Faye's first baseball game

So tonight we took Faye to her first Major League Baseball game.

A Brewers game nonetheless. In Kansas City.

I put in my second day at work since she was born and left the office at 3. The plan from there was to be ready to leave the house no later than 3:30. After all, it takes at least 90 minutes to get to the stadium. Game time was 7:05 and my hope was to get there in plenty of time to take in some of the game day aura and play with Phoebe in the playground. Plus it was T-shirt Tuesday, which means the first 10,000 fans through the gate receive a free Royals T-shirt.

None of that happened.

Instead we had a little crisis at home when we couldn't find the Baby Bjorn. I nearly tore the house apart searching for it, pealing items out of every closet, storage container and cardboard box I could find. Its whereabouts are going to haunt me for days.

So Kates and I settled on the fact that we were going to have to take turns holding Faye for the duration of our trip - which wasn't such a bad thing in the end.

We didn't leave the house until about 4:40. I was frustrated. And appropriately, the first song to play on the iPod as we pulled from our driveway was Ingrid Michaelson's "Be OK."

Fortunately, we had smooth sailing to Kansas City and we were making good time.

Until we were about 15 minutes from the stadium and Phoebe announced she had to go potty. I exited the interstate as soon as we saw a sign for a convenience store and proceeded to drive about 20 minutes of the way before Phoebe changed her mind and decided she didn't have to go after all. I turned the car around and started toward the stadium again.

We arrived at the parking gates around 6 p.m. - not bad - and got ourselves settled. Kates stayed in the car and fed Faye while Pheebs and I retrieved our tickets from the will call window. Finally, around 6:30 we started making our way to the stadium. As a family of four.

We arrived at our seats along the first base line just in time to hear the national anthem, sung by a choir from one of the crosstown rivals of my high school alma mater. Cool.

Then the game began, and while we were trying to settle in and decide on our concession orders Alex Gordon slammed a home run to lead off the game. We didn't see it but we certainly heard the roar of the crowd. Royals 1, Brewers 0.

A hot dog and Mountain Dew in a souvenir cup for me. A hot dog and a snow cone for Phoebe. Chicken tenders and french fries with a bottled water for Kates. It wasn't until the third inning that I finally got settled into my seat.

Shortly after that Kates was off to feed Faye. She didn't return until the eighth inning, but did so with a glowing report of Kauffman Stadium's facilities for nursing moms. Interestingly, this was the third stadium she's visited for a baseball game with a baby in tow -- the Metrodome and Wrigley Field being the others. At the Metrodome, she fed Phoebe in someone's office, and they were directed to the depths of Wrigley Field. Kauffman Stadium, it turns out, had a whole lounge area with easy chair for attening moms. When I asked her if there were monitors to watch the game, she said, puzzled, "No. That would have been nice!"

Back at our seats ...

As long as I have to keep one eye on Phoebe, my days of keeping a scorecard and tracking the game pitch-by-pitch are long gone. I was excited to learn this afternoon that Zack Greinke was starting on the mound for the Brewers tonight, but I couldn't tell you how he did -- aside from the homer he gave up to Gordon, which I didn't see -- without looking at a professional box score. The fourth inning was the first time I was able to take a good look at the scoreboard and realized the Royals starter, Luis Mendoza, was tossing a no-hitter.

One thing that wasn't hard to miss: Surprisingly, there was a large Brewers crowd at the game.

In the fifth inning, we got a visit from one of Royals K Crew members. She signed a poster for Phoebe, who beamed. ... She may not pay much attention or understand the game. But she does enjoy the atmosphere, and to her Sluggerrr and the K Crew are like the Beatles.

In the seventh, Ryan Braun broke up Mendoza's no-hit bid with a single and then advanced to third on a couple of little league-caliber throwing errors by the  Royals. Suddenly, the game was getting exciting. ... But Braun eventually was thrown out at the plate. The Brewers scored one in the inning.

They put runners on the bases in the eighth and ninth innings, too. We cheered mightily, but the game ended in a 2-1 win for the Royals.

Still a win for the home team, but not our home team.

We took our time leaving the stadium and getting back to our car. Now Kates is feeding Faye as we wait in the parking lot and listen to music.

It will be 1 a.m. before we get home. But I'll take it. We had fun tonight.