Somewhat interesting debate going on over at scout.com’s Royals board about Kyle Davies spending part of his offseason working for his father's construction company.
I always thought this was what people wanted more of, their professional athletes getting fewer manicures and using up more sweat towels. You can’t please all the people all the time, someone smart said that once, so maybe this is just one more example. Anyway, I wanted to tell you a quick story.
A few days after we ran the story about Davies, an e-mail popped in from a proud father. He told this story of a baseball skills clinic put on this past summer with some Royals players serving as instructors.
Apparently they picked a bad day for baseball instruction because the rain wouldn’t stop, all morning, so there wasn’t much to do but ask questions and get an autograph or two. Around the time everyone was packing up to leave, a boy walked up to Kyle and asked if he’d throw him a ball just one time so he could tell his friends he played catch with a big leaguer. Kyle smiled.
“You want to play catch? Let’s go.”
So Kyle grabbed a glove and played catch with this kid for about 20 minutes, while everyone else was leaving.
Now, personally, I find it hard to fault a big leaguer who plays catch with kids between starts and digs ditches in the offseason, but I can’t talk you into anything.
OK, I’ll be back later this week. Sorry for the absence.
I was at a game this summer and we decided to hang out at the player's parking lot after the game. I'm not much of an autograph seeker but I like to trade banter with the guys as they're leaving or signing for others.
This particular evening there was a teacher from Kyle's high school who had brought several upper classmen to Kansas City for some type of youth council or whatever. She wanted the kids to meet a successful alum. She had his phone number and he had even sent her text messages saying he would be right out.
We waited and waited and finally he drove out...took a right, and left the parking lot. The teacher stood there dejectedly and turned and told the group of school kids that they missed their chance to meet him. They slowly wandered off towards the bus.
Whether they hooked up later I don't know, but I have to tell you at that moment the look on the faces of everyone involved wasn't amusing.