Fans don’t wait for game — or even 9 a.m. — to show up for Royals evening opener

Michael Vargas wound his arm up, planted a foot and threw another one down the middle to his son.

“Ping!”

“Boy’s a hitter,” Vargas said as the Kansas City man fielded yet another grounder off the metal bat that Leland Vargas, 9, was swinging out there in far, far right field Sunday afternoon.

Far as in outside Kauffman Stadium, as a matter of fact. More than seven hours before opening ceremonies would begin inside The K, Leland was getting in a little batting practice while others were getting cranked up for another season of Royals baseball.

“Let’s go, Royals!” a beefy guy with a beard shouted from several rows over as the lots on both sides of the stadium slowly began to fill.

The parking lot gates weren’t scheduled to open until noon, but cars were lining up by 8 so some gates opened at 11. Soon the party was already well underway, the air thick with charcoal and wood smoke, dance music thumping beneath popup canopies strung like atolls across the vast concrete expanse of the Truman Sports Complex.

Jeff Mallory of Independence watched the crowd start to arrive as he fed wood to the fire barrel set up behind his pickup.

“Got here at 7:30,” he said. The gate guards hadn’t arrived by then, so he had the place pretty much to himself. He often does at Royals home openers. Likes to get there early and make a day of it, he said.

But something was different this year. Soon after he arrived, he had company.

The FBI. Homeland Security. The Kansas City Police Department. Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, and others. They parked their vans and trailers across from Mallory’s truck and set to work.

They unloaded four wheelers. There were police on horseback.

“They had bomb sniffing dogs, too,” Mallory said.

The security teams fanned out for a sweep. A guard at the gate to Lot A likened it to the kind of security usually reserved for the World’s Series.

Bu by midday, the four wheelers were parked, the police horses were hitched up, drinking water in the shade, and the dogs were nowhere in sight.

“I feel protected,” Mallory laughed.

Security wasn’t much on the minds of Brittney Tebbenkamp and Scott Stegmann, both of Kansas City, as they sat in matching lawn chairs outside the stadium gates on the first base side.

Just the two of them, eating sandwiches seven hours before first pitch, looking like first folks in line outside Best Buy for the Black Friday sale.

“We always like to get her early,” Tebbenkamp said. Usually, it’s for the giveaways. He went to 19 games last year. She to 21, and usually in the upper deck.

“We got all the bobbleheads they gave away last year,” Stegmann said.

On Sunday it was less about the swag and more about being there early so they could savor the day in their matching Royals jerseys.

Lani Cook of Harrisonville made sure to get there early for a prime spot to park her custom Royalsmobile — a jet black, 2015 Ford Taurus with Royals decals on all four sides. It was a selfie magnet out in Lot A.

“Salvy signed it for me,” Cook said. Sure enough, on the trunk, is what looks to be the signature of Royals catcher Salvador Perez.

“He signed if down at spring training,” she said. “We go every year.”

All in all, you couldn’t have asked for better weather for an opening day. That is, if you’re a fan of hurricanes.

“Wind’s blowing pretty hard,” Jeff Fowler said, huddled behind the SUV that was his windbreak. But the Pennsylvania man in town to visit his son, a Royals groundskeeper, was not about to complain about gusts up to 40 mph when the temperature was approaching 80.

“It’s snowing back where I’m from,” he said, mentioning a town near Pittsburgh, “so a little wind is no bother.”

His wife was in no hurry to exit their vehicle. But by evening, she and 40,000 other fans would be happily inside the ballpark to watch the championship flag go up as high as their hopes are for the 2016 campaign.

Like arriving early for a Royals game, it’s never too soon to set your sights on October.

This story was originally published April 3, 2016 at 6:21 PM with the headline "Fans don’t wait for game — or even 9 a.m. — to show up for Royals evening opener."