As for baseball... the love for that Major League team that plays exactly 24 miles east of here (from exit 411B on I-70 for T-Bones Ballpark to exit 421 on I-70 for the newly renovated Kauffman Stadium) is of course very much alive. The Royals were a most welcome representative to Kansas City after the Yankees tried to place what was essentially the "Yankees Part II" called the Kansas City Athletics here at old Kansas City Municipal Stadium in 1955. (Arnold Johnson who owned the Kansas City A's also owned outright the actual building of "Yankee Stadium". Though he did sell it before moving the A's to Kansas City, you would think MLB would have said that's a bit of a "conflict of interest"). Needless to say, every great Kansas City A's player including Roger Maris would go on to have their "career year" (like hitting 61 HR in a season) in the Bronx and not in a K.C. A's uniform. When the Royals showed up without any ties to the Yankees and then moved to their brand new stadium...  attendance tripled. That said... there is still that feeling that the Royals are part of that "Missouri side" of Kansas City. They are just as loved and appreciated as ever over here... but the Kansas City T-Bones give the people of Kansas City Kansas a team to root for that is all their own. It allows a little bit of pride to shine through because the people that live in this side of the Missouri ... love this side of the Missouri and to them ... this is the "real Kansas City" and the T-Bones are most definitely a thriving star of that real Kansas City.