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Ben Shpigel on high-profile MFYs being put out by having to ride a bus and play in a game.
Every spring training, gray pants are issued to Mariano Rivera. And every spring training, they go unworn, hanging in his locker like a painting in a museum. Rivera, perhaps the greatest closer in history, does not do trips.
If that rule is sacrosanct, then what happened over a 30-hour stretch Sunday and Monday is rarer than a $2 steak: the Yankees’ $78.5 million infield, with its 28 All-Star selections and 12 Gold Gloves, was asked on consecutive days to leave the cozy confines of Steinbrenner Field.
On Sunday, that group — Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira — boarded a bus at 8:45 a.m. for the 80-mile ride to Kissimmee, for a game against the Houston Astros. The next afternoon, as half the team was rolling to a 7-1 victory against Philadelphia, the four traveled 55 miles down the coast to Sarasota to face Baltimore.
It was not some cruel joke by Manager Joe Girardi. For the sake of continuity, he prefers playing his starting infielders together and his starting outfielders together — but not all seven players in the same game. With three games in two days, one unit had no choice but to travel twice.
“None of us are above making road trips, not at all,” Teixeira said Monday. “Every now and then, it’s all right. It’s just that usually the next game’s at home.”
Players like Teixeira have earned the right to stay home. It is an unwritten rule of spring training for managers to limit long hauls for their veterans, especially during the early stages of the exhibition season, when there are plenty of players in camp. Rodriguez, when asked when he last rode the bus two straight days, furrowed his brow and pursed his lips.
“I don’t keep that stat,” he said.
As Teixeira remembers, his last back-to-back experience came in 2003, when he was fighting to win a spot on the Texas Rangers’ opening day roster. He said his manager at the time, Buck Showalter, started him in every Cactus League game, no matter where it was, to see how he responded.
“There were lots of Mesa-Tucson-type things,” Teixeira said. “Every day was live or die back then. I didn’t mind it.”
Much of the early-morning commotion in the Yankees’ clubhouse centers on a piece of paper taped to a bank of lockers near the entrance. There, the day before a trip, the traveling squad is always posted. Minor leaguers and nonroster players huddle around first, and then a stray veteran or two wander over.
If your name is highlighted, always in red or green, off you go. While walking to his locker Saturday morning, Jeter, still dressed in his civilian clothes, glanced at the list for Sunday’s game and did a double take, his eyes widening. Asked if he was surprised, Jeter chuckled and shook his head. The captain never, ever finds out that way.
About two weeks ago, Girardi told his regulars his plan for spreading playing time. They understood, and at no time, he said, have they pushed back, even playfully, about the potential of seeing more of the Grapefruit League’s finest hamlets.
“The thing is, we have so many players with experience,” Girardi said. “You try to be somewhat fair with what you’re doing.”
If nothing else, the last two days have delighted fans hoping to see their favorite stars. Ostensibly the Astros’ park, Osceola County Stadium was packed with pinstripes. Two fans sitting behind the plate, wearing Jeter T-shirts, exchanged high-fives, their mouths agape, when Teixeira, then Rodriguez, then Cano were announced before the game.
As usual, they played four innings in the field, batting three times, before departing — the game and the premises. Clubhouse attendants or family members usually drive players’ cars to visiting ballparks, providing a tradeoff for their journey there.
As luck would have it, the Yankees have another scheduling conundrum this week: split-squad games Friday afternoon at home against Atlanta and in Dunedin against Toronto, then a 260-mile round trip Saturday to Viera, to face Washington. This time, Jeter, Rodriguez, et al. may be exempt from the double dip, but Girardi said he was not certain.
“They’ll just have to see,” Girardi said. |
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