Sox salutations

In triple digit heat on Friday, 13 Marysville Gold Sox found themselves in "downward dog" before batting practice. It was three hours to game time and the shortstop and second baseman were taking grounders, the starting pitcher was loosening up his arm and the catcher was working at home plate. But those other players were on all-fours in the right field grass, straining away as an instructor put them through the mother of pre-game stretch routines.

"Imagine your hips are the hinge ... The breath, I don't hear it, where is it? ... In the game, when you are out there, you have to be complete," Baylea Protine said as she led a class in what has become the Mid-Valley's largest yoga studio: 3,000-plus seat Appeal-Democrat Park.

It's not just weight rooms, fielding drills and soft tosses anymore. The Marysville Gold Sox have discovered yoga is a valuable addition to their training regimen. A group of sunflower seed-chewing, tobacco-spitting college ball players are starting to embrace that the "warrior pose" and "sun salutations" can improve their game.

"Believe it or not, yoga has a lot to offer," Gold Sox manager Jack Johnson said. "Flexibility, strength and it incorporates a lot of lower half, which the pitchers need a lot of.

"We're coming full circle, we have to make available every possible way to get better, whether it's on the field or yoga."

This group of summer ball players, who Johnson will easily call his wackiest yet, started with yoga in the beginning of the season. The daily sessions manifested when pitcher and outfielder Jake Stassi began doing poses to prepare for games. A member of the area's most venerable baseball family, Stassi and his brother Max, who's playing pro ball in the Oakland A's organization, had a "Power Yoga for Baseball" DVD laying around their Yuba City home. The duo would use it sporadically — two Appeal-Democrat All-Area MVP's contorting their bodies in front of the living room flat screen.

When Jake Stassi brought the idea to this group of Gold Sox, it quickly caught on. He showed pitcher Kendyle Blank a few things, then came others. Soon there would be 10 or more in the outfield, using their gray practice shirts as mats and jokingly referring to Stassi as "sensei."

"They came out there and they tried it and they like it," he said. "It's pretty cool, everyone is kind of catching on."

Baseball and yoga are not concepts foreign to each other. In 2007, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays added yoga to their spring training regimen, according to MLB.com. Men's Health Magazine ran a yoga for baseball piece, featuring the yoga instructor for the San Diego Padres. In an article by the Yoga Journal, former big leaguers Al Leiter and Jeff Conine tout how the ancient art improved their abilities.

Yoga is not completely new to the Gold Sox either.

Three seasons ago, pitcher Anthony Bass took it upon himself to do yoga and gained 3 mph on his fastball, Johnson said. Bass now pitches in the Padres organization.

But a set of Sox doing moves like the "pigeon pose," a favorite of "Sensei Stassi," is unprecedented. In the interest of helping his team, Johnson brought in a professional instructor to show them new poses and give them notes before the team's game against the Folsom Pioneers.

"This group of players will embrace just about anything to make themselves better and they found (yoga)," he said. "So I figured, 'Why not?'"

For this former AAA catcher turned summer manager, it's definitely different from his playing days.

"Back then guys thought yoga was 'fold your legs' and I couldn't have done that if I tried," he said. "There's a lot more to it than people think, it's good for your mind and body."

Before the start of their 7 p.m. game, yoga class was in session. Johnson grabbed a lawn chair to watch. Posted up next to him was a cardboard sign the players erected by the bullpen stating: "Baseball Yoga ... Quiet please."

Protine, a 22-year-old instructor with Yuba City Parks and Recreation put the players through an entire half-hour plus routine that had them sweating and tired like they had just done stadium runs.

She started with a pose she dubbed "little butterfly wings," which had the players sitting cross-legged — like Kindergartners during storytime — and bending forward. The session progressed in difficulty, moving into "warrior one" and "warrior two" and an "eagle pose" that had the group standing on one leg, crossing their arms and struggling to keep their balance. The group would continually return to "downward dog," which, per the instructor's orders, forced the players to "lift (their) knees and put (their) bottoms to the sky."

Throughout the class, Protine related the moves they were doing to baseball.

"Yoga and baseball use a lot of the core," she said as the players mimicked her movements while surrounding her in a semi-circle. A long muscle is stronger than a tight one."

When the session was over, the players, ever vigilant to impress Protine, bowed and said "Namaste" in unison. It's a Hindu expression used essentially when saying hello or goodbye. It's also a standard way for students to express gratitude to an instructor at the end of a Yoga class.

"They did awesome," Protine said afterward. "This definitely was a challenge for me and I hope it was a challenge for them."

In the mind of starting centerfielder Niko Saladis, it sure was. He's part of that everyday contingent, but their daily routine paled in comparison to the gauntlet Protine threw down.

"She made us look like idiots," he said, though he isn't discouraged. Yoga has helped his core and throwing shoulder and is helping him raise his batting average as a well. "Hopefully more yoga equals more hits."

But not all the players have bought into the idea of standing shirtless in the outfield and twisting their bodies like Lombard Street.

"Well I play baseball, not Yoga," Casey Coy said with a laugh from the dugout.