Opening ‘Night’ experience certainly one to remember
Phil Cobb
When you are the World Series champions, I guess you get to make your own rules.
So if the Kansas City Royals want to have “Opening Night”, AND “Opening Day,” nobody’s going to tell them otherwise.
And when you’re the best team in baseball, there is much anticipation and fanfare surrounding the first game of the season.
I was glad to be part of that celebration.
Jerry Lutz and I, as part of the Maryville Daily Forum “team,” traveled to the intersection of Brooklyn and 31st streets in Kansas City to participate in Relay the Way, billed as the “Longest Opening Day First Pitch.”
We were worse than little kids with excitement, showing up roughly two hours before our scheduled time.
More than 2,500 people paid a minimum of $30 each to participate in the effort which relayed a computerized baseball from Union Station more than nine miles to the pitcher’s mound at Kauffman Stadium.
The route went right past 18th and Vine where the new Kansas City MLB Urban Youth Academy is being developed, the same academy to which Royals All-Star catcher and World Series Most Valuable Player Salvador Perez donated $1 million.
All proceeds from the event also went to the academy, which will consist of four new “state-of-the-art” baseball diamonds, an indoor training facility, and other improvements designed to “provide KC youth a place to grow in baseball from the field to the front office with coaching, mentorship, tutoring, and more at no cost to them.”
What made it extra special for me was the glove with which I caught the ball.
I’ve written about the Frank White glove before, but it bears repeating in connection with this event.
I was 10 years old at the beginning of the 1981 baseball season and in need of a new baseball glove.
My dad, who was without a doubt the biggest — and most knowledgeable — Royals fan of all time, owned the Tri-County News in King City at the time and was a friend of former Royals Public Relations Director Dean Vogelaar.
I’m not sure which of those things afforded my dad the most access, but it seemed to me he could go just about anywhere he wanted in the stadium, and talk to just about anyone he wanted to talk to.
And he did.
Because of this access, he got to know many of the players, coaches, and staff.
Frank White was one of his favorites.
So, having a son who loved baseball, needed a new glove, and happened to play second base, Dad asked Frank what kind of glove he would suggest.
As the story goes, Frank reached into his duffle bag, pulled out one of his own gloves and said, “How about this one?”
It happened to be one of the gloves he had used in the previous year’s World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
It still seems like a fairy tale today. Imagine what it felt like to me as a 10-year-old kid.
Frank’s only stipulation was that it not become a piece of memorabilia — I had to actually use the glove.
And I did.
From the moment my dad gave me the glove until the time I was done with Pony League baseball at age 16 or 17, I probably had that glove on my hand more times than not.
Later in life, after my dad had passed away, Frank visited our newspaper office in King City, and I had the opportunity to interview him in person, giving me the chance to finally ask for his autograph on the glove.
Thankfully, he obliged.
So, there I was Sunday morning, standing at the corner of Brooklyn and 31st, waiting for the ceremonial sphere to come my way.
I don’t think I took the glove off the entire time.
I pounded my hand in the glove so many times, I literally wore the skin off the middle knuckle on my right hand.
It just felt so natural, like I had never taken it off. It had probably been 25 years or more since I had actually caught a ball with it.
Thankfully, another guy in line, who happened to be a police officer for that neighborhood, had brought a ball and was willing to play a little catch before it was time for the real deal.
I had told Jerry that if I saw a news crew I was going to flag them down and share my story.
And as luck would have it, Jonathan Carter of KCTV Channel 5 and his cameraman wondered by, interviewing participants.
I couldn’t resist the urge to share the story of how special it was to be a part of Royals history, and to use a glove that my late father had received from Royals Hall of Famer and eight-time Gold Glove Award winner Frank White, who, coincidentally, is a Kansas City native and was a product of the now defunct Royals Baseball Academy.
I got so caught up in the moment that when Jerry turned and tossed the computerized ball to me, I didn’t even take the time to look at it. I just turned and threw it to the next person in line.
It almost felt like I was turning another double play.
All I thought about was how neat my dad would have thought that moment was.
And now that ball resides at Kauffman Stadium in the Royals Hall of Fame with all of the Gold Gloves Frank White earned — and a real leather glove that looks identical to the one he gave me.
