What one 'silly' joke tells us about Royals' veteran leadership

NEW YORK -- Twelve days ago, the Royals were at the lowest point of their season.

They had lost seven consecutive games in a row for the second time in a month, and they had just been swept out of their own house on the final homestand of the regular season, going 0-6. They still held a playoff spot, but their lead had dwindled to just one game. The clubhouse atmosphere could only be described as stunned silence when media was allowed in for postgame interviews that day, and it continued as players got ready to go home for the evening ahead of an off-day before heading for Washington, D.C.

Then, Will Smith cracked a joke.

“You guys,” said Smith, a longtime reliever with three World Series rings to his name. “You’re looking at this the wrong way. Like, there’s no way we can lose tomorrow.”

At first, the silence continued until coach Paul Hoover walked by with a grin.

“Come on,” Hoover said. “Laugh. It’s funny.”

“It was kind of eye-opening to be like, ‘Wow, everyone is freaking out outside of our clubhouse. We've lost seven in a row. Everyone thinks we're not going to make the playoffs. We're going to blow it,’” second baseman Michael Massey said. “Then, you've got a guy like that who's making a joke about it.

“It goes to show you [the veteran players’] experience and their confidence. They've been there before. They've done it. It's helped us -- for sure me -- to be around those guys, and just watch them more than anything, how they go about their business. I think that's helped us stay [even-keeled].”

The comment was less than two weeks ago. Since then, the Royals have popped champagne twice. They swept the Nationals, then clinched a postseason berth in Atlanta. They swept the Orioles in the American League Wild Card Series. Now they’re in New York, about to kick off the AL Division Series against the Yankees on Saturday, with Game 1 at Yankee Stadium scheduled for 5:38 p.m. CT on TBS. Veteran righty Michael Wacha will take the mound against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole.

“It feels like a month ago,” Smith said of his joke. “Honestly, it feels like a month ago.

“It was just [a reminder to] take a deep breath. You’re OK. The division was out of the question at that point, but we were still in the playoffs if the season ended that day. At some point, it will click. And there’s a silver lining in baseball every day. And … we didn’t lose on the off-day.”

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The small comment from Smith -- “something silly that just popped out” of his mouth, he said -- is perhaps one of the best examples of why the Royals overhauled their clubhouse this past offseason to bring in veteran players who not only could help the club win on the field, but off of it, too, by creating a relaxed, player-led culture.

Despite 106 losses last year, the atmosphere around the team wasn’t miserable, but there was, understandably, frustration -- especially when adversity struck.

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Veterans like Smith, Wacha, Chris Stratton, Seth Lugo, Adam Frazier and others have shown not only what it takes to get through the grind of a 162-game season, but also how to handle losing streaks and tough losses. Coupled with manager Matt Quatraro’s “today” focus, the Royals have been remarkably good at moving on to the next day.

“It was a little bit different than how we were last year,” Massey said. “We lost a game last year and it was a bunch of young guys in there thinking the end of the world happened. Just a totally different perspective.”

It was apparent all the way through the season.

“You could feel the camaraderie, the culture changing, even back early in Spring Training,” general manager J.J. Picollo said. “You could feel the difference in that clubhouse, just more experienced guys that know what this is all about. When you have all these tough losing streaks we went through here late in the season, they handled it great. They never changed, never wavered and they were the same every day. That’s important when you’re playing 162 games.”

And it’s important in October, when the intensity increases and every pitch matters a little more than the last.

“There was a belief,” Wacha said, “there really was, in Spring Training, that we would be in this position that we are today. It took a lot of time -- team building … learning the guys on the team, and it's been a lot of fun this year. [We're] excited to keep this thing rolling and see what we can do with it.”