I've had the privilege to be the American Sign Language interpreter for two of the most adorable six-year-old deaf boys during summer school at McQuerry Elementary.  As their interpreter, I follow them to all of their classes from 8:00am-3:00pm Monday through Friday.  I sit right by them at their little table, so I've had a lot of interaction with six year olds lately.  It's been really fun after games to hear kids say how they saw me on the dugout or the "giant awesome screen!"  This afternoon as we were finishing our rockets in Space Class, one of the biggest Royals fans in the class says, "Erica, did you see the game last night!  It was 11 innings, and we got the win!!!"  Brett's talk of the extra innings reminded me it was time to write a blog!  Thanks for the reminder, Brett, and thanks for being such an excited Royals fan!!!!!!

As I've mentioned before, when we first get to the game, we report to our room to find out our responsibilities for the game.  Friday night was a big night for me.  My responsibilities included THE LIVE HOT DOG DERBY!!!  Despite the extreme heat and humidity, I could not wait to get in that hot dog suit! 

Now, normally I'm a Ketchup girl, however I just could not justify putting on ANY red in night one of our series with the Cardinals!!  Along with this thought in mind was the fact that my boyfriend LOVES Relish.  I mean, we all have our hot dog that we root for, but Ryan takes it to another level with his intense and passionate enthusiasm for Relish.  He screams for Relish at a volume that I've literally seen scare small children at games.  So with putting on the Relish suit, I wasn't thinking that he'd be excited that I'd be running in the green for once, but rather, I knew I HAD to win.  I actually sent him a text that said, "I'm afraid that if I lose, you might break up with me."  He wrote back, "Don't make me make that decision."

So, I tried explaining the high stakes to my opponents, Ketchup and Mustard, aka Lauren and Megan Q., but neither of them had much concern with the fact that the future of my relationship was potentially pending upon the outcome of this Hot Dog Derby.  Lauren and Megan Q. were both also in this race to win it for their respective condiment!!  As we got ready, which was only successful with the awesome and dedicated help from Aaron, we were all talking a little hot dog smack.

The photo to the left was obviously taken post-race.  We were all three dripping wet with sweat, and not just because it felt like a hundred degrees outside or because we were in giant hot dog suits, but because we literally ran as hard as we could and with some incredible intensity!!!!!!   I don't know that there has ever been a race that all three hot dogs wanted to win so bad! 

And you will also notice that we're all holding up a number one, because it was so close that no winner was determined!!!!  Ketchup, Mustard or Relish...no matter who you were rooting for Friday night, you can know that we gave it 100% and literally ran our buns off!!!!!

It's a GREAT day to be a Royals fan...
-Erica

PS:  While no real winner was determined, Ryan later said, "I can't believe my girlfriend just really ran incredibly hard in a hot dog race for me.  That's awesome!"  So even though it wasn't exactly a victory, I think he was able to RELISH in my extreme effort!

On Wednesday night, Royals fans celebrated 40 years of Royals baseball by going back in time for a Summer of '69 Retro Night at The K.  The Outfield Experience was packed with fun activities, and Beatles cover band Liverpool played on the stage during the pre-game party.  I'll let these pictures tell the story of the groovy time...

Lauren and Mallary showed off their hula-hooping skills with these spirited fans.

Mallary actually got really good at it...keep it going!!!

Lauren played Twister with this young fan.  I don't think she lasted very long.

Amy showed off her tie-dyed Royals tee.  Very cute!

Tara and Kristin showed their '60s spirit on top of the dugout.  Clap if you love tube socks!

Be sure to catch '70s Retro Night on July 22nd and '80s Retro Night on August 5th!!!

It's a GREAT day to be a Royals fan...
-Erica

Sunday games are my favorites.  I love being outside at the stadium on a sunny afternoon with all of my favorite Royals fans!  Last Sunday was especially full of fun and excited fans, new accessories for the K Crew, an awesome post-game concert and, most importantly, a SWEEP of the Reds!!

Let me take you through this particular awesome Sunday at the stadium...

Lauren and I both realized we had forgotten socks for the game, so we asked Kasey if we could bust out the new tube socks a few games early!!  Here are some of us girls modeling the new look in the locker room before the game...

If I had a penny for everytime I heard, "Nice socks!" I'd be one rich lady.

There were tons of groups here for Family and Faith Day at the K, and I spotted Derek amidst his church group!  Katie and I loved the spirit, Derek!

When I saw this adorable little boy, he looked at me and said, "I love the Royals!"  It was adorable!!!  I love our fans of all ages!!!!!  Thanks for the high five, Peyton!

Katie and I were getting ready to run out on the field to hold the finish line for the Teenie Wienie Race!  Relish took off with a huge lead and greeted us at the finish line with a smile!!

One of the things I love most about this job is all of the people I get to see all of the time!!!  Every game there are always friends or family or even an old teacher that I get to spread some Royals cheer to!!  I'm always still surprised by how many people that I know that I see at the games, but clearly it's because I've always surrounded myself with only the best company...Royals fans, of course!!!

This particular very special fan is my former teacher, Coach Hopkins!  I was SO EXCITED when he yelled out my name as I was climbing the stairs in the view level.  Coach Hopkins taught me a wealth of knowledge about history and geography.  His passion for history made his class such an exciting and fun place to be 5th hour my freshman year of high school!  So great to see you, Coach Hopkins!!!!

To conclude such a perfect Sunday at the K, I stayed with my parents for the MercyMe concert!  It was such a great concert with two really awesome testimonies from Trey Hillman and Brian Bannister.  I'm so proud to be a part of an organization with such respectable and solid individuals such as Hillman and Bannister!

It's a GREAT day to be a Royals fan...
-Erica

Today is the last day of school.  The last final has been taken.  My last pencil has been borrowed to never be returned.  (Question number one:  Why do students steal my pencils?  Question number two:  Why does this make me so furious?)

On this last day, I wanted to share with you some things heard around the classroom of Miss Dyer that I would have to think are a bit unique to things heard around other teachers' classrooms...

"Are you working tonight?  I'm going to be there, and I want a t-shirt!"

"Miss Dyer, who is pitching tonight?  Is it Greinke?"

"I saw you on the big screen last night interviewing that cop!  I told my parents- 'That's my teacher!'"

"Miss Dyer!  You were on the Royals dugout and didn't give me a hot dog!!"

"Can I call you Erica this summer at games?"

And my favorite...

"Miss Dyer, was that your boyfriend that rode his motorcycle to school to see you last week?"
"Yeah, it was."
"Everything about your life is so cool.  The Royals job, you're pretty and funny, and your boyfriend comes here on a motorcycle."

So, thank you Kansas City Royals for adding to my cool factor among high school students.  And now for some really cool pictures of some other really cool people...

There were lions everywhere!  Katie and I found Tate and Logan to pose for us with their lions.  As with most boys, we had to bribe them into our photo shoot though.  We promised them some pretty fun tattoos, and Katie even put them on for the guys!

There was another lion up in the view level helping this cute Royals fan celebrate her birthday!  Lauren, Tetiana, Katie and I had fun spreading some birthday cheer!

Smile if you love the Royals!

For my live shot, I had the awesome opportunity to interview a police officer at the stadium.  It was quite a fun time, and he offered the fans some good advice - "Enjoy the game, and stay off the field!"  Well put!

These two handsome Royals fans are pretty special to me - it's my dad and brother!

Happy last day of school, Grain Valley students.  I hope to see you guys at games all summer long.  And you know what?  I might even give you a Royals pencil.

It's a GREAT day to be a Royals fan...
-Erica

My hands hurt from clapping.  A small price to pay for such a big victory tonight at The K.

Before I get to the oh-so-exciting bottom of the ninth, let me take you to the K Crew Locker Room at about 5:00 PM for our pre-game meeting.  Upon entering our room, we all grab a schedule of the night's events to scope out which promotion or pre-game responsibilty was assigned to us for the game.  Now as a reader of the K Crew blog, I'm going to let you in on some insider information here...while we love every fan and every seat in the house, there are some promotions and some responsiblities that are a little more glamorous than others. 

For example, the K Crew T-shirt Launch is always a blast, but there's something a bit more exciting about being assigned "Royals Dugout."  And on this very night, as I grabbed my script, I was feeling a little blue...and not just because we were wearing our powder blues.  Not only did I not get to see the top of a dugout all night, but after three games in a row of getting to do Live Shots on microphone for pre-game, I was pretty sad to see there would be no microphone in this K Crew member's hand for the evening.

Instead I headed up to the View Level to find fans and use this opportunity to see a different perspective of pre-game.  It wasn't five minutes after I was mingling around section 419 that I met a really special fan.  I found out that Adam was a really big Royals fan, however Adam wasn't the fan that would be singing the National Anthem or down on the field for a pre-game interview.  You see, Adam couldn't talk very well.  He also couldn't walk so great either, but boy was he excited about the 40th Anniversary pin that I had for him.  I sat with him for about ten minutes...not really saying a whole lot, but just soaking in the joy of being at the ballpark.  The nice man that brought him to the game told me later that those ten minutes meant the world to him.  As I walked away from my new friend, I realized that I had just watched the Live Shots air on CrownVision while hanging out with Adam.  I smiled at the way things work sometimes.

Throughout the game, I had even more cool moments like the one with Adam.  I was able to hold an older woman's purse for her while she fixed her jersey in the bathroom.  Katie and I had a great conversation with the Buck O'Neil Legacy Seat honoree. A little girl that I had taught in Vacation Bible School saw me and was so excited to get a high five from a "Royals girl."  A friend of my dad's recognized me and told me what a great job this was for me.  None of these moments were captured on screen, yet they were all super exciting to me. 

This job has many facets.  Yes, part of the job is being on camera and smiling while being the center of attention.  But there is more to K Crew than being in front of the fans.  Sometimes, the most important thing we can do is come alongside the fans.  Sit with them.  Talk to them.  Hear about the memories they have from games past.  Hold their purse.  Give them a high five. 

Somewhat parallel to my attitude for my role tonight, the game only got better and better at the end.  After the first home run in the bottom of the ninth, Katie and I exchanged a look that predicted that maybe, just maybe something big was about to happen.  And did it ever!!!!  Two homeruns, a triple and a WIN FOR THE ROYALS!!  As I was jumping up and down, screaming, high fiving and hugging every fan in sight, I caught a glimpse of the quote on the back of the shirts we gave away tonight for T-Shirt Tuesday.  There were 20,000 of them in the stadium, but it wasn't until that very moment that I REALLY read the profound words: 

"Play for the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back."

As a coach's daughter, my dad has raised me with this "big team, little me" attitude since I was old enough to throw a ball.  But sometimes we need reminders.  Tonight was my reminder.  As a K Crew TEAM member, there are a lot of roles to fill, but in the end, it's not about the name on the back of my jersey.  It's the one on the front that is important.  And you know what?  The name on the front of my jersey isn't "K Crew."  It's ROYALS.  Tonight was a big win... not for me, not for K Crew, but for the ROYALS.  I'm just proud to be a part of this team.

It's a GREAT day to be Royals fan...
-Erica

There was plenty of excitement at The K for this past homestand!  Actually the Royals excitement is not confined to just the stadium.  It's everywhere.  Last week on my drive to the stadium, I was reminded of the glory days of high school sports.  My friends and I always had pre-game rituals and superstitions that involved listening to certain music, eating certain food, etc.

As I was making the journey from Odessa to the stadium, there were people all along the way that seemed to be my own personal "warm-up music."  Sometimes I will forget when I have our uniform on, but it never takes long for me to be reminded, as cars and trucks were honking and giving waves of approval along I-70.  When I stopped for gas across the street from the stadium, people were cheering and hollering!  One guy even came over to my pump to give me a high five!  This kind of energy and excitement around the Royals makes the best job in the world EVEN BETTER!  I was so excited to finally get to the stadium and let the fun begin!

During our pre-game meeting, we receive our promotions and jobs for that particular evening.  One of the many awesome attributes of this job is that we do different promotions and events every night.  We're constantly learning new ways to make our aspect of the game more polished and better for the fans.  On this particular night, I was most excited to see that my pre-game responsibility was live shots with Tim Scott.  This is a new addition to K Crew's responsibility, and one that I could not be more excited about!!!!  A few games prior had been my first time on microphone in a live interview with Tim Scott.  He asked Amy and I some questions about the selection of fans for our promotions.  It was a blast!  However, this night was a little different because Tim informed me that he and Tetiana would be going over to Sheridan's for their shot.  At first, I was disappointed thinking this meant maybe I wasn't doing a live shot after all...until Tim informed me I'd be doing a live interview BY MYSELF!
My major in college was Communications with an emphasis in Public Speaking, and on my Facebook profile, "handheld microphones" is at the top of my list of interests.  Needless to say, I was SUPER excited for this opportunity.  I was on the Bud Light Party Deck and interviewed Netflix employees that were here from all over the country.  We didn't have a whole lot of prep time, so I was a little bit nervous until I heard Mike McCartney's voice asking, "Erica- where are you?"  Something about his voice just made me smile and realize the sheer cool factor of what I was getting to do...this calmed any anxious nerves I had and allowed me to really enjoy the time to talk to such excited fans.  It was an absolute blast.

I'll let these fun snapshots tell the rest of the story from Homestand #3...

Here are some high school baseball players that were really excited about being on CrownVision for the Commerce Bank Pinball Shuffle.  Congrats on winning, Ryan, and good luck with the rest of your season!

 I was walking around just talking to fans, and this guy stopped me and said, "I've got to have a high five from a K Crew girl!"  You know you have a cool job when part of your job description involves giving high fives to excited fans!

These fun little guys were very proud of their Royals tattoos!  And look at those muscles!

Wednesday night, some of my high school students took advantage of the INK College Night ticket promotion, which offers $7 tickets with a high school or college ID.  Looking good, Grain Valley FCA!

 On Sunday, I was with my boyfriend's family for a Mother's Day lunch.  His family is super nice, but more importanly they're all really big Royals fans!!  It was so fun getting to talk to them about K Crew and about the Royals in general!  One of his cousins, Nick, mentioned seeing my picture on screen during K Crew's T-Shirt Launch, and another one of his cousins said he saw me on the dugout during the Hot Dog Launch and was screaming at me for a hot dog!  (I'll be sure to get you one next time, Josh!)  And oh yes, after lunch we were all watching the game of course!  I told Ryan as we left that I definitely approve of a family full of Royals fans.

It's a GREAT day to be a Royals fan...
-Erica
 

You'd think after hearing, "I saw you on CrownVision Saturday night!!!!" from students, teachers, friends, my principal, relatives, friends of relatives, more students and the random QuikTrip worker that potentially I'd get tired of it.  But no.  Not even one bit actually.

A coach just stopped me in the teacher's lounge to ask me how the season was going so far and if I enjoyed it as much as I did last year.  I gave him such an earnest and sincere, "YES! It's actually even MORE fun!"  Homestand #1 was nothing short of incredible.

Let me take you back to before the gates opened on Friday to the rehearsals.  Here's where I must admit that all last week I really enjoyed when someone asked, "Erica, what are you doing tonight?"  Then I got to answer (casually and non-chalant, of course), "Oh, you know, I've just got rehearsals at the stadium, no big deal."  When really I think it IS a really big deal!!  Ah, I loved every minute (and there were quite a few minutes, as we were there until almost 11:00PM a couple of nights) of being out on the field getting everything perfect and polished for Opening Day! 

In addition to learning about the new stadium and reviewing promotions, this was also some quality bonding time for the new K Crew.  I can barely articulate via this keyboard how much I adore the people I will be spending this season working alongside!  It is such an excited, fun, talented, hilarious group of people.  At this point I would normally give individual shout outs to cool people I like, except that it's everyone!  Oh wait - I do need to give a shout out to the brilliant wardrobe selection of Mallary for our rehearsal Wednesday night.

I'm going to let the pictures (along with my fun little captions) tell you the story that was Homestand #1 in the new and improved Kauffman Stadium... 

Here are us ladies having some pre-rehearsal dinner!  We're a little more lady-like out on the job than we are eating our sandwiches...

Here is my most lovely partner for Opening Day - Miss Lauren and I had so much fun with our Season Ticket Holders!

Katie, Lauren, Megan Q and I are showing off our K Crew Seventh Inning Stretch towels!  I love these girls!

Katie and I taking a time out on Opening Day for one fun photo op!

 And here's a look inside K Crew's pre-game activities...

We study our scripts.

We eat some yummy food.  (Sometimes people get Amy and I confused!)

 Back to the real action...

Look at these very spirited girls that are all decked out for the Royals!!!

I had the opportunity to meet the Buck O'Neil Legacy Seat Honoree.

Megan Q. and I had the pleasure of dancing with this cute cowboy during the Garth Brooks sing along...

Adorable!!

Just last night, I was at dinner with five guys who were all SUPER excited about the Royals.  I mean they knew statistics, batting averages, personal information...one of them even knew how to correctly spell Sluggerrr with three Rs and all (I'm still impressed, Devan).  Being around these guys and answering all of their questions about players, the stadium and my job just really made me appreciate all over again what an incredible opportunity I have to be a part of such an exciting organization as the Kansas City Royals.  I've said it before, and you can bet I'll say it again...

It's a GREAT day to be a Royals fan...
-Erica

Monday night was the K Crew photo shoot at the stadium.  As I was driving into Kauffman Stadium, I could almost hear "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and feel the excitement of being up on the dugout in front of thousands of excited fans.  Every memory from last season came rushing back, and as I pulled into the parking lot to see new additions everywhere, I just could hardly contain my excitement that the season is less than a month away!!!

Before I tell you all about the glam and excitement of our photo shoot, I need to fill you in on some exciting events leading up to the photo shoot.

I want to share an excerpt from an email our boss sent out last week reminding us about the details for our photo shoot...

"Again, please wear your baseball tee and warm-up pants, and look awesome."

I love that is my JOB to "look awesome."   While I was preparing to "look awesome" on Monday afternoon with lots of mascara and hair spray, I was also Facebook chatting with Chris, a former K Crew member.  Talking to Chris made me remember just how very close I became with my teammates last season, and it made me wonder how it would be the same without some of my favorite people not able to return this year... Chris, Sean, Adam--you guys will absolutely be missed, and it will be so much harder to earn the title of "Biggest Flirt" without you boys.

Like I said before FanFest, last season just was so perfect, that I had this tiny fear that it just couldn't be as amazing...but again, like at Fan Fest, my worries were put to rest the minute I walked into the lobby!  The girls were greeted with our brand new shoes, which are actually a whole lot cooler than the shoes from last year!  They're cheerleading shoes, which I anticipate will give us a significant increase in our vertical while jumping up and down with the rally signs (as you can see by this picture of Tetiana showing off her cheerleader jumping skills).  Get excited, Royals fans.

After meeting our very impressive new additions to the team--Brian E, Tara, Jennifer, Kelly and Mallary--we headed downstairs for the glam of having our picture taken over and over and over again.  The girls realized that picture taking is a little more challenging for the boys, as they had to be corrected quite a few more times than we did!  Hahahaha, just teasing guys.  But seriously, special props to Megan W, Katie, Kirby, and Amy who joined me in the row that allowed us to get to be on our knees the entire time.  We realized after the 30th shot or so, that we picked the wrong row!

All in all, it was a blast.  Everyone looked awesome (as instructed), and it was just exciting to get together once again.  After taking our individual shots, we also did a video shoot for CrownVision and all of the new LED boards around the K!  Basically we were standing in front of a camera smiling, waving, being excited at no one...except for the 20 other K Crew members standing in the background laughing at us.

I drove out of the stadium SO pumped and excited for this season.  I cannot wait to be out at the stadium throwing t-shirts, yelling/clapping "Let's go Royals, let's go!", running in the hot dog race, watching the Royals WIN and, of course, hanging out with all of our crazy amazing fans!!!!

It's a GREAT day to be a Royals fan...
-Erica

Hello K Crew Fans!  I wanted to take a minute and tell you about our new video blog.  K Crew members Brian and Keith will be producing a K Crew video blog during the 2009 season.  It's just another way for you to keep track of the Royals and the K Crew!

I hosted the first blog, which covered our 2009 FanFest.  Check it out here!  You can also find it on the K Crew Web site.  We hope you enjoy it!

It's a GREAT day to be a Royals fan...

-Erica

Generally, I reserve my Saturday mornings for being that one day in the week that I get to sleep in and not wake up to my annoying alarm.  So when the alarm went off early Saturday morning, I wasn't in the most excited mood as I put on our new uniforms and headed to the Royals 2009 FanFest.  Actually to be honest, I was almost dreading this first event with the new K Crew!  I just felt like there was no way that this new group could match the endless fun and good times we had last season.

And then it happened.

I pulled up to the Overland Park Convention Center to see a carload of guys jumping out and running to the entrance all decked out in blue from head to toe.  This made me smile and remember why I was here.  Then I found my parking spot and started to walk toward the entrance myself when some of the F.L. Shlagle High School's drumline spotted me in my super cool new K Crew warm ups and gave me excited high fives.  I had almost forgotten that it was Saturday morning and that I should be sleeping at this point.  And then, I didn't even have to open the door to the Convention Center because a nice girl in a K Crew warm up waited with it open for me. 

We had only had a couple of meetings before FanFest, and clearly we had missed each other, so as we walked in, we went over introductions.  I found out her name is Katie, and as we waited for our pre-game -- or I suppose pre-event -- meeting, I also found out our similarities didn't stop at our wardrobes for the day!   After meeting my new K Crew friend, I was not only okay being out of bed on a Saturday morning, I was GLAD to be at such an exciting event!

The rest of the day flew by with all of the excitement of FanFest.  K Crew's responsiblities included greeting fans at the door with programs and bags, running the home run derby field, rolling t-shirts, which of course then leads to dancing on stage and throwing out those t-shirts... We had so much fun throwing everything from blankets and t-shirts to caps and bobbleheads to fans at the Main Stage.  I think every single fan left with something!

It's crazy how I had almost forgotten just how much fun it is to throw t-shirts to such excited and great fans!  It's called FanFest, because it truly is an event that is made just for our fans.  Between interviews and autographs and fun booths, there is just so much Royals excitement going on!  I had a great time just walking around talking to fans, and then later in the evening thanking the fans for coming as they left.  As I was telling them that I would see them in April, I asked several departing fans, "Did you have a good time?"  Their responses were absolutely unanimous--literally every single person replied with such enthusiasm that they had a great time!!

And as you can see, I'm working with some pretty great people.  I really can't tell you how serious I was on my drive to FanFest that I really did fear there was no way my new K Crew team members could match those from last year... but as the day progressed, I got more and more excited about this upcoming season with some pretty fantastic new additions to the crew!

The whole weekend made me completely ready for April to get here and for the coolest, most exciting job to begin once more...and I can't wait to take you along on every fun adventure we have as your 2009 K Crew!!!

Even early on a Saturday morning...

It's a GREAT day to be a Royals fan...
-Erica