Player bests president in Marlins' ping-pong tournament

JUPITER, Fla. -- It was one of the most highly anticipated days at Marlins camp on Wednesday, but not for anything happening on a baseball diamond. Rather, it was time for Miami to crown a champion. A ping-pong champion.

Prior to their 6-3 loss to the Mets at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, practically the Marlins’ entire organization -- from Major Leaguers and Minor Leaguers to athletic trainers and clubhouse staff -- crowded into the batting cages to watch the finale of Miami’s annual big league ping-pong tournament.

The beverages of choice ranged from energy drinks and water to coffee, with players in various degrees of readiness for their workouts that followed -- some still in street clothes, some in their athletic gear, some receiving treatment from trainers. It didn’t matter what they had going on, it was time for ping-pong.

This year, manager Skip Schumaker decided to up the fanfare, hiring a mariachi band to play during the three-round championship and prodding two of the PR staff to perform the national anthem. One player even had an airhorn.

“We did it last year, made it better this year,” Schumaker said. “I just think it's important for the Minor Leaguers to see what's up here and [that] it's special up here and to try to get here. That's what you want, right? … And so when they see guys are having fun up here -- it's not just baseball but it's fun to come to work here -- that's the culture you're trying to create.”

First, three matches in a sort of quarterfinal: Vladimir Gutierrez vs. Luis Arraez, Max Meyer vs. president of baseball ops Peter Bendix and Ryan Weathers vs. Braxton Garrett. Gutierrez, Bendix and Weathers advanced, and Bendix bested Gutierrez in the semifinal to face Weathers in the final.

The final was quite the back-and-forth match. As Bendix drew closer and closer to Weathers, reliever Tanner Scott began to yell “Play your game,” to Weathers.

“He was kind of trying to use the power hits,” Scott said, “and I'm like, ‘Hey, that’s not your game.’ So I just yelled at him.”

In the end, it was Weathers -- in his first Spring Training with the Marlins after he was acquired at last year’s Trade Deadline -- who came out on top, receiving a small trophy and, of course, bragging rights.

“It was a lot of fun,” Weathers said. “It's just a fun game just for the whole team to play, just to kind of build some team camaraderie.

“I was glad that Ryan won and not the front office,” Schumaker said. “I knew that [Bendix] was going to be tough to beat; and he has his own paddle and the whole deal, he's played ping-pong for a long time and been on club teams and everything. So yeah, I knew it was gonna be a battle. I was just happy that he didn't win -- I like him, I'm just happy a player won.”

Weathers is in line to make the Marlins’ Opening Day rotation, in part due to a plethora of pitcher injuries, but also aided by a solid spring (a 3.00 ERA in five outings (four starts) with 21 strikeouts over 18 innings thus far). But on Wednesday, it was his tourney win that mattered.

“Probably just gonna put [the trophy] on my nightstand,” Weathers said. “My wife's gonna be pissed. [But] I'm going to put it on my nightstand just so I can wake up and say, ‘Yeah, I won a ping-pong tournament.’”

Scott on top
After a rough start to Spring Training (a 72.00 ERA in one combined inning over his first three outings), Scott is back on track. In his past four appearances, Scott -- who will be the Marlins’ closer again this year -- has a 0.00 ERA (3 1/3 innings). That includes back-to-back appearances on Tuesday (a scoreless eighth inning vs. the Astros) and Wednesday (bailing out Patrick Monteverde for the final two outs of the third inning against the Mets).

“The first couple were not the results I wanted,” Scott said pregame, “so it’s better to get back on track.”

Scott also said that after his outing on March 16 -- his first full inning of work this spring -- he was pumped up.

“I came in the dugout [and] I was high-fiving everyone,” Scott said. “I was like, ‘I can do it, I can do it, I can do it!’ It felt good.”