And The Winners Are.... (Updated With Quotes From Granderson)

The Yankees played three tournaments during their team bonding trip to the arcade; skeeball, pop-a-shot basketball, and an Indy car racing game. Here are the winners:

Indy car: 1st - A.J. Burnett; 2nd - Dana Cavalea
Skeeball: 1st - Andrew Brackman; 2nd - Eduardo Nunez
Pop-a-shot: 1st - Royce Ring; 2nd Mark Melancon

Here are some quotes from Mark Teixeira via Mark Feinsand:

“The highlights were A.J. Burnett just smoking the field in the video game racing, and Royce Ring being probably the best Pop-A-Shot basketball player I’ve ever seen,” Teixeira said. “Those two were hands-down the best at those two events.”

“I don’t think [Mo] did as well, but I don’t want to throw him under the bus,” Teixeira said. “At pool, he was definitely head and shoulders above the rest, but these arcade games leveled the playing field a little. I won’t throw anybody else under the bus, but I’ll admit the race car game was a little difficult and I finished last in my heat.”

“It was a great day,” Teixeira said. “The fact that we get three or four hours not to have to worry about baseball and not have to compete on the baseball field, it was fun. Playing video games, we felt like kids again. It promotes a light-hearted atmosphere.

“The great thing about this kind of atmosphere is that there’s no veterans or rookies, starters or role players, Triple-A or Single-A; everyone is on the same playing field. We’re all having fun, really kind of letting our hair down and getting to know each other without competing on the field.”

Here's what Curtis Granderson had to say via Chad Jennings:

“The highlight had to be watching Igawa race on the Indy Car,” Granderson said. “He kept racing up against the wall and damaging his tires. He wouldn’t move off of it. He had his left hand on the wheel and he was just cruising like nothing was wrong. He was doing that for a good three minutes. Everyone was shouting, ‘Turn left! Turn left!’”

...

“I thought it was a great idea to get a bunch of guys coming from different sides, whether it’s their first big-league camp, guys that were acquired through trade or free agency and guys that had been there,” Granderson said. “For everybody to get a chance to meet up and see everyone outside of the intense training baseball mode, we can see that everybody does laugh and have fun. We’re all big kids.”

How did Granderson do?

“I struggled in my first round of Pop-a-Shot when it counted on the bracket,” he said. “When we came back for a side competition, that’s when I dominated… Skee ball was difficult. I used to be good at Skee ball, but I was really disappointed at myself for my performance. I’ll need to go back and figure out this Skee ball machine compared to the ones I used to play.”

And here are some pictures from the AP:


If there are any more pictures or quotes from today I will post them here in another update.