Royce Clayton plans to spend the next few days at the zoo with his triplets. Ryan Zimmerman will be the one with a pile of tokens at the batting cage. Brian Schneider figures to ride the couch while Frank Robinson will walk 18 holes.
With only Alfonso Soriano playing in the All-Star Game on Tuesday, the rest of the Washington Nationals will enjoy their only mini-vacation in eight months. The beaches of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida beckon men who make their living largely outdoors, but Damian Jackson is among several Californians willing to travel 3,000 miles home for even a hint of down time.
“I’ll just sit on the couch and watch TV and sit by the pool and hang out,” said Schneider, who’s heading to Florida to see family. “It flies by. It is a tease to get you in the mindset for the offseason.”
Three whole days off — whatever will they do with all that down time? With games nearly every day from March through Oct. 1, the best players normally get is an occasional free day that’s often filled with errands.
The Nats are even idle on Thursday when most teams resume play. Robinson scrapped an off-day workout, too.
“If you have a workout you’ll always have three or four guys that don’t show up and that creates a little animosity among players that do show up,” Robinson said. “I’d rather not have that problem so I give them the days off.”
Clayton may have to return to work to get some rest. The shortstop has nine-month-old triplets and a two-year-old son.
“We’ve been talking about [the break] for the past few weeks, my wife and I,” Clayton said. “I miss family time where get to hang out with each other.”
You’d think Zimmerman would relish the break given the Rookie of the Year candidate might be playing in plenty of All-Star Games over coming years. Instead, he has no plans other than staying in the batting cage.
“You have to hit. You can’t go four days without hitting,” Zimmerman said. “I don’t do anything [otherwise]. I don’t know where I’m going.”
Ah, the energy of youth wasted on the young.
Robinson smiled at the prospect of heading to a golf course. It was 50 years ago when Robinson started the midsummer classic as a Cincinnati outfielder en route to earning NL Rookie of the Year. Now the Hall of Famer will spend one afternoon chasing an even littler white ball across green fields, but only one afternoon.
“I’ll probably rest myself to rechargethe battery,” Robinson said. “A lot of times when you’re going every day you don’t realize how tired you are until you say, ‘OK, I’m going to rest one or two days.’ Boy, it’s like zonked out, but you come back fresher from the break mentally and physically.”
Mike O’Connor eagerly talked of spending a few days on the beach in Duck, N.C. before Thursday’s game. An hour later, the pitcher was optioned to New Orleans.
So much for vacation. Oh well, even President Bush is scaling back his down time.
Rick Snider has covered local sports for 28 years. Contact him at [email protected].
