House divided: Yanks and Royals couple experience Kauffman ALDS Game 3

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Those who weren’t at Kauffman Stadium, or planning to watch the ALDS Game 3 at home might have chosen to go to a local sports bar instead.

Brookside bar Charlie Hooper’s general manager George Clarke says they had at least 30% more staff than normal Wednesday night, thanks to the Royals game.

“Everybody’s in a good mood. It’s kind of like working Christmas,” Clarke said.

“Everybody’s making money, and you know, everybody’s in a good mood, and as long as the team wins, everybody’s happy.”

Clarke ended up going to Kauffman for Wednesday night’s game.

“I’m excited,” he said before he left for the game.

“A lot of games, I’m usually here, and I’m whipping my head around to see what happened after the fact, so getting to go to a game tonight as a fan, it’s kind of fun because I don’t always get to see everything as it unfolds. I’m usually kind of running around the kitchen or wherever helping people out, and to get to change that mode from an operator to just a 100% fan is going to be great.”

For Charlie Hooper’s, Clarke says Wednesday night will be more like a normal Friday or Saturday night business-wise. It’s all due to the Royals being in the postseason.

Two fans eating lunch there that afternoon before they went to the game showed their excitement hours ahead of the first pitch.

“Super excited,” Tom said.

Tom’s a Yankees fan, sporting a white polo with the Yankees logo on the front. His wife Nanette, on the other hand, is a Royals fan.

“Whenever the Royals are playing, unless they’re playing the Yankees, then he’s a Royals fan because he’s a Kansas Citian now,” Nanette said of her husband.

Nanette was dressed in a Royals shirt when we caught up to them at the restaurant. Tom grew up in the New York area. That’s where he met his wife, Nanette whos is from the KC metro originally.

Later on, they moved to St. Joseph, which is where they live now.

“We raised our family here,” Nanette said.

“Now our grown daughter lives in New York City.”

Because they went to Wednesday’s game, Nanette and Tom agree, they’ll probably remember that night for the rest of their lives.

“And we’re going with a bunch of Royals fans, so I’m outnumbered,” Tom said.

“They’re trying to forgive him because he’s a great guy,” Nanette added, talking about their friends.

Tom said he thinks that if the Yankees want to win, they’ll need Aaron Judge’s bat to get hot in Game 3.

“I mean [Seth] Lugo’s a tough pitcher,” he continued, talking about Game 3 and the Royals starting pitcher.

“But I think the bats will come alive. I mean the Yankees have a great team. They do.”

“No,” Nanette said when FOX4 brought up how Bobby Witt Jr. has struggled so far for the Royals too.

“[He hasn’t hit] as well as he has in the past, but I think he will tonight.”

North of Brookside at Union Station, fans checked out how that entity’s celebrating the Royals in Major League Baseball’s postseason. The lit-up sign next to Harvey’s says ‘KC loves our Boys in Blue.’

Fans were getting their picture taken next to it Wednesday afternoon. One couple drove about 50 minutes downtown just to see how Union Station was supporting the Royals.

“You’ve got the Chiefs, and the Royals, and the Kansas City Current,” Higginsville resident Greg Fine said.

“I mean there’s just a lot of good things going on in sports right now for Kansas City.”

“We’re very excited for tonight and tomorrow because it’s just exciting for them to get to this point again,” Greg’s wife Melanie said.

“It’s been fun watching the players and just through this whole year.”

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