How A’s players are breaking bad habits

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?

Frankie Montas felt his throwing hand go up to his lips before his conscious 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 post-game 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. Rickey Henderson is a frequent guest for pregame card games around the clubhouse tables. A’s arrive hours before first pitch to get work in, eat, play minhoop, 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 the world.”

Simulated games have at least provided a peak 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.