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Living on a praying mantis: Royals ready for final push to playoffs

The boxes of praying mantis masks showed up at the official Royals team store inside Kauffman Stadium last Friday, the packaging spilling onto the floor and onto a row of shelves near the front entrance.

The masks were green and made of latex, featuring shiny yellow eyes and two pointy antennae, and if we are being honest here, they were pretty ugly. There was also that fresh latex smell.

In the history of the store, they might have been the strangest item to appear on the shelves. But the retail manager here, a man named Brett Salzenstein, was sure they would be a hot item.