Kansas City

Kansas City is the annual Red Sox road trip and this year on both the visit side and the baseball side it was quite successful.

We stay at son #2’s place in Leavenworth and you can’t beat the price - free. He’s former army and his neighborhood is interesting as it is a five year old development sprinkled with current and retired military.

Leavenworth is a base town and also a prison town with military, federal and state prisons numbering six. Many former military - such as my son - work in corrections, the VA or on the base as civilian security. The entire community revolves around this with special emphasis on the military. Just the names of local establishments, the constant displays of flags and all the special discount offers that go with being military.

You know you are in a different environment when the front page of the paper has a picture of a high school principal doing a repelling course as he participates in a Junior ROTC Program. Imagine ROTC in our high schools. Probably have the ACLU and soccer moms going ballistic.

Touring in KC area is always an adventure since it is not exactly a tourist hotspot. This time my wife - The Lovely Cynthia - had to do some touring with herself and another deserted spouse while we attended games. But three games were at night so the baseball escape route was rather limited. We did take in the HST Library again and spent some time at a wonderful museum in St. Josephs called the Patee House. Eclectic collection that took hours to tour. The city also had a Civil War festival going on and that took some time.

The ladies did manage a few shopping trips and the movies as we attended the night games. They also paid a visit to the HST homestead in Independence right near the HST Library. A potential visit to tha Jazz Hall of Fame and Negro League Museum did not materialize. Both are great to tour.

KC is Bar-B-Que and we were not disappointed. A small place was near my son’s house. Located on a country road with a dusty parking lot and a dumpster out front it didn’t look like much. The mimeographed menu was quite limited with about five sides and five dishes. My wife thought the brisket and three ribs would not be worth it since it was $10.95 and the ribs would be those baby backs. She took the small ribs cut instead. These ribs looked like something Fred Flintstone would eat. I ate the brisket and managed two ribs and gave up.

Now no adventure by Bogo is complete without a whiny complaint and mine is the ballpark. Great place except for one detail - they don’t do any replays of anything positive by the opposition. Ellsbury made a great catch so they show the run scoring on a sac fly. Larvarnway hit’s a wall double that looked like a HR but how could we even get our view with no replay? Great defensive plays totally ignored. This happens every year we go. I have complained before so why stop now? Just go up the food chain.

I spoke to the Direction for Fan Relations one Carrie Bligh and expressed my issues. That with some blind spots on the sight lines certain plays need a replay. In Boston every play is replayed as long as it meets the MLB guidelines. Most other parks do it. And in baseball a good play should be recognized even if it is by the opposition. I also mentioned that the owner is David Glass a former high level official with WalMart. And WM just prides it self on customer service.

Ms. Bligh fully agreed and said that at their end of year meeting this will be her priority on input from her side.