I've always had a certain respect for those fans who come to County Stadium to support the visiting team. That's real loyalty, flying in from Atlanta or driving up from Cincinnati to root on your team. How great it must be to love your guys enough to watch them both at home and on the road. I've always wanted to be that kind of Brewers fan. And last weekend, for the first time, I was.

Thanks to some cajoling from an old college friend who lives in Kansas City, not to mention some cheap airfares I found online, I made a last minute decision to see the Brewers take on the Royals at Kauffman Field. Actually, Bob Uecker really made the final decision for me Thursday, explaining on the air that Kansas City is one of his favorite places to catch a game. Hey, if it's good enough for Uecke, it's good enough for me.

So I stuffed all the old-school Brewers clothing I could fit in a duffel bag and headed Southwest. Despite the 100 degree temperatures enveloping KC all week, the climate seemed just right for a little July baseball.

What first struck me about watching my Milwaukee Brewers play outside the friendly confines of County Stadium were the similarities with Spring Training. This makes sense, as the only place I've seen the Crew play other than Milwaukee is in Phoenix (as well as in Boston as a teenager). Watching the guys take batting practice, I realized most of the kids waiting for autographs couldn't tell Ron Belliard from the bullpen catcher, but I knew each and every Brewer on sight. Same goes for the Cactus League; only the die-hards and the retired fans follow their team out west each spring. Taking advantage of my unique position as the resident expert, I made sure to point out each and every player to my bored Kansas City host. Standing there, I felt like a superfan. And I loved it. Less impressed was my buddy, Oscar. He just told me I was a dork.

Our seats more than sufficed for both the Friday and Saturday night contests. Kauffman Field has a intangible intimacy to it, as most seats seem close to the action. Now with natural grass and flanked by huge fountains in the outfield, it's a lovely stadium, though it's pushing three decades old. The Big K filled up both nights, drawing 30,000 and 23,000 fans, respectably, in the 45,000 seat capacity stadium.

Fortunately, I quickly found out that I was not the only fan to make the trip to support the Brew Crew. The first night, a displaced Milwaukee couple from the South sat in front of us. Though they moved to KC 25 years ago, they still remained fans and brought the old school logo hat to prove it. We high-fived when Jose Hernandez cranked one out of the park and winced whenever Jeff D'Amico hurled a bad pitch.

The second night, three guys from Milwaukee parked behind us in the lot. We spotted them easily; their jerseys, hats and strong accents gave them away. Talking shop, I reaffirmed my suspicion that Brewers fans still exist out there, and the gooney ones (myself included) are just as gooney as other team's boosters.