Locker Room Talk

I remember walking into our minor league clubhouse in Phoenix, AZ last June just days after last year's MLB draft, it was an intimidating experience. I arrived last June at the end of extended spring training, which ironically is where I am now. There were about 50-70 players in the clubhouse, most of whom knew their way around and the daily schedule. I was one of the new guys and didn't even know where to go to get my equipment or meal money. Actually one of my fellow rookie teammates didn't even know that he was supposed to pick up meal money until the following week, when he was able to collect his money that had been piling up. With time everyone starts to find their way around and become familiar with the clubhouse rules, some of which are written, but far most are unwritten rules..locker room code.

Obviously the biggest rule of the clubhouse is to not go into anybody else's locker. You should never be looking through someone else's locker, that is definitely against locker room code. We have some other pretty obvious rules like there is no eating and no cleats in the clubhouse. For the most part, they just ask us to take care of the space that we have and treat everyone and everything with respect. There's also another unwritten rule, to take a shower after you finish your practice, workout, or game. This isn't something that's strictly enforced but some guys in the organization would say that we have a leader of the shower police, Jose Crisotomo. Jose is quite the character and a friend of mine that is always good for a laugh. He has been known to call out fellow teammates that he thinks haven't showered telling them to 'Take a shower hippie!' or 'Take a shower everyday'.

My roommate, Jeff Bercume, who I've talked about a lot in my posts interviewed Crisotomo about his showering habits. I actually stole this video from his blog, http://108stitchez.com/?p=765. Jose is from the Dominican Republic, but speaks English pretty well, and we always try to help the other out as I'm learning some Spanish. I don't think you will ever catch this baseball player being a 'hippie'..enjoy.

And wishing Bradley Shaban a happy 20th birthday..Bradley is a sophomore infielder at JMU, currently hitting .336 with 4 HR and is 7-7 on stolen bases..showing off the speed, smell ya Shaban!