Royals prospect calls veterans 'old guys,' vets respond with custom jerseys

By Dakota Gardner

February 20, 2014

Imagine you're a top prospect heading to your first Major League training camp. You'd be really excited -- and probably a bit nervous -- but mostly, you'd be eager to learn some tricks of the trade from your veteran teammates.

Royals pitcher Kyle Zimmer is in that exact situationthis spring:

"So I'm still relatively new to it, but it's great just being around some of these old guys and picking up tidbits here and there as I can," he said, glancing around the Royals' clubhouse. "Just being around in the atmosphere of getting going is fun."

It sounds fun -- but clearly Zimmer missed one important tidbit:

Don't call the veterans "old guys."

Watch that video up top, and you may notice something different about the senior players' jerseys -- namely, that they all say "old guy" on the back.

"We taught him a little lesson of -- instead of calling us 'old guys', maybe, possibly call us 'veterans,'" quipped staff ace James Shields, showing off his own custom jersey.

Shields says the young right-hander took it all in good fun, but we'd wager he'll remember to use the word "veterans" in the future.