You can see all the opening day impressions here.

Jeff Lancaster attended the Royals opening game. Here's his take:

- I arrived a bit early so I made my way to the live broadcast of the Royals flagship (810am). They were broadcasting outside the stadium, very close to the George Brett statue. I watched a quick segment and during their break, the actual George Brett arrived, and participated in an interview and a roundtable. I believe it was my first experience of seeing a statue and the actual live model at the same time.

- Also heard from my buddies that they had spotted the true baseball spokesperson from Kansas City driving a champagne colored Cadillac. Buck O'Neill had his arms out the window and his patented smile on his face. His famous quote of "born at the right time" still rings true.

- It was about this time that I received a call from a member of my foursome that his car broke down and he wouldn't be able to make the game. Not a good game to miss.

- Noticed many, many people with fingers held aloft looking for tickets. A very welcome sight outside of the K.

- My other buddies called to tell me that they had found a spot for the Winnebago so I began the trek. They were located near the Chiefs practice facility which is easily a half-mile from the stadium. While walking through the crowds, I noticed dozens of tailgating games of washers. If unfamiliar, it's very similar to horseshoes but played with palm-sized metal washers. The "pit" is a wooden box with a white cylinder in the middle of it. One point for a toss into the box, three points for a toss into the cylinder.

- Arrived at the Winnebago (which was a gift to our group just to drive it away from the previous owner) and a 16-team washer tournament had already started. Brats, hamburgers, peppers, chips, and Boulevard beer was the menu.

- Made it inside the stadium for the National Anthem, Challenger the Eagle, and the flyover. Our seats were about four rows from the top (row AA) on the first base side. Clearly a great angle to yell at the umpire for those missed calls.

- The Royals handed out, for the first time ever I believe, ThunderStix. For the first eight innings, they were very, very annoying as various drunk fans used them simply to give me a headache. In fact, one such person sat one row below us and about ten seats to our left. And he only seemed to reach truly epic levels of annoyance when his wife would leave for bathroom breaks. However, when used in unison, they were extremely loud and proved very effective. In fact, it's our belief that Mendy's home run was ThunderStix aided.

- One noted conversation: Friend A: "I had no idea that Sandy Alomar was still playing baseball. I mean he's really old and he really sucks." (Five seconds later) Sandy: "HOME RUN". Unbelievable.

- More quotes: "Well Pena's obviously giving up by bringing in Shawn Camp and Nate Field". (I still believe this, by the way) "There's no way that Pena will lift Stairs just because Marte is now pitching". "Mendy Lopez pinch-hitting for Matt Stairs, no freaking way".

- And wouldn't you know it, after Mendy's homer I even high-fived that annoying ThunderStix guy in the row in front of us. The moral of the story: Everyone is happy when the Royals win!!!!!!!!

- The very first call-in question on sports radio while driving away from the stadium......"How will we ever keep Mendy Lopez next year?".