MLB Doesn't Think You Players Need That Third Shake

With innovations like "The Beast" soon in coming, the league will probably never ask it of its fans, but a push toward healthy eating is being spurred by Major League Baseball for its players. That there isn't an easily attributable cause to this campaign - injuries haven't increased from weight issues at a marked rate - confounds some observers.

But in many cases, the players themselves are clamoring for more healthy options in clubhouse fare that has commonly been the case: donuts, fried chicken and candy bars.

This past season, six members of the Los Angeles Angels approached the team's dietician, without prompting, to ask her to write them "food plans" to improve their diets. Heath Bell, a relief pitcher for the San Diego Padres, says he gets irritated on the road when teams set out buckets of cookies in the clubhouse while leaving the fruit and vegetables tucked away in refrigerators in side rooms. When teams do put fruit out, he says, they often don't even bother to clean or cut it. "If the fruit is out and set up well, I'll eat it," Mr. Bell says. "But if the cookies are there, I'm taking them. That's my downfall."

The Padres' strength and conditioning speculated that tougher drug policies and concerns over the content of supplements force players to be more careful about what they put in their bodies. Younger trainers, too, have been long versed in the gospel of healthy eating.

While it certainly couldn't harm baseball's reputation in the sports world to have fewer players maintaining the Bartolo Colon physique, I think fans also expect a little indulgence on the part of players. Having them develop the overly stringent diets might kill whatever remains of the "everyman" image people hope for in ballplayers.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.