Professional clubhouses today tend to have lockers occupied by athletes hunched over their smartphone screens. Freakish ability to throw or hit a 90 mph fastball aside, baseball players are a lot like the rest of us.
So I’ve been surprised at how much action the kid-sized Nerf basketball hoop hanging up above Marcus Semien’s locker in the A’s clubhouse gets.
Semien, Khris Davis, Matt Chapman, Chris Bassitt, Matt Olson — everyone on this A’s team, really — exerts their pre-game anxieties and excitement into exuberant little pick-up contests between teammates.
And when they aren’t hooping, they’re playing cards.