A few off-day notes...

Since there was no game today, we figured today would be the perfect opportunity to reveal some details from RC's official trip to Coors Field, among other notes.

When Allard Baird said last week that Justin Huber would probably be sent back to the minor leagues when Mike Sweeney was ready to return, RC didn't believe him. Well, RC was apparently wrong. Sweeney is set to return to action tomorrow, and all signs point toward Huber being shipped back to Wichita. RC got a good look at Huber in Colorado, and we liked what we saw. He hit lots of line drives in batting practice, and he only looked overwhelmed in one at bat. He hit several line drives, one of which we captured in the photo below. This was Huber's second Major League hit, a line drive RBI single to left field.



It's a shame Huber didn't get more playing time during his stint in KC, but RC isn't that concerned about it. The Royals are clearly giving Matt Stairs, Tony Graffanino, and Terrence Long the majority of at bats because they're trying to enhance their trade values. They'll be gone soon enough, and Huber will be back.

Coors Field is a pretty neat place to watch a ballgame. The view of the mountains from the upper deck is amazing, and RC managed to capture a photo of a sunset over the Rockies.



RC has been to several of the modern ballparks, including Petco Park, Citizen's Bank, Camden Yards, Comerica Park, and PNC Park, and we rank Coors Field right in the middle of the pack -- it still doesn't hold a candle to PNC or Camden Yards, but it's much better than Citizen's Bank Park.

Of course, there were a few things about Coors Field that annoyed us to no end. For instance, Coors has the most ridiculously arbitrary rule we've ever seen enforced by ushers at a ballpark: even an hour and a half before the game, NOBODY other than folks who have tickets in the first 10 rows is allowed to get close to the field in the sections stretching from dugout to dugout. Therefore, not only can fans not stand behind the dugouts before the game, they can't even walk past the damned thing without first walking up to the 11th row. To enforce the rule, the ushers actually sit in an aisle seat in the 10th row during the game.

After batting practice on Saturday, RC noticed Emil Brown and Zack Greinke hanging out on the top step of the dugout talking about something. RC was dying to find out what those two could possibly be talking about, so we begged the usher to let us step down behind the dugout to snap a photo. Of course, we were denied our request. RC remarked to the usher that her refusal made sense, because we definitely didn't want to bother all the people sitting in the front rows. Below are photos of the encounter. The first photo is the picture we were able to snap from the 11th row, and the second is a picture of "all" the people in the rows behind the dugout at the time of our request.






What a stupid rule. RC's ticket was in the 15th row, but we still had to walk all the way down the line and stand with the common folk in order to get close to the field. Pure madness!

RC was also annoyed on Sunday by a couple Coloradans. Both were complete morons who insisted on yelling the first things that entered their small brains. The fans in Colorado are mostly like the fans in Kansas City -- fairly quiet and courteous during the game. Therefore, when an idiot yells, everyone in the park can hear it. Idiot number one (on the left) kept shouting "Lima, you suck!" He got a laugh from some of the folks around him the first time he yelled it, so of course, he figured it would be a good idea to repeat the exact same brilliant phrase about 23 times. What a tool. Besides, RC is pretty sure that Lima already knows that he sucks without some wannabe gangsta telling him so 24 times. Nice hat by the way.

Idiot number two, aside from looking like a complete idiot, proved that he was in fact an idiot on the merit of his own brilliant commentary. Every time a Rockie pitcher threw a ball, this idiot yelled at the umpire. Every time a Rockie player got a hit, he yelled "Rockies baseball!" at the top of his lungs. Throughout the game, every time catcher J.D. Closser came to the plate, he kept shouting at him that he was pitching a great game! Nice hat by the way.

Anyhow, without further delay, we present the two idiots, as a form of revenge for ruining what was already a pretty miserable game.

On a more upbeat note, RC was reminded why we love Sweeney. Prior to the game on Saturday, Sweeney spent a solid 30 minutes working the crowd of Royals fans who were congregating down the left field line. Everyone who wanted an autograph got one, several people got hugs, high fives, and handshakes, and you could just tell that Sweeney was genuinely happy to be chatting with the fans. RC got some good photos of the proceedings.

A hearty thanks goes out to all of our readers. RC's traffic has gone through the roof the past two days, and we realize that Royals fans love to see pictures of Billy Butler. Therefore, we will attempt to post a new Butler photo every day until we run out. That shouldn't happen for a while, because we followed Butler around so much on Tuesday that we were worried he was going to file a restraining order against us. Anyhow, here's the Butler Photo of the Day.

Finally, since RC didn't get a chance to watch yesterday's game, we recommend that you check out the Daily Lancer's coverage of the Royals' first win in over a week.