Photo from the Yankees

“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. Those two were hands-down the best at those two events. Whenever the basket is moving,Wild Finish, Royce takes the cake.”
“It was fun. It was good to have a change of scenery from the pool tournament. It was new and fresh and we enjoyed it.”
“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.”
Indy car: A.J. Burnett wins; Dana Cavalea second place
Skeeball: Andrew Brackman wins; Eduardo Nunez second place
Pop-a-shot: Royce Ring wins; Mark Melancon second place
Here’s some of what Teixeira had to say to the New York Daily News’ Mark Feinsand, who is acting as the pool reporter for the day:
“The young guys probably get into it more than anybody. A big-league clubhouse – especially the Yankees’ clubhouse – can be very intimidating. To go off-site to an arcade and enjoy each other, get to know people not as superstars or as New York Yankees,Boston Red Sox Hats Sale, but just as men, it can easily build friendships.”
EDIT 6:02 p.m.: Feinsand checks in with some quotes from Curtis Granderson…
All photos courtesy of the Yankees.
Photo from the Yankees: Mark Teixeira tries his hand at Skee Ball, as Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Jesus Montero watch.
“It was a great day. 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,Cheap New Era Jordan Hats, we felt like kids again. It promotes a light-hearted atmosphere.”
“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. 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.”

“The highlight had to be watching Igawa race on the Indy Car. 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!’”

“People forget how long the season is. We have the training part that we’re doing now, then we have 30 or so spring training games and we haven’t even started the season. Then it’s 162 games in the regular season and hopefully the playoffs, then the next thing you know, you’re right back at it in 2011. The actual time away from competition is minimal, so to get a chance to go out and have fun in that large a group, it was a great thing. I’m really glad they did it and I would recommend other teams doing it.”
Here are the winners and runners-up for this morning’s Yankees arcade events:
“Andy Pettitte and I sat there and talked before our Indy Car race, and it had nothing to do with baseball. We split up, were playing different games, then battled again on the Pop-a-Shot. I don’t normally see the pitchers during the day, so to get a chance to do that was well worth it.”

“I struggled in my first round of Pop-a-Shot when it counted on the bracket. 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.”