There will be no baseball played this Thursday, the day the KC Royals were scheduled to open their first season under new manager Mike Matheny in Chicago. Instead, Matheny, the Royals, the country and the world will continue to await a return to normalcy. When baseball does resume, Matheny will become the 19th man to manage the Royals.
Like so many other managers, Matheny is a former big league player who earned his baseball stripes on the field before taking a permanent seat in the dugout. Only four KC managers–Jack McKeon, Jim Frey, Bob Schaefer and Trey Hillman–didn’t play in the big leagues.