Royals catcher Drew Butera stood underneath a heat lamp in the visiting dugout at Progressive Field on Saturday afternoon, his arms extended toward the ceiling to absorb the warmth. He had pulled off his batting gloves and was holding them between his fingers, as though to warm them up, too.
“I’ll try anything,” he said.
The Royals played in average temperatures of 41 degrees through their first five games of the season. The game-time temperature here, for their sixth game, was expected to hover around freezing.
So Butera and the Royals needed to thaw out.