Getaway day

Sporting News, The, June 10, 2005

It is a job as old as the game of baseball.

One team travels to play at another's park and someone needs to haul the stuff. These days in the major leagues, that is some considerable stuff.

What is the busiest day for the equipment managers, baseball's pack mules? It's getaway day, when a visiting team wraps up a series, packs up its gear and heads for the next park.

On this getaway day, the Padres are not a happy bunch. They've just been swept in three games at Dodger Stadium and are headed home to face the Giants the next night. While manager Bruce Bochy faces reporters, Padres equipment manager Brian Prilaman is having a United Van Lines moment. He is the move master of the box, bag and bat, a daunting responsibility.

As Prilaman gathers the players' duffel bags, a Dodgers clubhouse guy tosses them into the back of a truck beyond the center field wall. Regardless of the colors they wear, the clubhouse guys take care of their own. Their playing field includes elevators, stairs and hallways, and their time is tight.

There are about 50 minutes between the end of the game and when the trucks are supposed to roll. A half-dozen guys, four on loan from the Dodgers, are in an efficient flurry of activity. They thread their way through the jocks and scribes in silence, knowing exactly what their jobs are. A nice tip usually is in the cards when the home team helps.

Prilaman, who joined the Padres as a batboy in 1971, has been taking care of the team's gear for 20 years. He knows the packing list and the schedule by heart. More than 5,000 pounds of equipment and 2,000 pounds of luggage need to be packed, depending on the length of the trip and time of year. Those nice warm jackets take up a lot of space in April and October.

Everyone knows that traveling can be a pain, but imagine being responsible for a bunch of other people's luggage. "We carry the stuff of between 55 and 62 people, depending on what trip you're on," Prilaman says.

In addition to five big trunks on wheels for the team, "there are three big cases for the trainers. The strength coach has a huge case. The TV people have three cases, and the radio people have a couple of cases."

And don't forget the baseballs. Prilaman must pack six dozen for each road game. That amounted to 432 balls when this trip began.

The good news? "You lighten up as you go along in your trip," Prilaman says.

Position players might haul eight to 12 of their bats in a personal bag, accounting for more than 100 that travel with the team. Another 100 miscellaneous bats are moved in three large bat bags.

A player's world is playing ball, training, eating, dealing with the media and having his stuff magically appear at the next stadium. He doesn't have time to worry about all this stuff--much less the little things.

"There are two full away uniforms for each player. There is a glove-lacing kit in case a guy blows out a glove. Extra lettering and numbers in case the team makes a trade. There are glove pounders, a handle with a heavy end that the players use to pound on their gloves to loosen them up. There's the Mota stick, a sticky substance players use for grip. There are rosin bags, pine tar rags...." Prilaman lists the items off the top of his head. Plus, there's a box of loose name panels, just in case of a minor league call-up. No one wants the embarrassment of a paper name tag above his locker when he makes it to the bigs.

This getaway day is a luxury--the Padres jump into a bus and head down I-5 for a couple hours. There are teams that rarely take such a short trip, like the Mariners, who will log about 50,000 miles this season. Compare them with the Indians or White Sox, who will put in about 29,000 miles, and you see how different baseball's road can be.

As the day's work comes to a close, Prilaman drags duffel bags up a staircase and into the truck. He feels baseball has reached its limit on the amount of material it moves from place to place.

"You only had one trainer when I started and one equipment manager," he says. "You didn't have all of the extra batting practice pitchers and catchers. There are more things being added each year. At some point it's going to have to end because we're going to max out our plane."--A.D.