How do the Royals stay positive during 'another day, another loss' season?

On the Friday afternoon before the Royals started a recent series with the Houston Astros, coach Mitch Maier said he thought his team could win that night. And not only win, but go on to take the series.

“Why not?” he asked.

A number of reasons jumped to mind.

The Astros were 45-25 and in first place in the AL West, the Royals were 22-46 and in last place in the AL Central. The Astros have the best offense in the league, the Royals offense ranks near the bottom. The same was true of the pitching staffs; Astros at the top, Royals at the bottom.

But none of that dented Maier’s optimism. When asked how he stayed so relentlessly upbeat, Maier said: “We don’t need any more Debbie Downers around here.”

And Maier had a point.

Baseball, perhaps more than any other sport, requires a positive attitude. Even 100-win teams lose 62; even great hitters make seven outs every 10 at-bats. There’s a lot of failure in baseball, and how you deal with it matters.

As bad as things are for the Royals right now, give in to pessimism and things can get even worse. Start hanging your head, lose energy, and games that could be won will be lost. If young players start going through the motions, they won’t improve; why come out and work hard in the afternoon if you believe you’re going to lose that night?

When you’re winning, staying positive isn’t a problem. When you’re losing, you have to work at it. And if a coach starts dragging, it won’t be long before that spreads to the players, too.

It might seem unrealistic, but staying positive and upbeat — especially on a losing team — is important.

Every day is a chance to win a ballgame and, if you’re not winning now, every day is a chance to get better and be ready to help when the team does start winning.

Maier has another reason to be optimistic: He believes things will get better. Maier said he trusts general manager Dayton Moore, and then he explained why.

Maier knows what kind of shape the team was in before Moore’s arrival, and what has happened since. It took longer than everyone hoped, but Maier thinks two American League championships and a World Series victory shows Moore knows how to win and will win again.

Maier knows help is coming through the club's farm system, and he likes some of the players who have already arrived. He had positive things to say, for instance, about Hunter Dozier, Brad Keller and Jorge Soler.

When asked if things were about to get even worse when the Royals traded away some of their most talented players — players such as Kelvin Herrera — Maier chose to see the glass as half-full: If the Royals trade away players now,it will be to acquire guys who will help them win in the future.

When Jarrod Dyson was still with the Royals but out with an injury, coach Rusty Kuntz said the team missed Dyson’s energy on the field and in the clubhouse.

Guys who are positive and upbeat spread that energy to their teammates and make it easier to get through a long season; guys who are negative and mope make a long season feel even longer.

When a team is losing, it’s easy to be negative; it’s much harder to show up every day with a good attitude and the belief that there’s no reason the team can’t win that night.

In spite of the Royals' losing record, guys like Maier still see every day as a chance to win a ballgame. They have to.

The rest of us can afford to give up and turn our attention elsewhere, but with more than 80 games left to go, the Royals don’t have that luxury.

This story was originally published June 27, 2018 at 12:25 PM.