DUNEDIN, Fla. — The question focused on the mood in the clubhouse. John Gibbons said he has noticed “a huge turnaround.” Then, invoking Mark McGwire’s visit to the U.S. Senate, Gibbons said he did not wish to revisit the past.
“I just answered the question,” he said. “Who was it that said before Congress, ‘I’m talking about the future, not the past?’ ”
That would be McGwire, wearing a suit and testifying before a Senate committee in 2005.
“I’m not going to go into the past or talk about my past,” McGwire famously replied to a question about whether he used steroids as a player.
Still another reporter tried a softer tack with Gibbons, observing that the 2015 clubhouse seems a more sociable place.
“I just think it’s a tighter group,” Gibbons said. “ ‘Get along better’ isn’t accurate; I can’t say that yet. But they seem to be meshing a little better.”
Relevant or not, much has been made in the media about the leadership qualities of two offseason additions, Russell Martin and Josh Donaldson, and how they might improve the clubhouse ambiance as well as team performance.
“First off, you admire the way they play the game,” Gibbons said. “They’re both hard-nosed guys. They play hard. They’re all-out all the time. Not everybody’s like that in the big leagues. That right there gets everybody’s attention. They’re the kind of guys everybody loves because of that.
“They’ve played on winners and you can see why. They say the right things. Both of the guys really talk the game up. In between innings, they’re not just sitting in the dugout just bulls—-ing, they’re talking baseball. That always helps. They’re talking to different teammates about what the is throwing, things like that. They’re ballplayers. They’re very talented guys, but they’re baseball guys.”
