GOODYEAR, Ariz. – Every morning behind the Reds' player development complex, there's a basketball hoop where players sometimes take some shots before taking the fields for their daily work.
Lately, however, there's been a lot of hooting and hollering heard from the court. For several days, players have been holding a team free throw tournament. Player, coaches and staff members are being broken into one-on-one brackets to see who advances each round.
It's all meant to be team-building and fun.
"People might laugh at it on the outside," manager Terry Francona said on Saturday. "But anything we can do like that – we had 'Reds Got Talent' last year – it’s all good. These guys work their [butts] off. Anything that brings personality to your team is a good thing.”
Catcher Jose Trevino, complete with a whistle, heads the competition each morning. Trevino calls out players on the brackets to take their shots while surrounded by the entire team watching.
Contestants can expect the unexpected.
Distractions are allowed as long as the shooter isn't touched while making his shots. When it was Matt McLain's turn earlier this week, Spencer Steer used an airhorn and silly string in McLain's line of sight as attempted distractions.
A Miami native, Sal Stewart wore a Dwyane Wade Heat jersey and made all three of his shots on Friday. On Saturday, he wore a "Lola Bunny" jersey from "Space Jam."
Infielder prospect Leo Balcazar wore a gorilla suit to make his shots in one round and actually defeated Hunter Greene in his round.
"It was really good because I'm trying to do something different," Balcazar said. "It's like keeping pushing that energy in the team. I was trying to shoot it and I won."
Francona was 3-for-3 with his shot attempts on Saturday. In his younger years, before he became a professional baseball player, he had some basketball talent too.
"I got invited to play in an All-Star game," Francona said. "It was the Pittsburgh city All-Stars vs. the Beaver County All-Stars. Everybody in the game went to a major college except me. And I scored a bunch of points. But the guy I was guarding, I never saw the front of him the whole game. I remember his name was David Kennedy because he went to the Univ. of Cincinnati. He couldn't stop me either."