PHOENIX — A package arrived recently for Eric Thames at Maryvale Baseball Park, the spring training home of the Milwaukee Brewers. It was a fungo bat, thin-handled and light, a tool to help make his hands quicker. Thames had ordered it for $30 on Amazon.
“I opened the box and I was taking the bar code off it, and the clubhouse guy was like, ‘Hey, did you buy that bat?’” said Thames, who replied that he had. “He says: ‘You know, this is the big leagues. I have fungoes back there I can give you.’”