It was a long way from Iowa, but Palm Beach High School could have gone through another Dream Field last month, when a series of All-Stars worked while trying to stay in shape during the closure of the Major League Baseball.
As first reported by The Athletic, more than 30 players, including Giancarlo Stanton, Justin Verlander, and Max Scherzer, trained with Eric Cressey, who was hired by the Yankees during the offseason as the team’s director of health and performance.
Cressey runs Cressey Sports Performance and the players worked out at his gym in Palm Beach, Florida, once the closing of spring training in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic became clear, and was prolonged by a labor dispute between MLB. and the union. – It would be extensive.
The group practiced together before playing two games in high school last month, which were kept private to prevent a crowd from appearing.
“It just happened,” Cressey said on the phone Thursday.
Initially, he closed his new gym, and at first, only rehabilitating players like Noah Syndergaard and Verlander could they receive treatment.
When Florida reopened, so did the Cressey facility, primarily for pitchers throwing bullpen sessions, but that soon evolved.
“Boys wanted to launch live [batting practice] and the receivers wanted to call games, ” Cressey said. “We use Palm Beach High School for the live BPs, and then we complete everything in a great way with the games [last week]. “
Among the players in the games were Mets pitchers Robert Gsellman and Michael Wacha.
Cressey replaced Matt Krause with the Yankees during the offseason after a year during which the team had a record 39 trips to the disabled list and numerous setbacks in recoveries.
He continues to run his gyms in Florida and Massachusetts, and when he was hired, Cressey said his time with the Yankees during the season would be limited.
The Yankees had no problem with Cressey running the drills or games, as the state of Florida was open for business at the time.
No known cases of coronavirus were found in Cressey gyms during training.
“Safety was the only thing that mattered,” Cressey said of using small groups at the 10,000-square-foot facility. “We were really meticulous about how we cleaned up and everything we did. We joked that my wife was a farm manager and director of baseball operations. We made it work. “
And that meant keeping everything discreet.
“Like we had unwritten rules that there would be no social media,” said Cressey. “Otherwise a ton of people would show up and that’s the last thing we wanted. So they called it ‘Fight Club’. “
Players observed safety precautions, social distancing was observed, masks were worn when not playing, and sliding was prohibited.
Former Yankee Richard Bleier saw Scherzer and Verlander throw themselves side by side and told The Athletic that he said to himself: “There is a lot of money in those mounds.”
Cressey said he was impressed by what was happening around him.
“A lot of unprecedented things have happened, but this was a crazy moment,” Cressey said.
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