Royals Stadium was built exclusively for baseball in 1973 as part of Kansas City's suburban Harry S. Truman sports complex, standing adjacent to Arrowhead Stadium, home of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs. This differentiation and duplication ran counter to the trend of single multipurpose stadiums popular at the time, as did the ballpark's modest seat count of 40,762, which gave it a certain intimacy and made it the smallest permanent major league baseball stadium built in 80 years. Like most modern parks, it has symmetrical fences, but it also includes numerous features that distinguish it from the typically uniform facilities of its period.
The deep outfield (330-385-410-385-410) and Astroturf playing surface (replaced in 1995 in favor of natural grass) put a premium on swift outfielders and helped George Brett amass 137 lifetime triples, a remarkable total for a modern-era player with average speed. In their best years, the Royals teams were attuned to the nature of their home park, stressing pitching, speed and contact hitting over slugging. Although the stadium was less daunting to batters after 1995, when grass was installed and the fences lowered and brought in ten feet (except for narrow zones in the corners), it remained something of a pitcher's park and is still a triples-hitter's paradise.
Royals Stadium was renamed Ewing M. Kauffman Stadium in July 1993 to honor the team owner, who died less than a month later. Futuristic in its styling, it seems to value scenic interest over baseball tradition. The seating area barely extends into fair territory, leaving room behind the outfield fences for 322 feet of colorfully lighted waterfalls and fountains that have nothing to do with the game but which seem to be widely admired nonetheless. Behind the water display stand two grassy inclines onto which longer home runs fall, and in dead center stands a 12-story scoreboard in the shape of the Royals' home plate and crown logo. (SCL/JP)
FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY
»April 10, 1973: Kansas City opens its new park, Royals Stadium, with a 12–1 rout of the Rangers. The game is attended by 39,464 fans braving 39-degree weather.
»May 14, 1977: Jim Colborn hurls a no-hit game as Kansas City beats Texas, 6–0. It is the first no-hitter at Royals Stadium by a KC hurler. Darrell Porter, who came to the Royals in the trade with Colborn, has a double and triple to back his batterymate. Tom Poquette has a pair of hits and a pair of sparkling catches.
»April 3, 1984:
After rain washes out yesterday's opener at Royals Stadium, Yul Bryner tosses out the first ball and Kansas City opens with a 4–2 win over the Yankees. The threat of snow holds the crowd to just 10,006. Bud Black, with relief help from Dan Quisenberry, tops Ron Guidry, still winless in Openers. Onix Concepcion hits Guidry's first pitch of the game for a homer, while Dave Winfield has a two-run homer for New York.
»July 6, 1991: In a 9-7 loss to Oakland at Royals Stadium, Danny Tartabull of the Royals becomes the 1st Royal to hit three home runs in a game.
»June 4, 1999:
The KC-Cincinnati game at Kauffman Stadium is postponed when an electrical outage knocks out the lights on the 3rd base side. Workers attempt to fix the situation, but a switch gear explodes, causing a small fire. The game will be made up as part of a DH tomorrow.
»June 30, 2002: In a 13–1 drubbing by the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium, Padres second baseman D'Angelo Jimenez comes in to pitch with two outs in the seventh inning. He retires the four batters he faces. But Jeff Suppan allows one run in seven innings, and Raul Ibanez uses a home run and triple to drive in four runs for the Royals.
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