Spring Training Can Be Crazy For a Player
by Ty Kelly, Mets Fix “Former MLB Player” Correspondent
by Ty Kelly, Mets Fix “Former MLB Player” Correspondent
Happy Spring Training. For fans, it’s a euphoric first glimpse of baseball, after a long winter of waiting. But for a player trying to get a job, it’s something else entirely.
After a decade of playing this game professionally, here are some Spring Training lessons and findings I gleaned:
1. Always Bring Your Uniform to the Game. In your first big league Spring Training, you should come prepared to play in the game every day, even if you’re informed you will not be a participant in that game. In my experience, if you’re not prepared you could find yourself in a situation where you're being put into the game in the 6th inning and having to borrow Chris Taylor’s cleats, Mike Zunino’s batting gloves, bat, and right-handed helmet, and Xavier Avery’s left-handed helmet. Then, as you jog back into the dugout, you could possibly see Chris Taylor running out to play shortstop wearing Jesus Sucre’s cleats because your unpreparedness is now jeopardizing several careers, not just your own.
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2. Don’t Let Coaches Know About Your Nerdy Hobbies. When asked “how was your offseason?” you can tell your teammates—new or old—about all of your hobbies. No need to pull punches; they already think you’re super weird. But when responding to coaches—especially new—you should strive for “ball talk” convos: conversations that show you’re a real ballplayer and not just a nerdy guy with good strike-zone discipline. You can mention one of your hobbies but don’t linger on it. Your newfound love for chess and Rubik’s Cubes will only lead them to telling you you’ll make a great coach one day—and now they’re thinking about you as a coach instead of as a possible Major Leaguer. Tell the coaches about your diet, your weight lifting routine, the facility at which you trained, and other Major Leaguers you worked out with. For example:
“Oh yeah, I worked out at San Diego State every day. I lifted weights with the football team [in a corner of the room trying to stay out of their way], took grounders with my slick-fielding roommate who’s in the Giants organization [he’s a left-handed pitcher], hit with Adam Jones, Quintin Berry, and Tony Gwynn Jr. [3 times max], and then ran sprints with the track team [jogged on a track].”
3. Competition Can Be “Friendly.” There’s a good chance your best friends are the players you’re in direct competition with. Can you be a competitor, trying to win a job and ensure hundreds of thousands of dollars, while making a lifelong dream come to fruition... and also be a good friend and teammate by not rooting against your friend, even subconsciously? Probably, if you’re a good person. But put it this way: I think former Mets infielder TJ Rivera and I were lucky we both ended up getting our first call-up in 2016 -- and both made the MLB team out of Spring Training in 2017 -- so our individual successes never came at the expense of the other.
4. MLB & MiLB Spring Trainings are Not the Same. To compare Major League Spring Training to minor league spring training (note the lowercase because that’s what being in minor league spring training feels like) would be like comparing the North Pole to the south pole; sure, they’re both poles, but survival in the south pole necessitates penguins eating each other to avoid starvation in an unrelenting loop of “wake up and bring your A-game or die,” whereas the North Pole is characterized by a cozy Santa, elves, and reindeer nibbling on personalized smoothies and omelettes before they decide if they should make toys that day, or just wait until the last couple weeks before Christmas to ramp up production so as not to pull a hammy. (Not to mention, the melting of 43 south pole ice caps recently, but that’s a different story.)
5. Baseball Players Like Nicknames & Inside Jokes. Spring Training is a great time to start going by whatever nickname you want for the year. During my first professional season, the media guide said “Tyler” Kelly. I made it my top Spring Training priority to ensure that everyone who had only read my name or, more likely, never heard of me knew my name was “Ty” Kelly. Teammates often opted for just “Kelly” and in my opinion there was no bigger sin. I repeatedly announced that calling me “Kelly” was akin to the acknowledgement that we were not actually real life friends, but just baseball season acquaintances. Harsh? Again: Probably, if you’re a good person.
The first week back is also the perfect time to run through every inside joke you’ve ever had with your teammates. If you’ve found yourself in a new organization, good luck deciphering this foreign language.
“Look at this McGoob.”
“Yeah right, I’m not the Trotsky here, Mr. McGoob-piece.”
What does any of this mean? Nothing, if you’re normal. But baseball players aren’t normal. They take part of a word or phrase, make it goofier, and then start telling people they're acting like the sum of those parts. McGoob? They probably watched “McGruber” together drunk one night, someone said McGoober, and then someone else re-shortened it. And now you can act like “such a McGoob.”
Baseball players also put “piece” on the end of everything. It starts with pitches: “slide-piece,” “change-piece,” “cut-piece,” and it ends with every other thing: “beer-piece,” “bomb-piece,” “McGoob-piece.”
And even further down the line, thanks to poor hat circulation... “hair-piece.”
6. The First Week is a Long One. In my experience, here’s what a typical first week of camp is like:
Day 1: “Hey man, good to see you. I have to go do my physical and get my uniforms, so let’s catch up after.”
Day 2: “Dude, how was your offseason? You look jacked. You get on ‘roids?”
Day 3: “I’m dead tired already. I hate my cleats. Next offseason, I’m just going to stand around for hours in my cleats to prepare for this.”
Day 4: “I just faced [NAME of 100mph-fastball-pitcher] in live BP and I actually hit one off the wall. It was a change-up that I thought was a fastball so my bat speed probably isn’t there yet but still, I’m locked in. My offseason training is really showing up.”
Day 5: “I got all fastballs today and didn’t get one in fair territory. Feels insulting to call it bat ‘speed’ right now with how slow my swing is. My offseason training is in serious question.”
Day 6: “I truly don’t care about Spring Training anymore. I, MLB Player, have done all of this so many times—I can’t do another bunt play.”
(Alt: “I truly don’t care about spring training anymore. I, MiLB Player, haven’t had breakfast in a week—I physically can’t do another bunt play.”)
Day 7: “We’ll be fine having a couple of beers even though we have to get up at 5:30 am, and be out in the scorching sun and blistering wind all day, right? We’ll only have 2 or 3. Definitely not 10.”
[It ends up being 10.]