New Yankee Stadium Snapshot: The Clubhouse of the Future?

NEW YORK - There's nothing unusual about ballplayers having pictures of their families hanging in their lockers. But at the new Yankee Stadium, everything's new and snazzy and ... at least a little different from what you're used to. So when you enter the cavernous home clubhouse, with its plush Yankee carpeting, ultracomfy-looking leather chairs and huge flat screen TVs (all tuned to the YES Network, of course), you notice the pictures hanging up on the lockers. And then you notice what's different about them.

They're on computer screens.

Every locker in the Yankees' clubhouse is equipped with an IBM ThinkPad laptop. They're attached to the fronts of the lockers, and the screen is the first thing the player will see when he walks in each day.

"I think a lot of guys thought it meant we'd be playing video games every day at our lockers," Johnny Damon said. "But it turns out it's not like that."

Not like that at all. The computers don't even have internet access, which greatly reduces the chances of players getting in trouble for surfing naughty web sites while reporters are in the room. They can't get or send e-mails on there or use them to download music. They are for team- and baseball-related business only. Things like:

-Placing ticket orders. A couple of years ago, when the IRS started taxing the players for their free ticket allotments, they had to log in every request on one clubhouse computer. Now, they can do it right from their lockers -- no waiting.

-Watching video. The hitting coach, for example, can load a player's screen with video of that player's most recent at-bats against that night's opposing starter.

-Scheduling. Each player will find his day's schedule loaded onto the computer when he arrives. So if he's scheduled for a meeting or extra batting practice, or if the manager wants to see him, he'll see it on the screen before he even takes off his watch.

(By the way, I'd have taken a picture, but we're not allowed to take pictures in the clubhouse. So instead we went with a shot of a dude taking a picture across the street from the building. It's arty.)

Anyway, that's just the part of the clubhouse we get to see. There are apparently acres of clubhouse that are off-limits to the media, and they're packed with all kinds of cool amenities. The batting cages are just off the clubhouse, a short, carpeted walk away. Joe Girardi said he's psyched that he no longer has to worry about his players slipping and falling as they walk in metal cleats down a long concrete hallway to the cages. (I had no idea this was a major concern in the old building, and can never remember a guy falling, but I guess a manager worries.)

And there's all kinds of training equipment they never used to have, like an underwater treadmill for water running that Girardi himself says he's eager to try out.

"There are some training facilities we didn't have last year that I think will help in the rehabbing of players, not having to send them other places," Girardi said. "I think it's going to make a lot of things more convenient."

That would seem to be the goal. Even the visitors' clubhouse is stacked with new goodies.

"Every imaginable amenity that you could want," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "You wonder if the players will be ready to take the field at 7:05."

Tonight, they all were. By the time the dog days of August roll around...who knows?