Well, Game 1 of the 2014 World Series is now history. And it was over in the first inning when the Giants scored three runs off the Royals James Shields. It wasn’t pretty for Shields. I won’t recount the entire inning or his short outing, but I will say that Panda, Posey and Pence make a formidable trio in the middle of the order. As I said in a blog a month or so ago, stop those guys and you stop the Giants. But even with their big bats tonight, a tip of the cap to Madison Bumgarner. He usually gives the opposition a bit of a chance somewhere in the first third of the game-and then BOOM. Down comes the hammer. The Royals squandered a second and third with no outs opportunity in the 3rd inning. Bumgarner wiggled off the hook. Not so much as a peep until a late homer by Salvador Perez. Game 1 goes to the Giants. Bumgarner wrapped up another win.

So I forgot to tell you about the elevators in my hotel. There’s a touchpad on the wall opposite the actual elevators. Touch your floor and you’re assigned an elevator-either A B or C. I thought it was pretty cool until I realized everyone was assigned to the same elevator. Once inside, there is no way to press another floor button. They are behind plastic. The touch pad is the only way to get to your floor. Make a mistake on the touch pad and there’s no turning back. Your doomed to go all the way to the top or all the way to the bottom on elevator A B or C. And you have to hear the woman’s voice saying Elevator A opening. Elevator A closing and yada yada yada. Yikes! Pick the right button the first time.

The home plate upper level Press Box at Kauffman Stadium was extended to accommodate all the media. There was an auxiliary Press Box in left field in what is usually a restaurant. I was seated in the one behind home plate. I had a great view of the game and there were TV monitors all around. The food was outstanding. Hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos, pretzels, peanuts, coffee, pop, and probably more things that I can’t remember. Man, people were constantly eating. I didn’t eat that much. Just enough. By the 4th inning the place was a mess.

A crowd of 40,459 fans were in the stands and I would bet 40,458 were wearing some form of Royal blue. It really looked nice. And I have to give it to the fans-they were rooting for their team through thick and thin. Mostly thin. By the way, the park seats 37,903 at capacity. We were in a Standing Room Only situation. There were Giants fans in attendance, but they were few and far between.

I spent most of the pre-game down on the field watching batting practice. It was really neat to see guys like Pablo Sandoval enjoying discussions with David Ortiz and Salvador Perez. They all seemed like great friends who really enjoyed the moment of competition together. Even though Big Papi isn’t in the game, he was laughing and joking around with his buddies. The field was groomed perfectly.

The Royals hit only 95 homers during the season. The 1987 St. Louis Cardinals hit 94 and made it to the World Series.

This World Series is being billed as Destiny (Royals) vs. Dynasty (Giants). I’m not sure the Giants are a dynasty. But maybe. This every other year World Series thing is pretty special.

Madison Bumgarner is pretty special.

Nori Aoki took some pretty bad routes tonight in right field.

So you’ve heard of Steak N Shake? How about Curry In A Hurry. That’s the name of an Indian Restaurant down the street from the hotel. I think that’s pretty clever.

The Giants 20th World Series appearance ranks second all-time. The New York Yankees have the record with a whopping 40.

Pitcher Jeremy Guthrie is Yordano Ventura’s interpreter.

Giants third base coach Tim Flannery got burned sending Buster Posey home when there was very little chance he could score. Posey didn’t slide and was called out. Several people in the Press Box were really down on Flannery for aggressive decisions like that. But if Posey would have been safe, Flannery would have been a genius. Such is the life of a third base coach.

The Giants had no- as in 0-left-handed hitters on their bench. The Royals had one, Jarrod Dyson.

In case you were wondering, that beautiful fountain in the outfield at Kauffman Stadium is 322 feet wide. It is the largest privately funded fountain in the world. I was thinking about that just the other day. You know-something like, “where’s the largest privately funded fountain in the world?” Now I know.

George Brett played in 43 postseason games. Frank White played in 42. Brett hit ten postseason home runs.

After his last start in Baltimore, James Shields passed a kidney stone.

The bakery down the street was open this morning when I went for my walk. But frankly, I didn’t see anything that met with my approval. It was mostly cookies. And my wife bakes great cookies. I’ll wait to get home and get some of hers.

Well, join me on twitter tomorrow night @BerniePleskoff for Game 2 of the 2014 World Series. And look for my articles on MLB.com about young World Series players.
Thanks.

That’s it. I’m done.