Kansas City, Mo ? It was an apprehensive Kansas City baseball team that headed for Toronto Thursday night.

Concerned by the SARS outbreak in the Canadian city, the Royals planned to stick close to the hotel and avoid autograph-seekers while playing a three-game series starting today.

Before their game Thursday against Minnesota, several players passed around bottles of disinfectant.

“I’m worried a little bit, yeah. I’ve got a family,” said outfielder Raul Ibanez. “You try to take every precaution you can. If they say it’s safe for us to go, I suppose it is. But I’m still going to take every precaution.”

Some of the Royals wondered why the games in Toronto had not been transferred back to the home of the visiting teams.

“I wouldn’t mind that, to be honest with you,” said Ibanez. “But if they’re saying it’s safe, and the doctors are saying it’s semi-safe if we take the precautions, I guess it will be OK. But I’m not thrilled about it.”

Players were told to avoid crowds and contact with fans as the city deals with 140 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome and 16 deaths.

Outside of Asia, Canada has been the country most affected by SARS.

The Royals will be the first team to visit Toronto since major league baseball became concerned enough to issue precautions to teams.

“Some guys are definitely apprehensive, yeah,” said catcher Brent Mayne, adding that he was not one of them.

Trainer Nick Swartz took part in a conference call with medical and major league officials Thursday and had prepared written instructions for their players in both English and Spanish.

“I’m a little worried. But what can you do?” said pitcher Mike MacDougal. “We bought some disinfectant. They were passing it around. We’ll have some in the rooms.”

Second baseman Carlos Febles was looking forward to getting more instructions from medical officials on the team plane.

“We have to go so we’re just hoping nothing happens. We’ll stay in the hotel as long as possible,” he said. “They want us to eat at the hotel and take a bus back and forth to the stadium.

“Hopefully, nothing will happen. Nobody wants to get sick. I’m worried a little bit. The main thing is to pray to God that nothing happens.”