Took the boy to the game last night

The good will come at the end, first the not so good in a 5-3 loss...

Brian Bannister looked very pedestrian, and that's being kind. Sure, he was one pitch away from a pretty decent outing, but he also escaped a few jams. I'm afraid the Bannister we're seeing now is closer to the real him than the one we saw to start the season. Let's hope I'm wrong once again.

Mark Teahan was terrible. He misjudged at least one fly ball that turned into a double. He made a Busch League error letting a single roll under his glove and he looked terrible in two strikeouts late in the game. One of those came with the bases loaded and he was completely over matched. I'm a big fan of TeaBag but last night was far from his finest hour.

Jumpin Jivin Joey didn't look much better. His speed is not of much use if he's not getting on base and using it. Also, the ball he missed in center was an exceptionally difficult play, but the kind of play that a guy with his speed should be able to make.

The good? Miguel Oliva absolutely raked a couple of balls, as did Awesome Alex and Badass Billy. It was nice to see some hard hit balls by the Royals.

But not near as nice as catching* a foul ball for the boy. We were sitting on the first base side about halfway between the bag and Tea Bag when Garrett Anderson absolutely smoked one right at us. Thankfully the twelve year old in front of us brought a catcher's mitt instead of a real glove.he got just enough of it to knock it down and I snagged it off one bounce. Handing it to my six year old was easily the highlight of the night and he didn't stop beaming...he still was when he woke up with it in his clutch this morning.

Quote of the night? One the way home he says: "Dad, it's kind of odd. I feel excited and sad at the same time. Excited because I got a ball, but sad because my team lost."

here's hoping before he's my age the Royals can stop making that such a common occurance.