Pictures from Opening Day

Today, I spent about seven hours in the car driving to and from Kansas City to watch the Halos beat up on my Royals in cold, dreary, and overcast weather, and I loved every second of it.  The crowd was electric.  The festivities were exciting.  And I learned that "lucky underwear" do not carry over their luck from one season to the next.  Gotta replace them yearly, whether they need it or not.

I thought some of you poor souls who were stuck at work all day might enjoy living vicariously through my pictures of my Opening Day experience.

This is the view of The K from my seat.  I got to the stadium two hours before the first pitch and the parking lot was packed.  In fact, I got there so late, the closest parking spot was in Kansas.

But, as you can see, everyone was still out tailgating when I got to my seat.

I decided to walk around the stadium to kill some time and took this shot from the outfield through the water fountain.

The pregame festivities included a drum line and some Royals greats from the past.

Including George Brett and Bo Jackson who were standing on stars in the infield.

One of my favorite features of Kaufmann Stadium is the jumbotron in the outfield, which they used during the announcement of the day's starting lineup.

Jeff Francis

Billy Butler

Kila Ka'aihue

Luke Hochevar

Members of the Air Force unfurled a large flag in the outfield for the National Anthem.

Some pictures of Luke's pregame pitches.

The first pitch of the season.

Alex Gordon at the plate.

And, one last action shot from the game.

Here is the box for the game.

In between innings I was on my way to grab a gatorade and ran into Luke's mom, dad, and sister.  I spent the next few innings catching up with them, which was great.  I hadn't seen them in well over a year, so it was awesome to be able to spend some time with them during the game. 

While the outcome of the game wasn't what I was hoping for, I had a fantastic time.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to sneak down to KC for another game this season, but I'm definitely going to put in some time with their Triple-A team here in Omaha.