By ALI OVERSTREET
Sports Editor

(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — If you attend the University of Central Missouri, you are aware of the Cardinals and Royals rivalry on campus. It has been ever-prominent since my freshman year. I remember thinking how much I hated the Royals and Kansas City because I was from St. Louis. But as the years have gone by, I’ve grown cordial to good old Kansas City.

This past Sunday, I attended my first ever Royals baseball game with my roommate and our boyfriends. We bought tickets through Alpha Omicron Pi’s Strikeout Arthritis philanthropy event. I couldn’t pass this up because it was for a really great cause, tickets only cost $20 each and $8 went to arthritis research.

I had no idea what I was going to wear. I have plenty of Cardinals attire but zero Royals. The day before, I borrowed a Royals hat from one of my sorority sisters. My boyfriend, who is also from St. Louis, on the other hand, sported a Cardinals hat and a Royals jersey. It was rather comical.

As we got to the game, even though I was wearing a Royals hat, I couldn’t help but feel out of place. There was so much blue… And not the good St. Louis Blues kind of blue.

At one point, my boyfriend and my roommate’s boyfriend thought it would be funny to yell, “Royals suck!” and “Go Cards!” You can imagine my fear of having to break up a possible fistfight from these outbursts. Luckily, no one challenged the two boys.

We found our seats after going through the ticket line and using the restrooms. A couple of our other friends were already seated and we all sat together. All around, the atmosphere at Kaufmann was decent; not Busch Stadium, but I still enjoyed being with good friends, ballpark food and the nice weather. It was around the sixth inning when we decided that it was time to leave.

It just wasn’t Busch Stadium. The hot dog I ordered was good, but not Busch Stadium good.

The stadium was nice, but Busch Stadium takes my breath away every single time I walk up to it. Being surrounded by blue just made me uncomfortable. Now, if it were St. Louis Blues hockey blue, it would be a different story. That’s just it though, we weren’t in St. Louis.

As we left the stadium, a man in all blue walked up to my boyfriend, Jake, and I and said, “If the Royals can’t seem to do it, at least the Cardinals are doing good!” He then proceeded to fist bump Jake. All I had to say was, “Respect.”

St. Louis will forever be my true love and home, but Kansas City is not so bad either. When it’s time for the Cardinals to play the Royals, you can bet I’ll be wearing red and rooting for the birds!