Friday Rewind: A Royal Dilemma

Today’s the last day of me recording the audiobook narration of WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL, so this will be a bit of a shorter Friday Rewind. I’m three days into the reading — Ellen Adair, who will be co-narrator, will narrate her chapters next month — and the process has just been so much more exhausting than I expected. I’ll give you some insider stuff on that next week.

Several people have asked me to weigh in on the Kansas City Stadium situation. I’ve been reluctant to do so because I don’t know nearly enough. Best I can tell, owner John Sherman — who I do know a little bit and find to be a genuine and good person — is hoping to pick a site for a new stadium “downtown or near downtown” by the end of summer, and he’s proposing that ownership and private interests would pay more than half of the $2 billion cost.

It seems he would like the balance to be paid for by a 3/8-cent sales tax that’s already in place for upkeep of Kauffman and Arrowhead Stadiums.

But these are specifics, and as mentioned, I don’t understand them well enough.

What I do understand is this: Kauffman Stadium is a gem. Stadiums have become something else over the last couple of decades, but if your idea of determining a stadium’s value is simply, “How good a place it is to watch a game?” — well, there are only a handful of ballparks on Planet Earth better to watch a game than Kauffman. It’s a wonderful ballpark, plenty of parking, easy to get to, loaded with marvelous features like the fountains and a crown-shaped scoreboard.

Kauffman is as timeless to me as Dodger Stadium, Wrigley Field or Fenway Park.

And what I also understand is that there are powerful reasons for Kansas City to build a new ballpark. There is, I’m told, some structural wear and tear at Kauffman Stadium that would be extremely expensive to fix — and any fix would probably be nothing more than a band-aid, anyway. The location has never been right for a full-day fan experience; Kauffman has always been an in-and-out sort of place. The Royals (and Chiefs) are among the city’s jewels, and the city has never been able to build anything around them. A sizable portion of the Kansas City population has been fighting for a downtown stadium for decades.

Also, look, I can’t blame John Sherman for wanting a stadium that provides more revenue — both to help the Royals compete and to strengthen his $1 billion investment. I mean, he’d be a terrible business person if he didn’t want that.

The question to me is: How ugly will this get? Sherman announced on Thursday that the Royals are down to two sites, one downtown and the other in Clay County, which is North of downtown, across the Missouri River. The Clay County bid seems to be proposing a similar entertainment district to what Atlanta has around Truist Park — so there’s undoubtedly more money for the Royals in that deal. It would be a boon for Clay County, I imagine, but doing that would mean abandoning Kansas City after more than a half century and sort of go against the whole idea of downtown development, which seemed to be a main point.*

*We lived near Clay County for a few years; it’s not THAT close to downtown.

Then again, a downtown ballpark would bring its own problems, including a giant money request from a city that, like all cities, could really use that money for things like infrastructure and education and so on. Plus, the whole idea that stadiums boost economic development has been ripped apart by many economists.

All of which is to say — I dunno.

You should listen to people who know a lot more about this than I do. The only thing maybe I can add here is a baseball perspective.

I was talking the other day with a Yankees fan (yeah, I’ll talk to Yankees fans) about new Yankee Stadium, and I was saying that while it’s so much nicer than old Yankee Stadium and there are so many better food choices, it’s nowhere near as good a place to watch a baseball game. To me, new Yankee Stadium feels antiseptic and soulless. There are no ghosts in that place. There are no echoes. There’s nothing real or authentic or historic about it. To me, it’s like the Eiffel Tower … in Las Vegas.

Kauffman Stadium — formerly Royals Stadium — is bursting with memories. That’s where George Brett was standing when he went over .400 in 1980. That’s where Bo Jackson crushed a ball in his first batting practice. That’s where Frank White used to stand when he gobbled up searing ground balls off the artificial grass. That’s where Amos Otis used to stand when the pitch was thrown as he dared people to hit it over his head. That’s where Salvy Perez hit the single that ended the Royals’ impossible comeback win over Oakland. That’s where Zack Greinke threw a 48-mph curveball.

A new stadium won’t give you that.

Maybe that stuff doesn’t matter as much to us as wider concourses, better luxury suites and fancier food choices. Maybe that stuff doesn’t matter as much to us as having restaurants and shopping options all around the park. I’m not here to say what should or should not matter. All I will say is that there are only a handful of grand old parks left in the grand old game. The new parks are, for the most part, architectural wonders, and I’m sure that a new Kansas City Park would be as good or better than any of them, since the firms that build those new parks are mostly based there.

But I guess I’d like to speak up for a wonderful little old ballpark. Kauffman Stadium may not be what a team needs to build revenue, and it may not be what a city wants to spark development. But it’s one hell of a place to watch a baseball game. That’s not nothing.

Hey, if you feel like it, I’d love if you’d share this post with your friends!

WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL Update

OK, our second official WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL review has come out — and it’s another starred review(!), this time from the good people at Booklist! I guess the summation line is: “A winning collection of baseball moments both inside and outside the lines.”

I was also forwarded this awesome little take from Mike Hare at the amazing Northshire Bookstore.

“Infectious, exhilarating, and irresistible, Posnanski throws a strike with every story. A vast array of stars, scrubs, teams, and fans ranging from the 19th Century to 2023 step up to the plate and swing for the fences in all their grandeur, humor, and heartbreak.”

Whoa.

We are still finalizing some last-minute details on book events — there are, I can tell you, already quite a LOT of them, probably more book events than I’ve done for my last three books combined. And I suspect there will be more. So I hope to see a whole bunch of you on the road! It’s really humbling, all of it. I think I’ve told this story before: My first-ever book event was at a Waldenbooks (remember those) at a mall in Kansas City. It was for this classic:

I didn’t actually WRITE that book*; it’s a collection of stories about Brett that had appeared in The Kansas City Star leading up to his Hall of Fame induction. But as you can see by the cover, I did write a “Special Essay,” which I don’t recall being all that special. Anyway, if memory serves, my first book signing was me sitting in front of the store, facing out into the mall concourse, and we did not sell one book. Two people came up to me. One asked if I knew where the food court was. The other came to inform me that I was not George Brett.

*Hey, Amazon is listing that book at $64.99!

You can still preorder WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL pretty much everywhere, but ESPECIALLY at Rainy Day Books, where we are now super-close to breaking Michael Schur’s preorder record. And by “super close,” I mean that the record with your help will probably go down in the next few days, and maybe even today. In that spirit, if you preorder the book that breaks Michael’s record, you will get a super-special prize that Mike and I will figure out. I imagine it will involve baseball cards and something written just for you.

Happy Friday! The Rewind is free so everyone can enjoy it. Just a reminder that Joe Blogs is a reader-supported newsletter, and I’d love and appreciate your support.

All-Star Starters Are Out!

OK, let’s take a look at the MLB All-Star starters!

American League

Catcher: Jonah Heim, Rangers — I probably would have gone with Adley Rutschman, but the fans are probably right: There’s a good argument that Heim is having a better season. He does have the league’s highest bWAR for catchers.

First base: Yandy Diaz, Rays — Again, the fans went with the player with the highest bWAR. It’s actually surprising how few American League first basemen are having good years. Texas’ Nathaniel Lowe was a viable option, too.

Second base: Marcus Semien, Rangers — The clear choice. And fans are 3-for-3 picking the player with the highest bWAR.

Third base: Josh Jung, Rangers — This feels like a miss to me. Jung is certainly having a fine season but, I mean, at what point do we acknowledge the greatness of Cleveland’s José Ramirez’s?

Shortstop: Corey Seager, Rangers — Three out of four infielders AND a catcher from the Rangers? Who would have predicted that? Wander Franco leads the league in WAR and probably should have been the choice here, but how can you argue with what Corey Seager (.345/.411/.609) has done in just 49 games?

Outfield: Aaron Judge, Yankees; Mike Trout, Angels; Randy Arozarena, Rays — It would have been nice to see Chicago’s Luis Robert Jr. get a nod, but, I mean, the game is about stars, and these are stars.

Designated hitter: Shohei Ohtani, Angels. Obviously.

Jung is one of four Rangers’ All-Star starters, but arguably the least deserving. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

National League

Catcher: Sean Murphy, Braves — Certainly an excellent choice. I do think at some point people are going to have to acknowledge how good the Dodgers’ Will Smith is; he’s never made an All-Star team.

First base: Freddie Freeman, Dodgers — Yep. Matt Olson does lead the league in home runs, but Freeman is approaching legendary status. He’ll go to the Hall of Fame.

Second base: Luis Arraez, Marlins — There are a couple of other second basemen (Arizona’s Ketel Marte and San Diego’s Ha-Seong Kim) who are having terrific seasons. But only one is threatening .400.

Third base: Nolan Arenado, Cardinals — By WAR, he’s actually having a down year. That .322 on-base percentage and .485 slugging percentage are subpar for him, and for some reason advanced metrics show him sliding badly defensively. But, you know, he’s still Nolan Arenado, and the fans want to see him more than they want to see Washington’s Jeimer Candelario or Colorado’s Ryan McMahon.

Shortstop: Orlando Arcia, Braves. There must be something about playing for Atlanta.

Outfield: Ronald Acuña Jr., Braves; Mookie Betts, Dodgers; Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks — No notes.

Designated hitter: J.D. Martinez, Dodgers. Did you know that Martinez leads the National League in slugging? I didn’t. That guy just keeps on keeping on.

This Week in JoeBlogs

Monday: Took a look at the Mets’ many problems, and a weird remark from owner Steve Cohen.

Tuesday: Some quick thoughts on Aaron Judge’s injury, LSU’s baseball prowess and Chris Paul’s move to the Warriors, among other things.

Wednesday: A celebration of Shohei Ohtani, who really can’t be celebrated enough.

Thursday: Unpacking the perfect game thrown by the Yankees’ Domingo German, which left many people feeling… less than perfect.