Royals tested by baseball quiz

I’d have to be pretty well oiled to pass the Rusty Kuntz quiz…

Now, as a member of Trey Hillman’s new staff in Kansas City, Rusty Kuntz’s written quizzes have become a big feature during the first full week of spring training.

Even Hillman says he’s benefited.

“We talk about wanting this to be a learning situation,” the manager said. “There’s always things you can learn. I’ve learned from Rusty about things that were considered my areas of expertise. If you ever get to a point where you feel like you know it all, it’s probably time to get out.”

Not every player on the Royals was given the written quizzes. Among those who were, there was a wide range of success and failure.

“I’d say it was 50-50,” Kuntz said. “Some of them did relatively well. Some did OK. And some had no clue.”

Kuntz didn’t want to name the slackers, lest anybody be embarrassed. But getting a lot of the written questions incorrect doesn’t necessarily mean the major leaguers haven’t been paying attention while playing the game for as long as most of them can remember.