Play ball! The Royals Home Opener...or HOPE-ENER!....is today. Over the years, I've spent most of these mornings doing weather from the streets of downtown as part of Greater Kansas City Day, selling special editions of the newspaper with the money going to support the Rotary Club Youth Camp. In the early days of FirstNews, Maria Antonia and I would do the whole show outside and welcome some great guests like Buck O'Neil, Tony DiPardo, George Brett, Frank White and Muriel Kauffman. It was during one of Mrs. Kauffman's visit, in the cold, pouring rain, by the way, that, after she showed us her World Series ring, I, being a doofus, offered her ten bucks for it. Being a good sport, she said she'd give it to me if the team won another series. That particular year, unfortunately, it was a very safe bet. In addition to the notables, we always had some great live music to get things going dark and early in the morning.

Growing up, we used to drive to Milwaukee to watch the Brewers play. My mom was our color commentator: "I bet those boys (meaning the ball-players) sleep at night." "I wonder where all these pigeons go after the game?" "The Brewers are nicer than those other people." Once, when we had seats right on the third base line, I had an on-going hand-signal conversation with the great and funny umpire Ron Luciano. Pretty exciting for a little kid. He'd make a call then turn to me and give a "Was I right?" shrug. I've used the same "I'm not sure" gesture often during my weatherman duties. Anyway, if the call went against the Brewers I'd make it clear he was totally wrong...for us, and I'd reassure Mr. Luciano about his obvious intelligence.

One of the best things about baseball, versus most other sports, is that time really doesn't matter very much. There is no clock. The game unfolds in its own manner, on its own schedule. That maybe a reason why many of us seem to gravitate toward the game as the years go by. For example, my grandma, Ann, was a big Milwaukee Braves fan and used to get to the games every now and then. Meanwhile, my wife's grandma, Norma, rooted for the Cubs. Many years ago, I had Cubs great Ernie Banks on my little talk-show, after*words. He was kind enough to sign a picture for her. He wrote "Dear Norma, Let's Play Two! Ernie Banks." As you might rightly expect, my wife's family has always had some serious questions about my wife's judgment in marrying me, but that signed picture was a home-run.

For both of these wonderful women, a diamond really was a girl's best friend...not the shiny kind, the green kind. They've both gone onto that great ball-field in the sky, now. I like to think the old Braves and the Cubs play double-headers everyday...just for them.