Why a Royals game against the Astros at The K was both disorienting and reassuring
Precarious and tenuous as the scene might have been with who-knows-what ahead amid the surging pandemic, the Royals on Monday night at Kauffman Stadium played an actual game ... against another team (the Houston Astros) … for the first time in 132 days.
Who knew a game that didn’t count could be so welcome?
Sure, it was a mere exhibition game in “Summer Camp” or “Spring Training 2.0” or whatever they’re calling it now.
Sure, it was disorienting with no one in the stands but a handful of Royals players and staff members in the Crown Club seats behind home plate spaced out to enable social-distancing protocols in the dugout.
“I think they were just trying to get on TV,” manager Mike Matheny joked.
Oh, and there was that plastic-cutout likeness of a fan propped in a seat about 30 rows behind the home dugout, symbolizing a Royals campaign for season-ticket holders to have their images similarly displayed that is expected to be about 800-strong for regular-season games.
Yes, that sense of hollowness made it all the stranger for this to be the first game against an opponent with the new safety netting extending to the foul poles.
And it served to amplify the expanses of a diamond that features what is believed to be the most outfield acreage in Major League Baseball.
Speaking of amplifying … then there was the soundtrack.
Instead of the steady buzz of chatter from the seats and periodic shrieks of children whose rites of passage include believing some pop-ups are headed out of the park, the backdrop was dominated by the relentless gurgling of the outfield fountains.
And it was intermittently punctuated by trucks rumbling by on Interstate 70 and walk-up music for the home team and some gently piped-in crowd murmurs of approval and displeasure.
But the spectacle and looming trap doors and a 6-3 Royals loss notwithstanding, the prevailing image was a reassuring breath of fresh air even through the masks wisely mandated in the press box.
Even surrounded by sensory deprivation and deviations, after all, they played ball here.
With parking attendants, albeit a skeleton crew, working the lot and TV and radio production staff broadcasting the game and a national anthem played beforehand.
With another team here and music booming during batting practice … enough to make for a brief vibe that felt like it usually might to Matheny.
With an umpiring crew and the scoreboard illuminated and flags rustling in the breeze on a cool evening at the break of a heatwave.
It was a glimmer of hope that the national pastime can help pass this bizarre time by providing the entertainment and diversion and even a rallying point we’re all parched for with the Royals scheduled to start the highly irregular regular season on Friday at Cleveland.
Nothing is normal now, of course, and probably nothing really will be for a long time no matter how much we want to wish away this darkness.
Close to home, it’s hard to gauge what’s to come even in the basic health of a Royals team that’s gone above-and-beyond protocols … and still been faced with seven players known to have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus, with the recent case of pitcher Jakob Junis on Monday becoming the latest to be acknowledged.
But even without high-fives and spitting, even with base coaches wearing masks and pitchers required to use their own individual rosin bags and so many other oddities, it still was Game On and Play Ball in all the most elemental ways.
Or as starter Mike Montgomery put it: “It is very weird, but that’s kind of just 2020 for us.”
A simple but, in fact, sophisticated point.
If the season is able to be played out, embracing the offbeat and shrugging off the nuisances figure to be crucial to the mental game. Heck, Veteran outfielder Alex Gordon figures the circumstances that feel almost like “backyard baseball” ought to make for less pressure on the younger players
A sense of humor might be handy, too, perhaps along the lines of what was posted by the Royals’ Twitter account to go with video of a Sal Perez home run:
“You could feel the emotion from the piped-in crowd watching @SalvadorPerez15 trot the bases.”
For that matter, you really could feel the emotion from Perez himself as he gets closer to playing in games that count again for the first time since 2018 after missing all of last season with an arm injury that required Tommy John surgery.
“I love to play baseball,” he said.
Even with all the quirks of the moment and without fans in the stands for someone who particularly feeds off, and gives back, that energy. But, hey, they could watch on TV, he knows.
And in the end, he added, “The good thing is we’re still playing baseball.”
Again. And maybe just for now.
But it sure made for a haven and one small step in the direction of normalcy and an example of making the best of what you can as Matheny has been strenuously advocating all along.
Even if it’s not as you’d design it, exactly.
“The answer’s no,” Matheny said, smiling, “but it’s baseball.”
This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 11:37 PM with the headline "Why a Royals game against the Astros at The K was both disorienting and reassuring."