When a tearful Kyle Zimmer called his father, Eric, to tell him he had made the Royals’ 25-man roster after nearly seven years of cruel twists had sabotaged his once-promising baseball career, Eric Zimmer was so moved that he couldn’t speak for 15 minutes.
But that was only a prelude to Sunday, when he watched Kyle warm up in the bullpen and, at last, saw him begin to trot in to the mound at Kauffman Stadium.
There was emotion enough inherent in that sight, which evoked dozens of text messages in the minutes to come. But perhaps none was more poignant and telling than the one sent by assistant general manager Lonnie Goldberg.