Somehow, my mom scored enough tickets for our family to travel on a bus to Kansas City to see the Royals play one year. As I single mother, I have no idea how she pulled that off. But I sat in Royals Stadium (now called Kauffman Stadium) marveling over the fact that I could actually see my favorite team play in person.
Something magical happens between a parent and a child at a baseball game. The senses are already on overload – in a good way – with the crack of the bat, the smell of cotton candy, players sliding in the dirt, the potential of catching a foul ball as a fan. But having a parent place his or her arm around a child to point out all of these things cements a bond in a child’s mind.
In 2009, I saw a message on Twitter from someone who worked for the Royals saying they were having a Kids’ Day at the K (meaning Kauffman Stadium) and they were raising money so kids from local Boys & Girls Clubs and various other children’s organizations could come to the game. For every $10.00 that was donated, one child would get to attend the game. If $250.00 was raised, the Royals would match it so 50 kids could attend the game.
I wrote about it on my Royals blog (on a site no longer active, but I do cover the Triple-A team on a site called Omaha Baseball 360), trying to raise support for 10 kids. The most popular Royals blog, Royals Review, joined in, really fueling the effort, and within a few weeks, people had donated enough money for more than 100 kids to see the game. I’m not exactly sure how it all worked out, but from what I understand, many of the parents came as well.
Afterward, the team sent me several photos of the recipients of the tickets, showing parents enjoying the game with their kids (see one of those photos above). I smiled and remembered my own experiences as a child at the ballpark.
In my previous post in this series, I wrote about a neighbor who helped me even though he was experiencing a trying time in his own life. It was an act of kindness I won’t forget. I don't care if the kids who attended the game in Kansas City that day remember or even know about our efforts to get them there, but I do hope that 20 years from now some of them are still talking about how attending a baseball game with a parent on a hot summer day in 2009 is something they will never forget.
