Royals set up dugout phone using paper cups and string, hope to avoid playing 'telephone'

The Royals have a new dugout phone thanks to the ingenuity of Scott Downs, the Royals reliever turned communications expert: paper cups and string. 

Downs set up the contraption, which is really nothing more than two paper cups at either end of the dugout connected by blue string, in the visitors' dugout. Pitching coach Dave Eiland has found a particular use for the intra-dugout phone: telling his relievers when to start warming up (relievers sit with the rest of the team in the dugouts at AT&T Park).

It is seriously impressive that the cups work at all, but it can get pretty loud at AT&T Park and we hope actually talking on the "phone" doesn't devolve into a game of "telephone."

We imagine a cup-phone conversation between Eiland and Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera during tonight's game:

Eiland: "Herrera -- it's the sixth inning, start warming up."

Herrera: "What'd you say coach? You want me to fix the spinning?"

Eiland, louder: "Herrera, go to the bullpen and start throwing."

Herrera: "Coach, why are you laughing? And what's that about bowling? Did you say pins earlier? You're not making any sense, coach."

Eiland, loudest: "IT'S THE SIXTH INNING, HERRERA, GO WARM UP IN THE BULLPEN!"

Herrera: "Oh, OK coach, I got it."

Herrera shrugs, turns to Wade Davis and Greg Holland: "I think Coach Eiland wants us to start singing 'Oops! ...I Did It Again'."