In just a few days, Mike Matheny will manage an American League team in a live game for the first time. Matheny, Need Yost’s successor as manager of the KC Royals, will skipper his new club when it faces Texas Friday afternoon in both teams’ spring training opener.
The game’s outcome will have no real significance on anything but the Cactus League standings, which also have no real significance; for Matheny, however, such games allow him opportunities to evaluate players and become accustomed to the differences between the National League, where he used to manage, and the American League, where he never has.