CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – The telephone was right there, front-and-center, conspicuous by its size and placement. With the Major League Baseball trade deadline looming on Monday, Aug. 1, Kansas City Royals Senior Vice President-Baseball Operations/General Manager Dayton Moore couldn't afford to miss a phone call.
It could, after all, be a call that just might make his defending World Champion Royals even stronger down the home-stretch of the 2016 regular season or, better yet, even stronger in October when they hope to make a push towards a third straight World Series appearance and second straight World Series Championship. It’s happened in the past and it could certainly happen again.
But for at least an hour and possibly longer late Wednesday afternoon, Moore’s phone didn’t ring, nor did he pick it up to make a call himself. He was at Perfect Game Park South at the sprawling LakePoint Sports Complex staying actively involved with Team Kansas City, a 14-and-under squad he helps coach and for whom his son, Robert Moore, is a key performer.
Team Kansas City is one of 24 teams taking part in this week’s elite 14u Perfect Game World Series, an invitation-only PG national championship tournament. It is running in conjunction with the 13u, 15u and 16u PG World Series events, which meant that PG Park South was teaming with activity when Moore took a couple of minutes to speak with PG on Wednesday.
“I think anybody who enjoys baseball can’t help but love the atmosphere here at LakePoint. A lot of great teams; a lot of kids that play their hearts out every day,” Moore said with an enthusiastic tone in his voice. “… Whenever kids are competing with their teammates, with their peers, playing the game they love in a great atmosphere, it’s extremely positive.”
Moore pointed out that the Royals are very proactive when it comes to promoting youth baseball, and the club assists with sponsoring this team. Not that it would be difficult to make that association based on the 14u Team Kansas City’s uniforms that mirror those of their big-league brothers.
It’s a very competitive team, too, having won the 14u Perfect Game-East Cobb Invitational held here the first week of June with a 6-0-0 mark. That record included a 2-0 victory over the Georgia Jackets in the championship game, where Team KC 2019 right-hander Jamir Simpson and 2020 righty Sammy Cooper combined on a one-hit shutout with five strikeouts and two walks.
Simpson and Cooper were two of six Team KC players named to the event’s all-tournament team that played in Team KC’s first two games here this week. The other four were 2019s Quinton Hall and John Stallcup, and 2020s Nathan Chester and Stone Hewlett. Four of the six are from the Kansas City, Mo., or Kansas City, Kan., areas although Simpson is from Evansville, Ind., and Stallcup from St. Louis, Mo.
Dayton and Robert Moore reside in Leawood, Kan., along with Robert’s mother, Marianne, and his two sisters, Ashley and Avery. Robert Moore is a highly regarded 5-foot-8, 150-pound, 14-year-old middle infielder who is already enjoying his eighth appearance at a Perfect Game event since May 2015. Robert Moore singled twice in four at-bats, and drove in two runs and scored two others in Team KC’s first two victories here Wednesday and Thursday morning.
Dayton Moore said when he is wearing his “Dad cap” or his “Coach cap” as opposed to the hatless look he prefers when he’s doing his job as one of Major League Baseball’s most respected general managers, he tends to look at the young players from a different perspective than most. He operates under the steadfast belief that it is a “minor miracle” when a player reaches the big leagues, so when he looks at these kids – his son included – he realizes that very few of them will ever be given that opportunity.
“If these players are good, they’re going to have fine college careers; if they’re really good, they might get a couple of years in the minor leagues; if they’re great, maybe they make it to the major leagues,” Moore said, “but their careers still have a chance of being over when they’re 30 even if they’re the best of the best.
“You always want to look at this game and use it as a platform to help them grow as leaders,” he continued. “The lessons that you learn from playing this game, if applied properly, can be of benefit in the future as you become a man and a husband and a father.”
Moore, 49, has been in his current position with the Royals since June 2006 and has helped oversee a decade of building a foundation and a rock-solid farm system that culminated in the Royals first World Series appearance in 29 years in 2014 (they lost to the San Francisco Giants, 4-to-3) and their first World Series Championship in 30 years in 2015 (they beat the New York Mets, 4-to-1).
More than half of the Royals’ 2015 roster was populated with home-grown players, either drafted during Moore’s tenure as GM or signed as non-drafted free agents. He was instrumental in about a half-dozen notable signings in the 2014-15 offseason and then acquired Ben Zobrist and Johnny Cueto just before the 2015 trade deadline. All were key in helping the Royals win the World Series, and last December Moore received the Ensurance MLB Award for Best Executive.
But those thoughts were distant on Wednesday while Moore watched the baseball being played out on the all-turf fields at PG Park South. He talked about all the opportunities kids have to play organized baseball these days while also acknowledging that the cost of being part of a travel ball team is prohibitive for many youngsters.
Without going into details, he said Major League Baseball recognizes that, and is “doing a lot to help subsidize (youth baseball) going forward, and create opportunities for kids that perhaps are a little disadvantaged and cannot play.”
“But opportunities like (the PG World Series) are very important and they’re crucial for the long-term development of our game,” Moore continued. “The best athletes in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Cuba all play baseball, and in our country these types of environments are very important for our kids to continue to develop that competitive edge.”
Moore was standing outside a dugout on one of the eight regulations fields at PG Park South about an hour before Team KC’s 14u PG World Series opener Wednesday afternoon, chatting with a couple of scouts. There were several instances when he was approached by teenage ballplayers wanting only to introduced themselves and shake his hand; Moore offered words of encouragement to each one.
He has learned through his experiences in baseball that, in his words, “Kids are starving for information.” To that end, he tries to make sure he’s always giving the correct information and not just the information they may most want to hear.
He wants parents to understand there are going to be a lot of people from outside the family circle that will try to influence their sons, and the parents need to make sure those influences truly have the young player’s best interests at heart. But his best advice to these young players is as simple as it is realistic:
“Just be the best that you can be. Show up every day, give your best effort, be a great teammate and the rest of it takes care of itself,” he said.
And then Dayton Moore, the general manager of the reigning World Series Champion Kansas City Royals, the father and coach who decided to get up from his desk chair back in Kansas City and be a part of Team Kansas City’s pursuit of a PG national championship – while his Kansas City Royals continue to pursue a second straight World Championship – offered one final thought.
“The great thing about youth baseball is it takes you back to the innocence of the game,” Moore said. “This is a great tournament and our players feel like they’re very fortunate to be a part of it. Perfect Game provides a great atmosphere and it’s fun to compete at this level.”