KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Almost to a man, the Kansas City Royals were disappointed to hear Tony Pena was their new manager.

They wanted John Mizerock, their popular interim manager who had helped develop most of them during his days as a minor league manager. He had won five of his last seven games, and a groundswell was building.

A few hours after the announcement, however, the players were having a change of heart.

"It has nothing to do with Tony Pena, but I thought Rock deserved to get the job," first baseman Mike Sweeney said.

"But after meeting Tony Pena today and seeing the way he runs a game ... well, I thought it would be a matter of weeks," he added. But now I think it will be a matter of days before he has 25 fans in this clubhouse."

Not even an 8-6 loss to Minnesota in his managerial debut could dim the enthusiasm of the rookie manager.

"Right when I went in the field, that was something," said the 44-year-old Pena, a bench coach for the Houston Astros.

"It was real touching when I heard all the people. It's a good feeling. In the future, I'm going to take the boos, too."

Perhaps his most emotional moment came when he walked out to hand home plate umpire Tim McClelland the lineup card.

"Tim said, 'It's my pleasure to be behind the plate your first game as a manager,' " Pena said. "It was a real pleasure because when I was a catcher, he was behind the plate a lot. It was nice that he said that."

A five-time All-Star catcher while with Pittsburgh and St. Louis, Pena smiled broadly when asked what his first message to his players would be.

"I am the new DJ. I play the music," he said. "You are to dance. If you don't know how to dance, get off of the dance floor."

Then in his first meeting with the team, he said exactly that.

"That's really what he said to us," catcher A.J. Hinch said. "We really got a kick out of it. We've known him for 20 minutes and we can see he's got a great personality. I think the transition is going to be fine."

Pena is taking over a small-budget team with declining attendance that hasn't reached the postseason since 1985 and twice in the past three seasons lost a franchise-record 97 games.

"I want to win every single game," Pena said. "Whenever we cross that white line, my goal is to win every single game. I know it's never going to happen."

Pena's Latin background weighed heavily in his favor, general manager Allard Baird said.

"It's estimated that by the year 2004 that 40 percent of the major leagues is going to be from the international market," Baird said. "You have to have somebody who's going to be able to go from locker to locker and be able to communicate."

The Royals have eight Latin-born players on their roster, including four from Pena's native Dominican Republic. Two of their top Triple-A prospects are also Latin.

"Some people, they don't know the background of the Latin players," Pena said. "Some of those kids, they grow up with their mama and dad separated. Some (parents) are alcoholics and some are drug addicts. And they grow up alone. You have to find out the past in each person and become his friend."