This moment alone made it worth going to the ballpark with a migraine. Danny Duffy took some time to try to make things better for an overwhelmed little kid.

Duffy later Instagrammed the picture, and said “My man was a little shook! But we talked a little UNC hoops and it was all gravy. Saw soooo much of me as a little guy in this kid. Love this game.”

As for the kid, I don’t mean to pick on him by highlighting this picture, at all. I know too well the feeling of arriving somewhere and then immediately going NOPE NOPE NOPE and heading right back home (or at least wanting to). What I do want is for his parents see Duffy saying he was this kid, and he grew up and made it to the Bigs.

Duffy pitches tomorrow night, by the way, followed by Yordano Ventura on Friday. I’d suggest dropping everything and going to Werner Park for both games. Velocity will be the story on both nights, as Duffy gets deep into his rehab assignment and whoever catches for Ventura tries to avoid having his 100+ mph fastball burn a hole through his glove.

Anthony Seratelli bringing his A-game for this photobomb. Well played, sir.

Here's Seratelli stealing 2nd in the 2nd. The ball would end up in the outfield.

HOWEVER, Seratelli was unable to get up and go to 3rd, because Elevys Gonzalez pinned him to the bag with his legs. The third base umpire saw no issue with this. Seratelli got thrown out trying to advance to third.

While we’re thinking about Seratelli, I’d just like to point out that he”s having a really good season at the plate. Thanks in part to the one of the highest walk rates of his career, his OPB stands at .401 right now. He also has 6 home runs and 10 stolen bases, and in addition to regular duty in right field, he has played every infield position. He is pretty much the best Swiss Army knife a team could ask for, and I wish the big club could find a way to stop ignoring him.

I haven't seen Ventura pitch yet, so I just have a series of nice pictures like this.

Chris Dwyer is the James Shields of Omaha's staff. Pitches well, gets little support.

The Chasers are having a bit of a down year, at 30-39. It is a far cry from the team that wrapped up a division title in mid-August of last year, that is for sure.

I don’t want to pile on, because I like this team and I want them to do well, but here’s a bit of a breakdown of what’s led to this 30-39 record:

• The Omaha lineup, despite having one of the oldest (read: Most experienced?) lineups in the PCL, is scoring the 4th-fewest runs in the league (4.52 per game, 312 runs total)
• Omaha has the 4th-lowest team batting average and the 3rd-lowest OBP, as well as the 3rd-lowest slugging percentage.
• They’ve hit the 4th-fewest home runs, too, and are dead last BY FAR in doubles hit.

The pitching staff is actually in the top 4 or so in most categories. They’re in the middle of the pack in walks allowed, and toward the bottom in total strikeouts (but somehow tops in the league in K/9?).

I guess, overall, the biggest problems seem to be with offense, and timing. The pitching staff is, at worst, average. And, apparently, I like commas.

Anyway: Go to the games on Thursday and Friday. Watch Duffy and Ventura, and keep an eye on the radar gun both nights. Maybe Jarrod Dyson will have another 4-steal performance.

Shortly after this, the rest of the Chasers players started trickling into the Omaha dugout, and wishing Ventura a happy birthday. It was very sweet. Here’s hoping Ventura’s start on Thursday is a successful one!

The kids thought they were just doing the "word match" game with Chasers players up on the video board

Then, instead of a player on the board, it was their dad, allegedly on video from Afghanistan

But surprise! The dad was actually in Werner Park, waiting to surprise his kids

See tonight’s full set – including the Human Cannonball! – HERE.

Many more pictures – including a surprise reunion of a military family! – coming up later tonight.

If you make enough good decisions, three-year plans turn into two-year plans and five-year plans turn into three-year plans. If you make bad decisions, 10-year plans turn into no plan.

See? Amazing. Let’s turn it up a little:

If you make bad decisions, 10-year plans turn into no plan.

10-year plans turn into no plan.

no plan.

We are just under three years away from Dayton Moore fulfilling his own prophecy and realizing he has no plan.

It's more our fault than his. We're not patient enough. We don't have enough blind faith in the fruitless 7.3-year-and-counting Process. We ought to be ASHAMED.

I’m a happy person, generally. My momma taught me to find silver linings everywhere, and give people the benefit of the doubt. Someone cut me off in traffic? Maybe there’s a woman in labor in the backseat. Hit a crappy tee shot?* Well, what an opportunity to work on shooting out of the rough. I’m in the line at the grocery store with the world’s slowest checker? Ahhh, an opportunity to grow in patience.

*though I was on the varsity team all four years of high school, I was a crappy golfer. This ‘silver lining’ skill came in handy.

And in general, I keep the Royals’ woes in perspective. They’ve been horrible my whole life and then some, but even at their worst, there are much bigger problems in the world at large, and even in my own life. So, whatever. Let’s go drink a Royal ‘Rita at The K and hope for a win. If they lose, whatever, we’ve seen this before but the world won’t end.

But I dunno. Something is different about this round, somehow. It’s more infuriating even though, in a lot of ways, it’s the same old Royals. We’re watching a manager stick a guy with a career .311 OBP in the leadoff spot because grit and hustle are apparently more important out of the #1 slot than avoiding outs. The same manager finds a way to blame us, the fans, the ones who pay money to watch his baffling lineups fail to score any runs ever, for the team’s continued failures.

Nedward apparently learned this refrain from his boss and his managerial predecessor, because they’ve both scolded us for being too impatient even though we’ve suffered for decades AND given Dayton Moore seven years to accomplish the amazing feat of losing 15 of the last 19 games. And the “best farm system ever?” It’s now just a slightly less bare cupboard than the one he inherited. Additionally, we have an insufferable TV broadcast duo, who, after today’s starter gave up four home runs AGAIN, agreed that he pitched “really well.”

This is the same old Royals. We were led to believe that somehow, this time would be different, and it’s not different. So sorry, James Shields, your wonderful starts are being wasted by the roster around you, an offense who likes to run into outs all over the damn diamond because again, grit and heart are more important than logic or conserving precious outs.

I’d like to say that I had some magical gut feeling after the first inning when I started tweeting incredibly grumpy things this afternoon. But it doesn’t take special prescience to know that when the Royals see 7 whole pitches from Billy Freaking Buckner in the first inning, it’s just another Royals game in a decades-long string of the same old crap.

This has been a banner week for stinging takedowns of these ‘Come to Play’ Royals, who are barely distinguishable from the humiliating ‘Our Time’ Royals, the laughable ‘True. Blue. Tradition.’ Royals, the ‘Your Hometown Team’ Royals, and so many the other Royals before. I don’t have much new to add to the refrain, because all of us are mad in a way that makes us stare at the team’s B-Ref page in a rage-tinged disbelief, wondering how anyone thought that this team would actually ‘Come to Play.’

It feels a little bit like a loss within the family, doesn’t it?

Want to use this shot of Louis Coleman somewhere? Sure, go for it. Just throw me a credit or I'll get sad.

PITCHERS

Buddy Baumann

Justin Marks

George Sherrill

Michael Mariot

Nate Adcock

Will Smith

Everett Teaford

Donnie Joseph

Ryan Verdugo

Chris Dwyer

Louis Coleman

Dan Wheeler (released May 11)

Brian Sanches

Blaine Boyer

Atahualpa Severino

Francisely Bueno

Kelvin Herrera

CATCHERS

Max Ramirez

Adam Moore

Brett Hayes

INFIELDERS

Freddy Sandoval

Chad Tracy

Anthony Seratelli

Johnny Giavotella

Christian Colon

Xavier Nady

Brandon Wood (traded May 9)

Irving Falu

OUTFIELDERS

Paulo Orlando

David Lough

Willy Taveras

I don't know who's giving that big hug to Falu - I think it's David Lough. Which, awwww.

Will Smith and Chad Tracy greeting Lough near 2nd base

aaand.... UP!

This was a fantastic game. Chris Dwyer was excellent again, using his curveball to keep the Redbirds off the board completely for 6.1 innings. Like his last home start, he did not get a double-yoo. That went to Louis Coleman, who got the BS/W combo. Coleman was actually good in his 2.2 innings, though he had to work around a double and a walk in the 10th.

Irving Falu led off the bottom of the 10th with his 2nd triple of the day, and David Lough drove him in on a single to right field. Lough drove in both of Omaha’s runs on the day, and his 2-5 performance raised his average to .364, and his OBP to .423.

[BOX SCORE]

It’s a shame, really, because Chris Dwyer had a really nice start – 7 innings, 5 K, 1 BB and just two runs. It actually looked like Iowa had Dwyer figured out in the 4th, when they scored both of their runs against him. Every Cubs batter that inning went aggressively after the first or second pitch, and it paid off. But Dwyer got things back on track and didn’t allow any additional runs.

Mariot ended up with a vulture win, further proving that the W is the best stat and should never be questioned.

ANYWAY. Here’s Willy Taveras scoring the winning run:

I was in the Cubs’ dugout, so I had to shoot past sad Iowa players to get a view of the celebrating Storm Chasers.

More celebration. I love Nathan Adcock hugging on Christian Colon over there on the right. So fun.