KANSAS CITY -- Not many backup catchers in the history of baseball can say they played behind not one but two Hall of Famers.
New Royals bullpen coach Vance Wilson can make that claim. Wilson played parts of eight seasons in the big leagues, serving behind Mets catcher Mike Piazza and Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez.
"I look back at catching behind those guys and the most amazing thing to me was watching those guys play every single day," Wilson said by phone. "They were getting beat up every day, they had the ups and downs of offense.