Duffy: Ventura's death will make game vs. Dominican Republic 'tough'
Saturday's titanic showdown between the Dominican Republic and Team USA in the World Baseball Classic will have an entirely different meaning for Danny Duffy.
The Kansas City Royals pitcher is penciled in to start for the Americans against the Caribbean baseball giants, but he admits his biggest challenge won't be the Dominican batters he'll face - it's coping with the fact that Yordano Ventura, his late teammate on the Royals, won't be in the opposing dugout.
"It's going to be tough," Duffy told USA TODAY Sports' Bob Nightengale. "I'm rocking No. 30 on the back of my cleats. I'm doing everything I can to honor him and just play like him. So, seeing that jersey is obviously going to be difficult. I mean, it still hasn't become real to us.
"Truthfully, man, I mean I dream about the kid all the time. It's definitely a tough period, but none of us in that clubhouse, in the Royals' clubhouse, has ever been through something like that before. You can't plan for it. I feel like you have to feel all these emotions in order to get through it and not get past it but get through it, and just band together."
Related - Watch: Royals' Duffy, Colon embrace mourning fans at Kauffman Stadium
Ventura was killed in a car accident on the morning of Jan. 22 in the Dominican Republic. To honor his memory, the Dominican national side has been hanging his jersey, along with Andy Marte's - who was also killed in a separate car accident in the Dominican on the same day - in their dugout during the international competition.
Dominican dugout will honor two fallen players throughout the @WBCBaseball. #espndeportes pic.twitter.com/vLgKh2pNeC
— Pedro Gomez (@pedrogomezESPN) March 9, 2017
Still, Duffy will find it difficult to shake his familial ties with the fallen 25-year-old, who he predicts would have likely been a lively spark for his country in the tournament.
"I loved that kid," Duffy told Nightengale. "He was my little brother. We came up together, and obviously he had that kind of fire that you can't teach. And he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way but at the end of the day, he always had all of our backs.
"And sometimes when he started those fires, it would get the boys going."