As you probably read elsewhere over the past few days, Yankee skipper Joe Girardi has banned delicious items from the clubhouse spread, a perfectly reasonable decision according to the Journal News’ resident fitness maven Peter Abraham.
All clubhouses have an assortment of candy, gum, sunflower seeds, ice cream and other goodies. Personally, it never has made sense to me. Why would you provide professional athletes with junk food?The players, of course, aren™t too pleased. They™re used to M&Ms and Snickers bars.
The clubhouse in Tampa Bay replaced all the candy with nuts, dried fruit and granola. It was hilarious to watch as guys smuggled in candy bars and ate them furtively at their lockers.
On a more serious note, clubhouses stopped giving players tobacco several years ago. Many teams have since stopped offering free beer because of the liability issues. The Yankees stopped giving players beer on charter flights back to New York.
It makes sense. Why would you want to get somebody drunk then put them in a car to drive home at 4 a.m.?
Good question. Perhaps Tony La Russa would like to field that one.