Fans share what they missed most about being at Kauffman Stadium for Royals games
The plastic cutouts won’t be back at Kauffman Stadium. The fake fan noise has been banished from Royals games as well.
Both will be replaced by something much better: actual fans cheering, booing, chanting and making themselves heard to grateful players.
“That generated crowd noise,” Royals left-hander Danny Duffy said, “just ain’t it.”
The team announced Thursday a limited number of fans will be back at Kauffman Stadium this season. When people pass through the gates on April 1 for the Royals’ opening-day game against the Texas Rangers, 550 days will have elapsed since the last time there were spectators at Kauffman Stadium.
I asked Royals fans on Twitter to share what they miss most about being at The K, and some talked about the family memories that are made.
“Spending time with my dad and having the opportunity to take my son to his first baseball game,” wrote Prairie Village’s Joe Pattison, who has a 2-year-old.
Travis Neely of Lenexa said Friday his daughters “will become season ticket holders today.”
“Spending time with my 3-year-old twin girls and wife at the park,’ Neely wrote. “(I) even missed the meltdown when I had to drag them (not wife) away from the play area.”
Elizabeth Coutu was born and raised in the Kansas City area before moving to Florida in 2019. She watches Royals games on the MLB app (no blackout restrictions in the Sunshine State), and returns when possible to Kauffman Stadium.
“Going to The K has always brought peace,” she wrote. “Sitting in the stands watching the game, tailgating, interacting with fans and sometimes the players. In essence, being at a live event!”
Susan Harvey of Columbia misses the simple pleasures of being at a game.
“Ballpark sounds like the buzz of the crowds when you first walk in and around the outfield,” Harvey wrote. “Grabbing a beer and some nachos and enjoying baseball no matter the outcome.”
Others echoed that sentiment, including my long-time friend Scott Sailor:
John Williams, recently moved to Warrensburg from Washington D.C., and misses his “family” of Royals fans.
“The people. I feel at home in that stadium. I moved back from the East Coast last year and was devastated when fans were prohibited,” Williams wrote. “April can’t come soon enough.”
Preston Baker will make the trip from Wyandotte, Oklahoma, and is looking forward to two things.
“The atmosphere,” he wrote, “and having that outlet to spend time with the family at the ballpark.”
Sean Patton, who lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, loves the pregame atmosphere.
“That first peak of the field when the grounds crew is still watering the infield, the players are stretching and warming up,” he wrote, “and navigating the crowd on the concourse while not taking my eyes off the field.”
Here are some other Twitter responses:
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 11:40 AM.
