On a spring day in 2010, Danny Duffy sank into a chair in a baseball office in Arizona and prepared to open up to the men in front of him. He needed to let it out. So he did.
It was March, another spring training at the Royals’ facility in Surprise, and Duffy had come to a meeting with general manager Dayton Moore and two of his assistants, Scott Sharp and J.J. Picollo. Duffy intended to tell them he was leaving baseball, that his mind needed a break from the game, that he was going home to Lompoc, Calif.