Ping-pong returns, and a champion is crowned

This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola’s Marlins Beat publication. To learn the complete publication, click on right here. And subscribe to get it repeatedly in your inbox.

On an in any other case quiet Sunday morning earlier than Marlins huge league camp got here to an in depth, a trumpet blared from the batting cages on the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium advanced. Then got here the compulsory Bad Bunny track and intermittent cheers.

Players, coaches, front-office members and Minor Leaguers alike gathered to witness Garrett Hampson finest Andrew Nardi in two units (11-4, 11-6) within the group’s ping-pong event remaining, which returned this spring for the primary time since 2019.

Hampson, who performed ping-pong with buddies rising up in Reno, Nev., maintained his swing through the years when Minor League clubhouses had a desk. But he hadn’t performed in almost 5 years.

“You’ve obtained to issue within the nerves, for positive,” Hampson said. “I knew I used to be going to be nervous. I knew he was going to be nervous. It’s positively totally different when everyone’s watching, and it isn’t your career, so it isn’t like you’ll be able to lean on various things that you’ve got realized over the course of your profession. So it is actually simply attempting to hit it again on the opposite aspect, however [my ping-pong playing] got here again a bit bit. I used to be feeling good on the market.”

Added Nardi: “It’s OK. I got away from my roots and decided to go with the sticky paddle like Hampson, and [I] should have stuck to it and just kept the hard paddle. I messed up.”

It was a combined day for Hampson, who was optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville shortly after. He must wait to money in on his reward: a collection on the street this season.

“It’s business, just kind of how the roster is constructed right now,” mentioned Hampson, who started the spring as a non-roster invitee earlier than the membership chosen his contract on March 15. “Get everyday at-bats, which will be nice if you look at the positive. I’ll get some at-bats and get feeling good and be ready when they need me.”

“I’ve said throughout the entire spring what I think of Hampson,” supervisor Skip Schumaker mentioned. “His versatility, it’s an incredible depth piece to have in case anybody goes down, because he can play everywhere — literally — and we trust him when he does come up. I know he’s going to come up at some point. These are one of the tougher conversations, because he’s been a good big leaguer for a long time, and what he did deserves to be on the team, honestly.”