The 2012 All-Star Game is in Kansas City, so Sam Mellinger made a point to ask this year’s All-Stars how they feel about that. After some de riguer complaining about the heat, they all said some pretty nice things about it:
I asked 15 All-Stars about Kansas City and what they think the game will be like next year. Seven of them mentioned the weather, including Justin Verlander, who shut down the Royals the other day when it was a heat index of 113 in the eighth inning.
But you know what more of them said?
Good place. Great food. Beautiful stadium. Easy to get around. The Plaza helps make Kansas City a favorite around the league, and the more you talk to folks (even privately) the more you see this as one time our collective inferiority complex is severely misplaced.
Mellinger goes on to talk about all of the good points of Kansas City from the ballplayers’ point of view. And there are a lot of them: easy travel to the city due to the central location. Hotel close to the ballpark for all of the events they have to deal with. Nice field. Big clubhouses. Good food.
I’ve only been there, like, three times, but I’m a closet Kansas City lover myself. Maybe it’s my Midwesternism coming out, but it’s just an insanely easy place to manage for a few days, and every time I’m there, something good seems to happen to me, be it food or baseball or something else.
Heck, I may even go to next year’s game.
