A’s are learning to kick high-risk habits
Manager Melvin, players Montas and Chapman discuss league’s health protocol
Spitting may be out; A’s manager and players discuss the league’s health protocol in the era of COVID-19.
Baseball players are creatures of habit, often chained to some superstitions and in-game quirks. They spit, high-five, lick. They get close even if the sport is naturally distanced. When tensions mount, one stink eye or misguided pitch can ignite a brawl.
Now, baseball players will have to curb all their habits and quirks and put aside some superstition in the name of health.
“Last thing we want to do is be one of the teams that cause a problem and put this thing at risk,” A’s third baseman Matt
Chapman said.
With a week remaining in camp, how are the A’s managing with the habit kicking?
No more finger licking, spitting
Frankie Montas felt his throwing hand go up to his lips before his conscience kicked in.
“I was like ‘oops!’” Montas said. “I’m trying to remember all the rules.”
If you’ve watched a pitcher at work, the fingerto-mouth motion seems a second-nature twitch — a natural part of the pitching movement, almost.
“I’m really like, I don’t know how I’m going to do this,” Montas said. “You’ve got to get used to it. It’s going to be weird at first, but once you get used to it, you’ll be fine.”
Kicking that bad habit has been tricky for A’s closer Liam Hendriks, too.
“I’ve been training myself kind of like you’d train a dog a little bit,” he said. “Pick your ball up, then refraining from going to my mouth, and then usually I get a treat after that.”
Even if treats might not be readily available on the mound, a trick he’s found is to divert his fingers to his neck when he feels his hand going up to his mouth. A.J. Puk didn’t have to train his mind, he already goes to his neck first.
“The sweat gives me a little extra grip,” Puk said.
Saliva won’t be just be tolerated on fingers, but prohibited in spit form, too. A dugout floor postgame tells you all you need to know about how much baseball players spit — gum, chaw, sunflower seeds, otherwise. There will be no spitting, a habit Sean Murphy will have to work on.
“I spit a lot,” Murphy said.
Fraternizing and team camaraderie
Rickey Henderson is a frequent guest for pregame card games around the clubhouse tables. A’s players arrive hours before first pitch to get work in, eat, play mini-hoop, play cards and fraternize.
There will be no such fraternization in the clubhouse this season. The A’s will have more space thanks to access to the Oakland Raiders’ old locker room, but in that space they’ll stay. Clubhouse access will be more limited this season, after games and before them.
“Those times are kind of gone right now,” A’s pitcher Chris Bassitt said. “Hanging around the clubhouse or weight room and stuff like that, that’s no more. It’s kind of a get in, get your stuff done and then leave as soon as possible kind of thing.
“I’ll miss standing around and chit-chatting with friends and debating
“I’ll miss standing around and chit-chatting with friends and debating the world.”
— Chris Bassitt, A’s pitcher.
the world.”
Simulated games have at least provided a peek at how celebrations might look. Runs scored went without any high-fives — home runs might require a little extra solo celebration around the bases to make up for it.
“The weirdest thing is probably how little people are at the field and not being able to interact with your teammates in the same way you’re used to,” Chapman said. “Not as intimate, no touching or high-fiving, but we’ll make it work.
“It kind of feels like college again. You’re going and practicing at an empty field.”
Superstitions
Bob Melvin is known to be germaphobic. Hand sanitizing stations put up in the Coliseum walls back in 2012 helped with that, a bit. The strict cleanliness standards required to curb COVID-19 won’t be much of an adjustment.
“Now I have (hand sanitizer) in my back pocket, too, for when I’m out on the field,” Melvin said. “So, I think it’s probably easier on me than on other guys who rarely thought about that.”
But, Melvin is also known to be superstitious. So the extreme shifts in routine pose a little bit of a burden.
His lucky parking spot might not be available with all the moving parts in the team lot, what if he has to pull into spot No. 8 over his spot, No. 6?
Dugouts will look different in game, too. Rules ask that players don’t lean on railings, that they space and “limit unnecessary movement within the dugout to adhere to physical distancing protocols.”
“I’m usually standing when we’re hitting and sitting when we’re pitching,” Melvin said. “So we’ll see if I can do that.”
Who will wear a mask on the field?
The rules don’t require players, coaches and staff to wear masks around the ballpark and in the clubhouse, but players aren’t required to wear masks during games. Some A’s are toying with the option.
Franklin Barreto has been wearing a mask in simulated games — which clearly posed some issues when relaying signs to teammate Vimael Machin from second base. But, with some time before the season starts, Barreto wants to see if he can get comfortable using it during regular season games.
“I want to keep my teammates safe,” he said in a call through translator, first base coach Al Pedrique.
Mike Fiers left all of his teammates and coaches neck masks depicting Fiers’ cat-tail facial hair he sported for a start against the Texas Rangers last year. So far, Melvin and Sean Manaea are the only ones caught donning the gifts.
“Yeah we lost that game (in Texas),” Khris Davis said. “We gotta shut that down.”
Mark Canha — known to wear a ski mask preCOVID during cold Oakland nights in the outfield — said he might bring the look back.
“Now people won’t make fun of me on social media,” Canha said.
Manaea said he was considering wearing a mask while he pitched, hoping to wear a mask he could “jazz up.” But, his tune changed of late.
“I tried pitching a bullpen with it and it was pretty difficult,” Manaea said on a segment on 95.7 The Game. “So I might have to recant that statement.”