On most days, Royals manager Ned Yost is the first one to arrive here to the clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium. The room is still dark then, the lockers empty. For a moment, Yost says, he’ll walk into the room and pause to remember Yordano Ventura.
“I’ll go over and I’ll turn on all the lights and I’ll walk around the clubhouse,” Yost said. “and I always kind of stop at his locker for a second … just look at the pictures.”
The tradition began during the early weeks of the season. The memory came on Saturday morning, on what would have been Ventura’s 26th birthday.