Royals focus on becoming ‘Today’ show, wearing their mindset on their chests

NEW YORK (AP) — The Kansas City Royals credit their transformation to becoming a “Today” show, wearing their mindset on their chests.

Several Royals work through pregame practice in powder-blue T-shirts with the word “today” in white capital letters.

“Just take it day by day. No need to dwell on yesterday. No need to think about tomorrow,” Game 2 starter Cole Ragans said before Saturday night’s AL Division Series opener against the New York Yankees. “Just focus on today, and when tomorrow comes we’ll focus on that.”

Royals manager Matt Quatraro used the word during a team meeting during a series against Boston early last September, when Kansas City was en route to a 56-106 record, matching the worst in franchise history.

“We were also-rans and really scuffling and I just knew - I felt like the mindset of a lot of those guys had turned to what they could do in the offseason or what they would do next year,” he recalled. “I didn’t want the last two months of the year to be that, looking forward to next year. I said, ’There’s very little that’s guaranteed in this game as well as in life, so you’re here now, seize your opportunity today to start making those changes. You’ve got nothing to lose. There’s nobody that’s guaranteed to be here next year, so don’t wait.’ It certainly wasn’t intentional, but I guess in the course of that meeting, I said today a bunch of times.”

Quatraro said Jeff Davenport, vice president of major league team operations, came up with the idea of a T-shirt.

“The players said, ‘Let’s get T-shirts made, so it really comes from them,” Davenport said.

Clubhouse managers contacted a local print shop to produce the tops.

“That was not an intentional thing on my part to come up with a mantra,” Quatraro said. “I try to live that way, and I think our guys embrace that and understand that there is no reason to think about the future until you take care of the business right in front of you.”