KC baseball relay goes 9 miles in 5 hours with a few drops and a dramatic save

The start of Relay the Way, touted as the longest opening day baseball pitch in history, began rather serenely Sunday morning.

The last time fans turned out at Union Station for the Royals, they came as a mass of 500,000 people clad in Royals blue and white that deluged all of Downtown for the town and team’s 2015 World Series celebration in November. Some crowd estimates went way higher.

“We went to the rally last year with 800,000 of our closest friends,” said Margie Richards, 54, of Liberty.

But Sunday’s relay was far longer, and for some, scarier, than last fall’s parade. It was more than 9 miles of fans trying very, very hard not to drop the ball.

Well, a few did drop it, and before the ball reached the stadium it had been scuffed up and saved at least once from rolling down a sewer.

For those like Richards who joined the charity relay, the day wouldn’t soon be forgotten.

First pitch baseball toss leaves Union Station on its way to Kauffman Stadium 

Starting early

Richards decided to pick her mother up at 6 a.m. for the 9 a.m. start. She and her mother, Mary Matteson, 81, were scheduled to catch and throw the ball as part of the relay at 22nd Street and Grand Boulevard at about 9:30 a.m.

Matteson, a baseball fan who worked part-time at the Diamond Club inside Kauffman Stadium for 13 years from the 1970s on, practiced baseball in her backyard with her husband, Bill, 83. Bill, who uses a cane, didn’t come because of the difficulty walking. His wife carried a baseball glove he had had for years.

“When your 81-year-old mother has a glove and you don’t, that’s a bad thing,” Richards joked.

But first, a loose crowd of about 200 people gathered around a main stage set up in front of Union Station. Most were people and staff of people directly responsible for the Relay the Way campaign, which raised more than $100,000.

Dignitaries kept their comments relatively short. Heavy rock and country music blared from a nearby “Moose” mobile — a blue Jeep jacked up on massive wheels with Mike Moustakas “Moose” antlers affixed to the roof — had to be quieted.

The rig was owned by 52-year-old Craig Rookstool of Lee’s Summit. “I’m just a fan with props,” he said. It was chosen to lead the 9.49 mile relay route.

“At the end of the day this is about the kids of Kansas City,” Mayor Sly James told those gathered. “Frankly, it is pretty typical of Kansas City to take care of others.”

Jon Cook, chief executive officer of the marketing and advertising firm VML — which came up with the idea of the relay and built least three baseballs designed with tiny computers ready to receive supportive messages for the relay — sent out a general cautionary request to the 2,500 or so people who had paid $30 to be part of the relay.

“Please don’t drop the ball,” he said. “It has a long way to go.”

The original ball made it all the way to the stadium.

Royals general manager Dayton Moore, made a few remarks about fans being “committed and passionate.”

“Let’s get this thing going,” he said.

Relay the Way baseball toss 

First toss

So they did, shortly before 9 a.m.

Moore stood off to the east of the stage and tossed the ball underhand to Blue Springs High School student, Nia Lewis, who plays on an RBI ball team through the Boys and Girls Club. Her coach had just texted her and a few other players the very night before to see if they wanted to take part.

She never expected to be the first person to catch.

“I thought we were going to be somewhere in the middle,” she said.

From there, the ball moved fast, almost too fast.

Near disaster at Pershing and Main street. A throw went wild. Third District City Councilman Jermaine Reed had to make a diving save to keep the baseball from going down a storm sewer.

A cluster of folks gathered where the route took a turn east, at 18th Street, toward the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Nine friends and family members, some from as far away as Wichita and Hutchinson, Kan., had signed up to participate together in the relay and were assigned a spot near McGee Street.

For Kelly Murphy, Joanne Murphy, Shannon Murphy, Scott Murphy and Cassandra Ganier, that was about as close to the game as they would get. But Marianne D’Amato, Steve Fix, Kathryn Fix and Michele Fix were lucky enough to have tickets.

Wes and Natalie Meugniot left before daybreak and drove more than an hour from Ozawkie, Kan., to make it to 18th and Vine.

The couple, married 27 years, had their first date at a Royals game in 1984. “We are so excited about this,” Natalie said. Both had spent much of Saturday playing catch to get some practice in before Sunday’s big toss.

Like most fans in line, they didn’t need to worry. They did just fine.

Emily Eutsler of Kansas City and a group of co-workers from J.E. Dunn got the luck of the draw. Their prize for being among the first 50 to sign up at work for Relay the Way was a chance to stand on the blue line to catch and toss the royal ball.

“This is so cool,” Eutsler said.

Skylar Rochelle 15 year-old Shawnee Mission East Student was a bit jealous that it was her mom Ashley, a J.E. Dunn employee, and not her who would get to catch and toss the relay ball. After all, Skylar said she’s the one who plays softball. Both were very excited as the ball moved closer to where they stood at18th and Vine. “It’s about city pride for me,” Ashley Rochelle said.

Jack Leonard, 12, with his sister, Addison Leonard, 13, and their little

brother Spencer Beltram 7, were among the first to arrive at 18th and

Vine. For about a week Jack’s had been telling all his friends that he’ll be throwing the first pitch, and on Sunday he was a bit nervous. “If I drop the ball everyone will be mad at me,” he said.

The 18th and Vine area was significant — that’s where the Kansas City Urban Youth Academy, the target of the charity toss, will be built.

The multi-million dollar project is designed to promote both baseball and life skills beyond sports to children in the urban core. Funded by public and privately raised money, including money from the Royals and Royals players, it is set to open this fall near 18th and Vines streets.

Phase one, budgeted at $6.5 million, is planned to transform the 21-acre Parade Park into one with four ball fields ranging in size from softball to intermediate to major-league, all with field turf to allow more year-round use. It will add a walking trail and playground.

Phase two, tentatively set to be completed by spring 2017, and contingent on the completion of phase one, is budgeted at $7.5 million. The current plan has it housing a full-sized infield, batting cages, classrooms, office space and concession stands. The academy is also expected to partner with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City to help support the area’s local Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities (RBI) programs.

Butterfly net

As the relay moved on, Barbara Field waited along Brooklyn with her butterfly net. A retired teacher from the Kansas City school district, she loves anything that benefits kids and is a baseball fan. The first date her late husband took her on was to a Kansas City Blues game.

No glove for her. In her retirement, she raises butterflies and teaches kids about them.

Meantime, three neighbors, part of a brood of 10 from the Historic Hyde Park niehgborhood of Kansas City, pedaled up Brooklyn to get to their 10:25 a.m. relay position.

Margo Shepard, 58, with Gary Foltz, 68, and his wife, Janie, 67, put together a group they called The Hyde Park Monarchs.

Just north at 31st and Brooklyn, David McCunniff practiced throwing with daughter Abigail, age 6, on the sidewalk. Her arching throws were hitting their mark.

“We’ll let her throw if they let her do it,” said mother Ashley McCunniff. Their littlest one, Lincoln, age 2, had the white Royals jersey and his blonde hair poofed into a mohawk. But he might not yet have the throwing skills.

Depending on the ages of the participants, they were spaced 5 to 20 feet apart.

By 11:30, the time the relay arrived at the corner of Brooklyn and Linwood, the area was mobbed with children and adults in Royal blue. The rotors of a news helicopter thumped overhead. Police and the “Moose” mobile headed down the street.

“We ask, please no selfies with the ball,” a volunteer coordinator requested of the participants. And few selfies were shot.

Got to keep the line moving, after all. The volunteer said a relay photographer was hoping to capture pictures of almost everyone touching the ball to be posted on-line at some future date.

The ball arrived at the intersection. Another flub: Someone missed a catch. The ball rolled toward another gutter and sewer.

Captured, it was lobbed to Darla Hall, 55, of Lee’s Summit. “I wanted to be part of something historic,” she said.

She in turn threw to Michael Hanshaw, 38, of Shawnee, who quickly put the ball up to his nose.

His theory, he said, is that genuine major league baseballs have a unique and special “sweet” smell that cheaper baseball don’t possess.

He drew in the baseball’s aroma and threw to a waiting Mayor James, who arrived with security in advance of the ball, and stood in the street decked out in blue shoes and ankle high socks included.

“That ball was for real,” Hanshaw declared.

Diving save keeps first-pitch baseball from going down storm sewer 

Go slow

As it turned out, the only major concern was that the relay was going too well, getting ahead of schedule by as much as 40 minutes or more.

Too fast and there would be no volunteers to toss it, so officials killed time by inspecting the ball, wiping off scuff marks.

“We had to slow it down a few times,” said Sarah Dee, events director at the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission & Foundation, which ran the event.

In fact, when the ball reached Mayor James, he tossed the ball back and forth several times to the next person in line to eat up time.

Finally it moved on.

Eastward, where Linwood meets Agnes Street, Stephanie Carouthers, 55, sat out on her front stoop with her niece, waiting for the ball to pass by. She said she rememberd the old days, when she was a child and baseball was played on the East Side.

She loved seeing the crowd and had a suggestion for the Royals and city powers that be.

“If they win the World Series again, this is where the parade should be next year,” she said. “Down Linwood to the stadium.”

At Stadium Drive, Paige Crider, was all smiles standing on the blue line waiting on the ball to come her way. Crider, who works for Midwest Transport, said she had tried “really hard,” to get tickets during the last World Series, “but they were just too expensive.”

Participating in baseball’s longest first pitch on Sunday she said she was “more than excited. This is my redemption, this pitch.”

Frank Tanner was on bike patrol making sure the pitching line was spread out and that people would be ready when the ball arrived.

“The only thing people are worried about is dropping the ball,” said Tanner an electrical engineer from Lee’s Summit.

That was exactly what was on Tracy Daye’s mind as she slid on her mitt and stood ready to catch. Daye, who works for Ikea, could see the ball flying through the air on its way southeast on Stadium Drive. Her heart was thumping.

“I don’t want to drop it. I don’t want to be that person, no way,” Daye said.

“Here it comes,” she yelled to a co-worker. In seconds she caught it, tossed it and leaped into the air, just happy to have played a role. “I did it!” she said. “I just wanted to take part in this.”

Relay The Way baseball arrives at the K 

Final catch

The ball completed its crosstown journey 27 minutes ahead of schedule, at 2:03 p.m., when it landed in the palm of veteran Royals groundskeeper Trevor Vance.

Photographers crowded around Vance on the warning tracking in right field of a sparkling, fan-free Kauffman Stadium, the gates not scheduled to open for another three hours.

Other than a few scuff marks, Vance pronounced the ball in fine shape, and gave a shout out to the dedicated fans who made its arrival possible.

“It made it and here it is,” he said. “They love their Royals.”

Royals ball boys had lined the tunnel leading down to the field and, one after the other, had tossed it down the line to Vance. But it was a 10-year-old not on the team payroll who made the last official catch of the Relay The Way fundraiser.

A half hour earlier, when a crowd of volunteers were told to spread out on the final leg of the toss, fourth-grader Trig Mabrey of Kansas City tore out, sprinting down blue line on the service road that snakes along behind the stadium.

“He ran all the way down here so he could be the last one,” his mom, Julie Mabrey said.

As police motorcycles roared, signaling the ball’s arrival, Trig slapped his fist into his mitt. “I just thought it would be fun to be the last person to hand it in,” he said.

This story was originally published April 3, 2016 at 4:08 PM with the headline "KC baseball relay goes 9 miles in 5 hours with a few drops and a dramatic save."