Royals Rumblings - News for June 17, 2016

Brett Eibner had a fun time on his way back from the minors.

But on the day of Eibner’s return, the pilots for his flight out of Dallas were late. Instead of arriving early at the ballpark, he was stuck in airport purgatory.

"Obviously I’m excited to get back but there’s nothing you can really do without the pilots," he said. "So you’re just kind of sitting and waiting and seeing what’s going to happen."

What would happen was Eibner finally strolling into the clubhouse around 5 p.m., when he found out he was starting in left field and batting ninth against the Tigers.

Vahe Gregorian writes about how Danny Duffy has succeeded as a starter.

Ask Eiland about the difference in Duffy, and he can point you to numerous ways in which he has grown through pruning from his time in the bullpen.

He’s simplified everything, from starting out of the stretch to refining his array of breaking pitches.

"I took away his curveball and slider and we just got him a harder breaking ball," Eiland said. "For me, his curveball wasn’t a competitive pitch. I told him, ‘Let’s just put that in your back pocket for now. Why do you want to throw another (breaking ball) that’s not nearly as good and you may get hurt with? Just so you can tell people you’ve got two breaking balls?’ "

Lee Judge wrote an article about how getting in the face changed Omar Infante's game, and maybe cries a little inside now that he's gone.

Nobody — least of all me — can say for sure that getting hit in the face is what set Infante on a downward path, but Dayton Moore mentioned it in Wednesday’s news conference and the numbers suggest it had something to do with it. Since getting hit in the face, Infante — still a .271 lifetime hitter — has hit .235, 36 points under his lifetime average.

When a guy gets hit in the face, he might be reluctant to lean out and cover the outside corner and Infante’s average on balls hit to the opposite field has dropped precipitously.

Um, yay?

About those Jose Reyes rumors: simply not true. #Royals

— Jeffrey Flanagan (@FlannyMLB) June 16, 2016

Other items of interest

LeBron James has been unbelievable in the Finals, as his Cavs have forced a Game Seven in what will be must-watch sportsball Sunday night.

Now that e3 is done, here's all the big news.

So how is Finding Dory?

There's a bill in Canada to make a line in O! Canada gender neutral.

Here's a fascinating video explaining how Donald Trump came to be.

Piece of the day

This weekend, the Kansas City Symphony will play four sold out performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at Helzberg Hall in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The gigantic last movement is one of the cornerstones of art music, and the symphony as a whole is perhaps the most important singular piece in the history of music itself. Also, Beethoven was mostly deaf when he wrote it, so consider that.