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How a gruff Royals manager came to win with the funnest team in major-league baseball

HOUSTON

Sal Perez is stumped. The move is premeditated, planned, by definition a man-made and non-spontaneous expression of joy but, even so, he is stumped.

The Royals catcher looks down at his hand and tries to go through the whole thing. Tries to count the steps of a handshake he has done with teammate Eric Hosmer hundreds of times.

“One, two, three … ” his voice trails off. “I don’t know. I need to find Hos.”

Baseball is an increasingly showy game. Act like you’ve been there is going the way of standard-definition TV.