Midwest Spooktacular Day 1: Guy Fieri Never Misses

Now that I'm back from my shenanigans all across the Midwest, it's time to recap all the fun! I would have liked to get going on this during the trip, but when you get back to your hotel completely drenched in sweat, you don't have much energy for uploading photos and blogging.

You may have noticed I'm calling this trip my Midwest Spooktacular. "But Ethan, aren't spooktaculars supposed to be for Halloween?" Well, Eric Andre once hosted a New Year's Eve Spooktacular, and it led me to realize that spooktaculars should be year-round, rather than confined to one season.

I was supposed to arrive in Kansas City just after midnight, but my connecting flight from San Diego was delayed by roughly two hours. Spending a couple extra hours in the San Diego airport is no issue, but Phil's BBQ closed horrifyingly early, depriving me of the meal that I had been awaiting. If I had known, I would've had enough time to leave the airport, take an Uber or Lyft to a nearby Phil's location and take one back, but it's not like you expect an airport restaurant kitchen to be closed at 5:30.

Fortunately, aside from getting into my hotel a bit later than I had hoped, it's not like the delays impacted me at all. I didn't have any early plans for Friday anyway. Before I had gone to bed on Thursday night, I thought it would be worthwhile to look for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives locations in the area. There's a website that compiles all of them, and since the ones I had been to on prior trips (such as Blue Toba in Ashland, Oregon) had been so good, it was worth trying again.

My main plan for Friday was to visit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum before heading to the ballpark, and I found that there was a pizza and cheesesteak spot close to the museum.

Little did I know, the best pizza I've ever had outside of New York would be in Kansas City.

You go to Kansas City expecting great barbecue (more on that on the Day 2 post). You don't expect world-class pizza. Grinders, located a 20-minute walk (or a five-minute Uber or Lyft ride for you non-cheapskates) from the Negro Leagues Museum, was visited by Lord Fieri during the second season of his show, before it was even shown in HD. The pizza is still fantastic. I started with the Slice of the Day, a pepperoni and onion mix, and then tried the Le Hog, which was featured during Fieri's visit. Le Hog had their creamy white sauce, Canadian bacon, ham and meatballs. Usually, I don't like white sauce on pizza, but theirs was excellent, as was the "rockin' red" tomato sauce, which had a very subtle kick to it.

As for the actual museum, it was an enlightening visit. Visitors only need 60-90 minutes to see the entirety of the museum, as it's not overwhelmingly long or overloaded with information. The history of the Negro Leagues and Black baseball players is told in chronological order as you walk through the halls. While I knew the general story of the Negro Leagues, I appreciated the details and individual stories that I hadn't heard about before, such as Kansas City Monarchs founder J.L. Wilkinson, one of the most progressive leaders of the time. I had also known very little about Effa Manley, co-owner of the Newark Eagles, before visiting the museum.

My other favorite feature in the museum was the abundance of clippings from Black newspapers. Almost every major city had a Black newspaper, and the museum did a great job showcasing stories from those publications.

If there's one thing that really stood out to me, though, it's that Satchel Paige was not only a tremendous player, but a hilarious public figure who had his own ways of speaking and doing things. He was something like a much bolder, more feisty version of Rickey Henderson.

If I could pick one person to bring back to life just to see what they would post on Twitter, that person would be Leroy Robert Paige, better known to the world as Satchel.

As for the actual game I went to, it was one of the more conventional and unremarkable games of the trip. The Royals beat the Tigers 5-3, with Ryan O'Hearn hitting an opposite-field three-run homer in the fourth inning. Willi Castro hit an early solo shot for Detroit, but Mitty and Stanford product Kris Bubic got three double plays to hold the Tigers to just one run over his six innings.

Kauffman Stadium is a solid place for a game. It reminded me of a scaled-down and slightly more modern Dodger Stadium, with a simple but classic feel. There's nothing about the park that really stands out, but there's also hardly anything to criticize about it. The only negatives are the location (well outside of town without public transit opportunities) and architecture (bland concrete with circular ramps that were common in stadiums built in the era).

When you've seen one postgame fireworks show, you've seen them all, but I thought the Royals put on a quality show. It was Margaritaville Night, so the show was accompanied by Jimmy Buffett music. They have fireworks shows after every Friday game during the summer.

States visited: Missouri (first time)

Counties collected: Clay County, MO; Jackson County, MO; Platte County, MO