KC Royals: A Day In Surprise

After spending a few days around the KC Royals camp in Surprise, Arizona, I can tell you that spring training is the closest thing the real world has to a Field of Dreams.

For the hardcore Kansas City Royals fan, it’s close to heaven.

As an Arizona resident, I’m accustomed to gorgeous sunny days in the 70’s at this time of year. What I’m not used to is being able to wander around fields where major league baseball players work out. The whole atmosphere can really be summed up by one word: casual.

More from Kansas City Royals

Though the season is only one month away, that feels like a dim vista far off in the future. Here, right now, the most urgent thing on the near horizon are the spring training games that begin Wednesday afternoon. And, really, how amped up can anyone get about games that don’t count?

On Tuesday, the Kansas City Royals sauntered through a quick workout under the mild Arizona sun. The major and minor league players worked out on adjacent fields that were only about 30 yards apart. The workouts are open to the public (and free), but draw only a scattering of fans.

Yet, they’re nothing like the workouts you see before game at major league ballparks. The oddest thing to me is the quiet. There’s no stadium PA system playing music, or any visual distractions. Fans can get close enough behind chain link fences that you can even hear snatches of coaching going on along the 3rd and 1st base lines (depending on whether you were hanging out by the major league field or the minor league field)

The coaches don’t yell. Or scream. Or try to fire anyone up. They offer what sounds like incidental advice.

Adding to the casual atmosphere is that the small smattering of fans – I would guess less than 100 – talk in what sounds like indoor voices.

There’s no yelling, or cheering, or catcalls. Though, occasionally, someone raises their voice loud enough to say something to a player on the field, who will sometimes respond.

Every now and then, a player will do something that draws a response from his peers. Good-natured jeers will rise from the field if someone muffs on a swing at a batting practice pitch.

Collective shouts will accompany a particularly well-hit dinger that flies far over the wall. Behind the fences in right and left field, on a shallow rise that allows you to see into infield, a smattering of fans with gloves wait to catch home runs.

Small groups of players shag flies in the outfield. Others will tool around the infield working on their base-running skills, with rectangular screens in front of each base to protect them from errant hits. Meanwhile batters take their hacks in the batting cage, with the batting practice pitchers serving up meatballs behind an L-screen about 40 feet from home plate.

It all looks deceptively easy and relaxed.

Of course, I suppose it needs to be this way if you’ve got 162 regular season games plus 30 or so spring games to play. Who wants to leave all of their energy on the practice fields in Arizona and run out of gas in a pennant race that could happen in the fall?

Not the KC Royals, or really, any major-league team.

When the workout is over—in only about two hours—players troop in and out of the fields along paths where we can’t really get to them.

A team PR guy will usually brings out a player or two to sign autographs and exchange a few words with fans on the walkway between the two fields after the practice is over. Salvador Perez is a REALLY big man up close, while Bubba Starling is thinner than you would think. He’s tall, but lacks the massive frame that Salvy has.

It’s the PR guy that calls an end to the mini signing session, so that the player doesn’t have to be the bad guy. All of it is, again, rather casual since there are far fewer people to manage than a winter event like Fanfest.

Still, if baseball is a religion, then the real holy ground is the practice fields in Arizona—not the public spectacle of games that you will see this summer in Kauffman Stadium. In Kansas City, we have the circus we call The Show. Fans yell and scream if they don’t like the results, and cheer if things go their way.

There, affection for the KC Royals is conditional.

Here in Arizona, while there are still no results that matter, baseball is worshipped.

Next: KC Royals Offense Needs A Cornerstone

More from KC Kingdom

Home/Kansas City Royals