Treanor finally gets chance to impress Royals

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Eighteen years after drafting catcher Matt Treanor out of Santa Ana’s Mater Dei High, the Royals finally got their first look at him in a Kansas City uniform this week.

And for Treanor, who was traded away in 1997, beginning an odyssey that would see him spend time with five big league organizations, it was almost like a dream come true.

“I feel like I left immature -- almost like I didn’t fulfill my end of the bargain,” said Treanor, who batted .227 in four seasons in the Royals’ minor league system. “So to be able to come back and do whatever I can is fulfilling in a way.”

Treanor’s biggest sports-related claim to fame may be his marriage to two-time Olympic volleyball champion Misty MayTreanor. But the 35-year-old, traded to Kansas City in the final week of spring training, also homered off the Yankees’ CC Sabathia in the last year’s playoffs and played in the World Series for Texas.

In his Royals debut Thursday he saved a run in the eighth inning when he blocked the plate on the Angels’ Jeff Mathis, who bowled over his fellow catcher -– earning Mathis’ respect.

“When he came to the plate I told him ‘good play,’” Mathis said.

-- Kevin Baxter in Kansas City, Mo.