KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There’s a man lugging around a camera, wearing a Kansas City Royals hoodie and a Royals cap and blue jeans. He looks like any other fan sitting in Kauffman Stadium’s right-field bleachers, but you can tell his stake in what he’s watching is wildly different.



He’s antsy. Boy, is he antsy.



The man stands from his seat and slides his way to the metal railing above the bullpen. A pitcher is warming up, one who has waited nearly seven years for this moment and has gone to hell and back to get here. The man in blue jeans wants to take photos of the pitcher, but he makes sure to step outside the pitcher’s line of sight. The man snaps a photo of the pitcher mid-release.



He then steps back, sits down in his seat and shakes his head.



This is Eric Zimmer. There are special moments in life, those you wait for and long for and hope for. This is one of them for Eric, Kyle Zimmer’s father, who flew to...