Seven days, five ballgames and some awesome BBQ.

My baseball road trip with my son is now in the books.  Here's what I learned:

* If you're an afficianado of heckling, you can't beat $1 beer night in Wichita.

* I never want to hear the sound effect of Ric Flair screaming "WOOOOO!" again

* The Negro League Museum in KC is a must see for any BB fan.

* We made a friend in Wichita:

* Toasted Ravioli, a delicacy in St. Louis, should be everywhere.  It's awesomeness cannot be overstated.

* Speaking of food:  The world's best BBQ can be found in a Shamrock gas station in Kansas City, KS.  It's called Okalahoma Joes. Damn.

* Haymarket Park in Lincoln, nebraska is the nicest minor league park I've ever visited.  A miniature Coors Field is what it is.  I'd kill to have a park like that nearby to see ballgames.

* Drunken Wichita heckler to Sioux City Explorer player:  "Hey, what's in Sioux City?"

Player:  "nothing"

* The park in Wichita is the only field I've ever seen with an astroturf infield and a grass outfield.  And, oh yeah, the colors of the two parts of the the field don't match.

* On a positive note, the scoreboard at that park features a hand operated metal goose who drops a goosegg on the scoreboard when the opposing team fails to score.

* On a negative note:  WOOOO!!  Every 10 seconds or so.

* Dustin Mohr plays for the Wichita Wingnuts in the independent American Association.  He had the night off when we went, alas.

* the car GPS navigation system is the greatest invention of all time.  Better than penicillin.

* The only people in Busch Stadium not wearing Cards gear were the Giants.  Everyone in St. L -- everyone -- goes to the game in red.  And 95% of them are wearing Pujols gear.

* My son is a budding photographer, and he took great action shots throughout the trip.  here's one of his -- Tim Raines, Jr. @ Omaha:

* Kaufmann Stadium in KC is really a lovely park.  They've just dropped $300 mil making it nicer.  the scoreboard is the 8th wonder of the  world.  20 stories high and ultra high def.     Kaufmann also has the nicest staff (apart from coors, of course).    the staff at Omaha and St. L were a bit cranky.

* Tim Lincecum is ridiculous.  he two-hit the Cards the night we went and it was just effortless.  He's not blowing guys away, he's pitching.  It was like watching Greg Maddux with better stuff.  Scary.

* The new Busch is almost a carbon copy of Coors, but painted red.  One big minus, though -- no open concourse.  That's the best feature of Coors, IMO, and I don't understand why they wouldn't have it at Busch. 

* How strange and wonderful it was to turn on sports talk radio in St. Louis and hear hosts and callers talk baseball -- knowledgeably -- all day.  What a concept.

* It was a wonderful trip and I loved every minute of it.  And what was the #1 thing I learned? Coors field is still the best place on earth to watch a ballgame!  :)