By Adam Gardner / March 16, 2026
Baseball nostalgia is real. I still remember how excited I’d get for baseball games when I was a little kid.
Registration would roll around for the Atchison Recreation Summer League and I’d look through the newspaper to find out what team I was on. Businesses sponsored teams, so I was never on the “Royals” or “Cubs” or anything like that – I was on “Thayer Supply” and we were red, or I was on “Exchange Bank” and we were navy blue.
The name didn’t really matter, though. All that mattered was baseball season was here and it was time to play the best game in the world. We’d have maybe two practices and I’d plant myself at third base because I was one of the only kids who could throw it across the diamond and I really didn’t want to get stuck at catcher.
On game days, I would wake up and lay my uniform out on my bed for that evening. Socks, pants, shirt and hat, all placed in order on my bed with the hat resting on the pillow. I’d do whatever I could that day to pass the time until we headed for the field.
It was awful on rainy days. I would call the hotline that had a recorded message updating if the fields were playable that night. I was thrilled when the recording said the games were on as scheduled.
We’d get to the field, I would impatiently wait for the game before mine to finish, then we’d take the field for the best hour of my day. One year we constantly looked for the three-legged dog to be wandering around in the parking lot because we thought he was good luck. But on the field, I was dialed in like we were playing Game 7 of the World Series.
Every pitch, every at bat, every stolen base mattered. I was the youngest of three boys in my family, so I was a little advanced for my age because I was always trying to keep up with my older brothers. Playing with kids who didn’t care as much as I did or hadn’t developed their abilities as much as I had at that point was frustrating.
I wanted to win so badly, but eventually I learned how to lose even if it didn’t happen overnight. Regardless of result, I’d go home after the game and think about every inning and evaluate what happened. Then I’d go to bed and the anticipation crept in for the next game.
I felt like I won the lottery one summer: I was old enough to play Junior American Legion Baseball and still young enough to play my final year of Atchison Rec Baseball, which meant I got to play on two teams. I would have about two doubleheaders per week with the Legion team, and another couple games in the Rec League. I was in heaven.
There is a commercial airing fairly often during the World Baseball Classic of some kids breaking in their new baseball gloves. My wife asked Sunday evening if I remember doing that sort of thing and all the memories of playing baseball flooded back into my mind.
It’s quite the contrast thinking about my evenings playing for an hour compared to how big the WBC has become and the global reach of baseball. But as I watched the United States take on the Dominican Republic Sunday night, I thought about how all those players probably did something similar to me as kids, waiting all day to take the field that night.
Baseball is the best.
Royals Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic might as well be renamed the Royals Baseball Classic with how impressive so many of “our guys” have been.
Bobby Witt Jr. wasn’t as hot with the bat against the Dominican Republic Sunday night, but he keeps flashing the leather at shortstop.
Maikel Garcia is crushing it for Venezuela. He’s slashing .421/.450/.684 with a blistering 1.134 OPS (on base plus slugging). Garcia hit a 2-run homer against Japan in the quarterfinals. I keep pinching myself because it feels like a dream that the Royals have Witt and Garcia locked up on the left side of the infield for the next few years.
(I can definitely picture Witt, Garcia and Salvador Perez as kids laying out their uniform for their game that night.)
Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone kept it rolling for Italy as both had RBI hits in their win against Puerto Rico.
Royals pitcher Seth Lugo was on the bad side of things for Puerto Rico, unfortunately. I’m not ready to worry about pitching, though, as Lugo had a solid outing earlier in the WBC.
I’m curious to see how tonight’s semifinal between Venezuela and Italy turns out. No matter what happens the rest of the way, there will be at least one Royals player with a World Baseball Classic Championship.
Spring Training Update
Most of my focus has been on the WBC because it’s fun to watch intense baseball games in March, but Spring Training is chugging along in Arizona for the Royals who aren’t still representing their countries.
As of Monday morning, the Royals are just 8-14-1 (yes, a tie in baseball, because nobody wants to go outside their daily pitching plan just for extra innings). Wins and losses really don’t matter at all in Spring Training. A bulk of innings are played by guys who aren’t going to see much, if any, time in the big leagues.
The best pitchers are just working through some things and are focused on process, not results. I remember a game I watched where Zack Greinke pitched 2 innings and threw nothing but fastballs, working solely on location.
Still, it’s not great to see the Royals with a bad record, even if it doesn’t matter. If you want more reason to feel OK about that record, how about this: the Royals are 3-7 in their past 10 games while their best players have been competing in the WBC. So don’t fret about a bad record when the majority of the starters haven’t even played for the team.
The WBC ends Tuesday and everyone will return to Arizona for a final week of Spring Training before the regular MLB season begins. We’re quickly closing in on March 27.
Attending Spring Training
I’ve been to Arizona to watch Spring Training games twice and I hope to make it back again sometime. It’s tough because February/March are incredibly busy times on the college sports calendar.
We call it crossover season because winter sports are still playing and spring sports are starting. It’s perfectly normal for me to work a lacrosse game, then head inside to work a basketball game, all while there is a baseball doubleheader being played on the other side of campus.
I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to see the Royals in Surprise, Arizona again, but I encourage anyone interested in making the trip. You can watch teams go through drills in the morning and tickets for games aren’t too bad – you can get in for as little as $15.
Surprise Stadium before a game in 2011
There are 15 teams in the Cactus League (the rest of MLB is in the Grapefruit League in Florida) and the stadiums are all in the Phoenix area. It’s easy to visit different stadiums.
It’s also funny to see how the locals and the tourists react to the weather. I was part of a group that visited in 2008 and it was “cool” by Arizona standards – upper 60s, lower 70s. Our group from Atchison, Kansas wore t-shirts and shorts but it was easy to spot the locals because they were in long pants and sweatshirts.
As I write this, I can look out my window and see snow and people walking through a bone-chilling wind. It would be incredible to be in Arizona right now as they deal with “severe heat.” It’s going to hit over 100 degrees there this week, which isn’t ideal. But the older I get, the more I fall in the heat-is-better-than-cold camp.
If you ever decide to make the trip, check out www.cactusleage.com. It’s really handy with information on the stadiums and even a tool to plan your trip to multiple stadiums.
St. Patrick’s Day
A quick shoutout to possibly my favorite holiday of the year. I have nearly zero Irish blood in me, but I love St. Patrick’s Day. I specifically love the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Atchison which is always on Snake Saturday (the Saturday before March 17).
I love seeing all the green people wear, I love that we’re solidly past February and hopefully into better weather. Snake Saturday with good weather puts an extra pep in my step, even if the temperature drops 40 degrees and we get wind and snow the next day.
Best of all, baseball is revving up and college basketball is entering March Madness. It’s a great time on the sports calendar and a clear sign spring is here. If you see me on St. Patrick’s Day, I’ll be sporting my green Kansas City Royals hat.
For any old timers, it is a Royals hat, not an old Kansas City Athletics hat. The Kansas City Athletics had more of an interlocking “KC” than the Royals use. My hat has the normal “KC” and the old A’s hat looked like this:
Make sure you take a moment to celebrate this St. Patrick’s Day. Have a Guinness (if that’s your thing) and watch some Royals players in the WBC. The Royals also play the Dodgers in Surprise at 8:05 p.m., so when the WBC champion is crowned, you have more baseball to enjoy.
