Kansas City's Billy Butler (16) celebrates with teammates. The Royals defeated Minnesota, 3-1, Sunday in Minneapolis and have jumped out to a 4-2 record. They open at home today against the Yankees.

Kansas City, Mo. ? Trey Hillman struck up a conversation with a stranger at a coffee shop and quickly realized how skeptical long-suffering Kansas City fans can be.

“I said, ‘Who’s going to win that basketball game tonight?” the Royals’ new manager recalled Monday afternoon. “He said, ‘Well, I don’t know. I think Kansas is going to be all right.’

“I said, ‘Better yet, who’s going to win that Royals-Yankees opener tomorrow?”

“The guy said, ‘I don’t know. They’ve done pretty good so far. But they have a tendency to go downhill.’

“I wasn’t going to tell him who I was.”

A tendency to go downhill puts it charitably for an organization that counts its winning seasons in the past dozen years on one finger and has finished last in the AL Central four years in a row.

Nevertheless, the Royals are coming off a 4-2 season-opening road trip, including a three-game sweep in Detroit. Plus, there’s a spectacular new scoreboard in center field and a likable, homespun new manager working with a talented group of young players.

As they prepared for a 3:10 p.m. start against the New York Yankees in their home opener today, optimism seemed to abound.

“We’re excited about the good start,” said Hillman, who spent 13 years managing in the Yankees’ minor-league system. “I think these guys are already in a position where they’re coming to the ballpark with the expectation of winning.”

Brian Bannister (1-0), who gave up just two singles in seven shutout innings against the Tigers, will face right-hander Philip Hughes in front of a sellout crowd that will be about 2,000 short of the normal Kauffman Stadium sellout.

That’s how many seats have been lost because of a $500 million construction and renovation project that has made some parking lots a mess and closed several gates to the Truman Sports Complex.

Once they’re in their Kauffman Stadium seats, fans probably won’t be bothered by all the noise and dust and the men running around in hard hats. Several hours before the start of each night game, workers will call it a day and a water truck will begin hosing down dry areas in an effort to keep the dust out of everyone’s eyes and throat.

But the Royals have gone to great lengths all week getting word out that fans will have to park in whatever lots are nearest the gate where they entered. Because of the construction, they’ll no longer be allowed to navigate through the complex to find the most convenient parking spot.

The club assures everyone that Kauffman will be safe. And it is eager to show off the new CrownVision scoreboard, which is being billed as the largest stationary video board in the world.

Making his home debut against the Yankees adds to the excitement for Hillman.

“It’s a little bit ironic for the home opener to be against the New York Yankees,” he said.

He has many friends in the Yankees organization.

“We’re all products of where we’ve been and the environment we’ve been in,” Hillman said. “Those were definitely my formative years in managing.”