NEW YORK
On the ground floor of Citi Field, dozens of reporters and precisely zero baseball players milled around an empty Royals clubhouse. A few feet across the hallway, the lone, consistent sound was the crack of a bat inside an indoor cage.
“You see him in there, throwing flip in his jeans?” pitching coach Dave Eiland asked as he walked past the cage.
Indeed, a few minutes later, Royals hitting coach Dale Sveum emerged from the cage clad in an olive dress shirt, blue jeans and black loafers. He stepped into duty because Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez wanted to take a few cuts.