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February 8, 2026 [LINK / comment]

Baseball (?) road trip: January 2026

Over the holidays, I made another long drive out to the midwest much like last August, but with fewer scenic detours this time, and of course, no actual games. On the way back east I stopped at two major league stadiums (Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City and Busch Stadium in St. Louis) and one minor league stadium. It was the first time I had stopped to inspect Louisville Slugger Field, home of the Louisville Bats. (Talk about a bad pun!) They are the AAA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, whose home is about 100 miles upstream along the Ohio River. I learned that Louisville Slugger Field was built into the pre-existing structure that once housed the city's passenger railroad station.

TOP: Kauffman Stadium, with part of (GEHA Field at) Arrowhead Stadium in back, in Kansas City.
MIDDLE: Busch Stadium III, in St. Louis.
BOTTOM: Louisville Slugger Field, in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photos taken January 3 and 4.)

Changes at Kauffman Stadium

A couple weeks ago, the Kansas City Royals announced that parts of the outfield fence at Kauffman Stadium are being moved in. This will reduce the power alley dimensions by about ten feet, but center field (410) and the foul line (330) distances will remain the same. Instead of being a broad, gradual curve the outfield fence will be a straight line from just inside the inner corner of each bullpen to a point roughly 80 feet from dead center field. See MLB.com. This of course is expected to generate more home runs, but whether it will benefit the Royals is anyone's guess. There will probably be fewer triples, which for real baseball fans are more exciting than home runs. So you know what that means -- another diagram revision!

In addition, the Royals definitively ruled out one of the sites for a new stadium they had been considering, on the southeast side of Overland Park, Kansas. I visited the proposed "Aspiria Campus" site last August, and learned that a large portion of the "land" consists of large ponds that would have to be filled in. Unless some of the nearby old Sprint office buildings (before Sprint was acquired by T-Mobile) were to be demolished, there wouldn't be much room for parking, and street access to the nearby I-435 bypass is rather constricted. In contrast, the current site has easy, direct access to both I-70 and I-435, and many acres of parking lots. Another alternative site, just north of Kansas City, fell through when the deadline for voting on a necessary tax increase passed without action. That leaves just the southeast side of downtown Kansas City, adjacent to Union Station, or the current site. Some are hinting that the Royals might end up moving to Nashville, Portland, or elsewhere, but I am highly dubious of those alternatives as real MLB home cities.

Chiefs abandon Missouri

Meanwhile, late in December the Kansas City Chiefs announced their intentions to relocate to Kansas City, Kansas, as of the year 2031 or so. Pending final arrangements with local authorities, they will build a new stadium in the vicinity of the Kansas Speedway. On Thursday of this past week, Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas approved a special bond measure to facilitate the project, but many details are still hazy. See KMBC.com

New ballpark for the Rays?

Somehow, I think I have heard this tune before. Be that as it may, the Tampa Bay Rays announced a proposed stadium just west of Raymond James Stadium and just south of George Steinbrenner Stadium, where they played last year while their erstwhile home stadium was being reconstructed. [It would be built on land currently owned by Hillsborough Community College, on the east edge of Tampa International Airport and about four miles northwest of downtown Tampa.] The plans show an immense fixed-roof stadium with a relatively small capacity of just over 31,000. Well, anything's possible! See MLB.com for the Rays' latest "rosy scenario." At least the Rays' current home at Tropicana Field has been fully repaired, after the massive hurricane damage in the autumn of 2024.

Dodgers win World Series, again

Hopes were high in Toronto as Game 7 of the World Series got underway, especially after the home team Blue Jays scored three runs in the first inning on a home run by Bo Bichette. But as they so often do, the L.A. Dodgers staged a late-game comeback and prevailed once again. On the mound for Toronto was Max Scherzer, whose last start in a World Series Game 7 was in 2019 with the Washington Nationals. That time he pitched 5 innings and gave up 2 runs; this time he pitched 4 1/3 innings and gave up just 1 run. Toronto wasted two big run-scoring opportunities, with runners on second base and nobody out in both the 6th and 8th innings. The second time was more crucial because the Dodgers had just pulled to within one run on a solo homer by Max Muncy. But the ninth inning was one for the ages. With one out, Miguel Rojas smashed a line drive over the left field fence to tie the game 4-4. The painful look in pitcher Jeff Hoffman's eyes was so sad to watch. He knew how close his team was to triumph. In the bottom of the ninth the Blue Jays had two chances to win it all, loading the bases with one out on a hit by pitch. All the needed was a sac fly! But Dalton Varsho hit a weak ground ball to second baseman Miguel Rojas (!), who was able to get the ball home just in time for the force-out. The game would have ended right there if the base-runner's foot had gone just a few inches further. Some blamed Isiah Kiner-Falefa for not taking a bigger lead from third base, but was doing as he was told, not risking getting doubled off. The next batter, Ernie Clement, hit a long fly ball to left-center field, and it looked like the Jays had done done it, but center fielder Andy Pages ran over to grab the ball on the warning track, colliding with left fielder Enrique Hernandez. So it went to the 10th inning and then the 11th, when Will Smith hit a towering homer to left field. It was the first time the Dodgers led in the game, and that's how the 5-4 final score came about. It was widely agreed to be one of the greatest world series of all time, and perhaps one of the best Game 7s ever. Congratulations to the Dodgers!

The Will Smith factor

[Last] year marked the sixth consecutive World Series in which Will Smith was on the winning team -- or that a Will Smith was on the winning team! The Dodgers' Will Smith (a catcher) helped win the World Series in 2020, 2024, and 2025, whereas the other Will Smith (a pitcher) helped win the World Series for the Atlanta Braves, the Houston Astros, and the Texas Rangers. How eerie is that??! (Will Smith the pitcher now plays with the Kansas City Royals.) Here are the last six World Series outcomes:

• 2020 -- LAD 4, TB 2
• 2021 -- ATL 4, HOU 2
• 2022 -- HOU 4, PHI 2
• 2023 -- TEX 4, ARZ 1
• 2024 -- LAD 4, NYY 1
• 2025 -- LAD 4, TOR 3

Underlines denote the teams on which a Will Smith played.

The money factor

Much of the postseason baseball chatter has concerned the huge new contracts the Dodgers have signed with various superstars. Following up on last year's signing of Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers acquired free agent outfielder Kyle Tucker, who batted .266 and hit 22 homers for the Chicago Cubs last year. It's a four-year contract worth about $240 million, which will put the Dodgers into an even bigger luxury tax "bracket." Read Chelsea Janes' article in the Washington Post, whose sports department is evidently in mortal peril after massive staff cutbacks. (That's another story.) Together with Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, et al., it all adds up to a dynasty the likes of which we haven't seen since the 1950s. If the Dodgers keep filling up Dodger Stadium perhaps they can make it all pay off, but it surely makes the sport of baseball in general worse off than before. Will Commissioner Rob Manfred insist that the franchise owners agree to payroll reforms? The current labor agreement expires after this season, and the likelihood of a work stoppage seems to get bigger all the time.

RFK Stadium is no more

Right around New Year's Day, demolition work on RFK Stadium was essentially completed. One or two steel beams might have been in place during the first couple days of this year, but all that is left now are a few piles of rubble. It's hard to believe, but the complete and utter destruction of that grand old palace really has come to pass.

Meanwhile, in Santa Clara...

A major sporting event took place this evening at the home of the "San Francisco" 49ers, [Levi's Stadium,] about 40 miles southeast of their nominal home city. Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks on their second Super Bowl championship!