Greetings from my hotel room in Kansas City, where the same type of Opening Day clouds that dogged the Yankees have decided to pop up as the Royals prepare to crack the seal on their 81-game home slate at Kauffman Stadium.

George Brett was on television this morning pumping up the Royals fans for a team that appears to be under construction in search of better days, and that’s appropriate, since their ballpark is also undergoing renovations.

The most striking change, and one I’m looking forward to seeing, is the new giant HD scoreboard in center field — the largest of its type in the world, apparently. I always liked the classic shield scoreboard but this one is supposed to be a beauty. By the way, everyone around here is going absolutely nuts for Kansas. So am I … I had the Jayhawks in a pool.

The rain is expected to pass and the Yankees are supposed to get the game in. It won’t matter much to Derek Jeter, though, as he mends a strained left quadriceps that we’ll have to watch closely. Jeter plays through injuries often so I wouldn’t expect this to keep him out of action for too long, but it could affect his productivity.

When I was covering the Mets in 2005, Carlos Beltran (a Kansas City alum, by the way) gave a day-by-day play-by-play of a strained quadriceps that seemed to last for months, and explaining why he wasn’t able to use his speed on the bases anymore. Jeter won’t go into that sort of detail, but that doesn’t mean he won’t wince in pain.

Here’s this week’s Yankees Mailbag in case you missed it.