Recently I took a tour of Yankee Stadium. For $14, it is a good deal given the access provided. On the tour, you get access to the field, dugout, press box, and the collection of plaques and statues next to the bullpens in the outfield. The best part of the tour for me was seeing the clubhouse. Sure, it is really just a collection of lockers, with smelly shoes, bats, jerseys and jockstraps. A few observations… (no pictures were allowed in the clubhouse)

• Jockstraps: Used ones, hanging in plain view
• Johnny Damon had a bright pink shirt with dots on it in his locker. The tour guide was embarassed enough to say “I don’t think he’s worn it recently.”
• Each locker is only about 4 feet wide, and has no amenities to mention.
• The clubhouse bathroom looks about as old as Yankee Stadium itself.
• The bathroom by the dugout looks just like you’d expect: dirty and unhappily damp.
• There is only one leather sofa in the main clubhouse: Players sit and prepare for games on folding chairs.

So what’s the big deal? It’s a locker room right?

Of course it is… but the occupants of the lockers combined salaries most certainly exceed the GDP of some small countries. In this day and age of the pampered athlete, it was a bit of a shock to see in person, how people who make millions still must put up with what could only be described as a fancy prep school locker room. I mean really, hasn’t team spirit has been eroded enough over the years by free agency and collective bargaining agreements with complexity rivaled only by tax code?
Football is beholden to similar procedures and facilities. Training camps have opened up across the NFL, and in some camps, players are required to bunk up with each other in dorm facilities. I suppose all the roughing it is good for team spirit, both in football and baseball. While I can understand why some would find it reassuring that athletes still have roommate issues, I can’t help but feel a bit surprised that what seems to be a ritual from another era not only persists, but persists at the highest levels of the game.