It's 9AM
Kansas City, here I come.
I’ve only been through a time or two.
Literally, just passing through on my way to Minnesota.
God’s country, I’ve heard it called.
MN not KC, though he certainly put a finger on both.
Good people, good food and great weather.
Even when it rained us out on Saturday, the fall was soft and gentle, like a sprinkler system left on too long.
We lost a day of playing, but got a day of getting to know each other, which is sometimes even better.
More telling.
I’ve told you I’m an early riser, but more so in hotels.
Unfamiliar beds, unfamiliar noises.
And an impending sense of being quiet once I’m awake so everyone else can sleep in.
So I rise, and go downstairs to shine.
With coffee.
Coffee makes shining easier.
Where I get to sit with the other early riser dads.
We shared stories, and tidbits, as Dad’s sometimes do.
And learned.
Like the boys picking up a lesson on the diamond.
We learn how to play together, because parents are an important part of travel ball.
A kid can be great, but bad parents can break a team.
Which is what we try to remind the boys.
Someone is always watching.
I got caught having coffee with the coaches, and I don’t know who told on me.
But we weren’t talking about play time or positions or how an 11 year old can get recruited to an MLB team.
(They can’t, we still have a LOT of ball left.)
No, we got talking about their jobs, their businesses, their hobbies and what they like to do.
Because while I know a little bit about baseball, I know a lot about people and getting to know them better.
Through questions.
Asking about their lives.
Which baseball is a huge part of, sure, but there’s a lot of week outside of every other weekend.
One of our coaches was a JUCO standout. A JUnior COllege stand out who stayed in AR for love and built a life.
One of our coaches played in the Minors for almost a decade and has a ton of stories.
And all of them are just stand up guys.
When you are surrounded by stand up men, it makes for easy lessons for the younglings.
They see, the watch, and they learn.
And, if you’re lucky and the hops line up, and the bats get hot, and the fundamentals don’t dissolve as the wheels come off, you get a shot at winning.
Which as it turns out, turns a good weekend into a great one.
Even if the nightcap is a seven hour drive and a sleep in for Monday morning.
Sorry for the delay, but we’ll be back at the regular bat time tomorrow on the same bat channel.
I saw something in KC that reminded me of Pine Bluff, and I went to high school with a hall of famer right guard for the Chiefs, and I want to tell you about it.
Plus, the KC mafia, a branch of the Chicago mafia until the Dixie Mafia made inroads into trucking and now…?
And the smell!?!
KC has a natural scent and it’s woodsmoke BBQ.
I wonder if that’s what heaven smells like?
Did you see these?
Books by Curtis Long
Fish Williams, PI Series
CUBA LIBRE – a Fish Williams Mystery
MOJITO – a Fish Williams Mystery
The Gumbo Files – The Danny Gumbo Mystery Series
The Rip Campbell Western Adventures Series
Noose Fever – a classic wild west adventure
Five Beans in the Wheel - a classic western adventure
Tinhorn - a classic old west action adventure
HOW ABOUT THIS?
September Mystery/Thriller NL Builder
Unmask the Mystery: Thrilling Giveaway of Gripping Suspense!
Free Action and Adventure Books in September
AND
You can also check out:
The second book in the Jake Burbank Mystery series: A FIFTH OF TROUBLE
Just remember that the Kansas City's are two towns in two states, separated by a river. And the two cities could not be more different (at least when I was stationed at Fort Leavenworth in the mid-1980s). The Kansas side had bars galore, while the Missouri side had just as many churches. As a single Army Captain, you know which side I visited? Wet T-shirt contests were all the rage then, as well as a mechanical bull or two.