February 24, 2008
The New Royals Quiz
This seems appropriate for Dan Quisenberry's old team:
When sliding feet-first into a base, is your front foot straight up or sideways?
Before a game starts, what are the first two things a player should check?
Stumped? Don't fret. When first-base coach Rusty Kuntz asked the Kansas City Royals to take his quiz on outfield play and baserunning fundamentals, there were quite a few "who didn't have a clue."
But that was better than the first player Kuntz quizzed a couple of years ago in Pittsburgh.
"Out of 50 questions, the guy got five correct," Kuntz said. "And this was a starting player in the major leagues, a very well-known guy. I thought, `Oh, my gosh. Oh, my goodness.'"
So Kuntz came up with a detailed list of written questions and tried them out on a number of players. The results were encouraging.
"By the end of spring training, I gave the same player the same test, along with a bunch of other guys, and he got every one of them right," Kuntz said. "And I noticed that during the year, he responded quicker to certain situations. I thought if you can do that for outfield play, why not throw in some baserunning fundamentals?"
It's going to be an interesting summer in Kansas City. I don't think they'll contend, but I bet they play better than people expect.
Posted by David Pinto at
05:04 PM
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"Before a game starts, what are the first two things a player should check?"
If it's a TV game,
1) Is his fly closed;
2) Is there tobacco stuck in his teeth.
"When sliding feet-first into a base, is your front foot straight up or sideways?"
WAG: Up, so it's harder to tag the foot and less chance of injury.
"Before a game starts, what are the first two things a player should check?"
Cup and turf.
From experience, you need to always check to make sure all of your spikes are attached firmly to your cleats. I had one come loose while playing and tore the cartilage in my ankle running to first base.