The champs are here: Cabbage race, Soto arrive at Nats camp

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — On the day position players reported to camp, the Washington Nationals finally got around to putting up a sign on the ivy-covered wall near the entrance to their spring training facility with a curly "W," a rendering of the Capitol dome and, most significantly, the proclamation "2019 WORLD CHAMPIONS."

"Now we are happy to come back," slugger Juan Soto said, "and show the people we can do it again."

And two of the reasons the Nationals did what they did last season -- and, more significantly, figure repeating is a realistic goal to pursue this season -- also showed up Monday: Soto and an enthusiastic cabbage race.

Say what?

Yes, the daily schedule posted in the clubhouse proclaimed this "National Cabbage Day," alongside a separate piece of paper listing the rosters for two teams of 20 pitchers and catchers each, one captained by Max Scherzer, the other by Stephen Strasburg.

At precisely 9:30 a.m., clubhouse and equipment manager Mike Wallace strode outside carrying a broom and dustbin for the cleanup after the contest that soon followed: Heads of lettuce or red cabbage were passed down two lines of players until the "closer" -- Sean Doolittle for Scherzer's squad, Daniel Hudson for Strasburg's -- slammed the leafy spheres on the sidewalk. As general manager Mike Rizzo looked on with other front-office employees from an terrace overlooking the field, and with pride, then dinner, then $1,000 at stake — per hype man and first base coach Bob Henley — Scherzer's team went 3-0, to much hooting and hollering and group hugs.

"It's fun, but that's what they do for a living -- they compete every day and it's just something to take them off of just the everyday baseball thing. But they're competing," manager Dave Martinez said. "And when you've got a guy like Max, that loves to win in...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/The-champs-are-here-Cabbage-race-Soto-arrive-at-15062731.php