Spring training used to last six or seven weeks because it took that long for players to get in shape after an offseason spent working a second job or packing on pounds during the banquet circuit.
It still lasts as long, but primarily because spring training is a money-maker, not because players need six weeks to get game-ready for the season. They could do that in half the time, given that most of today’s players come to camp already in shape after working out for most of the winter.
Retired manager Jim Leyland once said, “When I played, you came to spring training with a 10-pound winter beer belly, and ran about 30 wind sprints and sweated with a sweat jacket and got yourself in condition. Now the players do Nautilus, they play racquetball, they swim … they come to spring training looking like Tarzan.”
I don’t know of any who use racquetball or swimming in their conditioning, but Leyland’s point was spot-on: Major-leaguers have an average salary above $3 million and long ago moved beyond needing second jobs. These days, they run and lift weights most of the winter and begin hitting or throwing weeks before spring training begins.
Some work with private strength coaches in the offseason. Some have private chefs and nutritionists. There’s so much money in the game, and players want to do all they can for a bigger piece of the financial pie.
At spring training, teams provide healthy, restaurant-quality meals in the clubhouse kitchen and extensive gyms. Not too long ago, it was believed that lifting weights made guys too muscle-bound to play baseball.
“I remember going to spring training with the Yankees in ’87 and they had no weights; it was forbidden,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “Now we have weight-training coaches, conditioning coaches. The new spring training sites in Arizona look like football complexes with 10,000-square-foot weight rooms.”
Most players and managers say spring training is too long, but it’s unlikely to change because of money. Most teams train in modern stadiums rather than quaint spring-training parks of the past, and fans pay ticket and concession prices often comparable with those of regular-season games.
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