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ALL STAR GAME: 1973
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: I took a tour of this fine facility on August 16, 2002, a day after the Yankees had played there.
When Kansas City built separate stadiums for football and baseball in the early 1970s, I thought it was an extravagant waste of public money, especially for such a small city. How wise those city fathers turned out to be in retrospect! "Royals Stadium" (as this ballpark was called until 1993) was the one exception to the rule of conformist mediocrity in the doughnut "clone" era of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Although symmetrical and therefore a little dull, like most modern-era 20th-century stadiums, it was designed to make baseball fans as comfortable as possible. With a cozy capacity of just over 40,000, the scale of this ballpark was just right for baseball. It is also quite pleasing aesthetically: The signature feature of this stadium is the huge artificial waterfall that stretches along the beautiful landscaped slope between the bullpens.
The overall layout of the field is reminiscent of Dodger Stadium, as the main grandstand forms a rounded acute angle, and the outfield fence makes a sharp curve between the foul poles and the bullpens. Another similarity is that there are two distance markers on either side of straightaway center field. However, there are no bleachers. One architectural feature that sets this stadium apart from all others is the shape of the second deck, which is very large in the area close to the infield but tapers to a point just beyond each foul pole. In addition, the seats in the lower deck are not parallel to the wall but are rather arranged in a very gentle, broad curve, so that people sitting near the foul poles face toward the middle of the field rather than deep center field. (This is reflected in the diagrams by the slight curvature of the dugouts.) As a result of this seating curvature, there are eight fewer rows of seats in the corners than behind the dugouts, which is why the height of the wall rises gradually from the dugouts to the foul poles. There is a small mezzanine level, which on the left side of the field consists mainly of enclosed air-conditioned skyboxes. Another interesting feature is the way the stadium lights reach out toward the field along the curved rim extending from the ends of the roof on either side of the second deck. This was made possible by the careful balancing of structural stresses in those angled support beams, which was quite an architectural feat. The lights do not extend out to the second deck corners, however, so it gets dark out there at night.
The only major defect with Royals Stadium in its original form was the artificial turf, which was chosen in order to minimize the number of rained-out games. The Royals depend on a fan base that stretches across the Midwest, from Wichita to Omaha, and fans would be reluctant to drive over a hundred miles if rain threatened to postpone a game. Originally it was 375 feet to the power alleys, and 405 feet to center field, with a bend in the outfield fence next to each of the bullpens, not unlike those at Wrigley Field. Since the right field bullpen is wider than the left field one (to accommodate vehicle entry), the right field bend was a little further from the foul pole, creating a tiny bit of asymmetry. After the fence was moved back several feet in 1980, the bends disappeared. The JumboTron video screen in left-center field was state of the art when it was installed in 1990, but it is starting to age.
In July 1993 the name of this ballpark was changed to Kauffman Stadium, in honor of Ewing Kauffman, the team's much-admired original owner; he passed away just one month later. Prior to the 1995 season, the old fake turf was replaced by real grass, as the advent of new-fangled quick-draining natural turf substantially reduced the number of rained-out games. At the same time, the outfield fence between the bullpens was moved closer to home, where they had been originally, thus restoring the original bends in the fence near the power alleys. The field is now just beautiful. (During my tour of the stadium, I noticed that the warning track in foul territory is not real dirt, however, but a strange rubbery substance.) In 1999 a few rows of high-class box seats were squeezed in behind home plate, cutting the backstop distance from 60 feet to about 50. In addition, covered "dugout" seats were added beyond the photographers' area near first and third bases. In 2000, a covered pavilion/picnic area was added behind the left field (visitor's) bullpen, and in 2004, the fence was moved back to where it had been from 1980 to 1995. But that's not all. In April 2006 voters approved a bond referendum that will fund further renovations over the next few years. New outfield bleacher seats will be built, and an expanded concourse will wrap all the way around the stadium. The proposal to build an enormous moving roof to cover either Kauffman Stadium or Arrowhead Stadium (where the Chiefs play football) failed, however. The two facilities combined are called the "Harry S Truman Sports Complex," located about five miles east of downtown Kansas City. In the spring of 2008, the scoreboard in center field was replaced with a bigger, flashier model.
The Royals' only Hall of Famer, George Brett, led the Royals to the World Series in 1980, when they lost to the Phillies, and in 1985, when they beat the Cardinals in the first-ever Missouri-only World Series. The Royals were only the second expansion franchise ever to win the World Series, and Kansas City was delirious with joy. Lacking a big urban media market, the Royals have struggled since the 1980s, but their fans remain loyal. The revenue-sharing agreement in 2003 boosted the team's future prospects -- "future" as in "wait till next year!"
SOURCES: Lowry (1992, 2006), USA Today / Fodor's (1996), Rosen (2001), Royals Gameday Magazine (2002)
