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Introducing the new beverage of the Yankees' clubhouse
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
BY LISA KENNELLY
Star-Ledger Staff
TAMPA, Fla. -- You can set your watch by Ron Villone's morning ritual.
The Yankees reliever comes off the field, iPod headphones still in, clothes
damp with sweat. He takes a carafe filled with some dark, shriveled-up leaves
into the player's lounge, and fills it with hot water. Five minutes later,
Villone strains out the water through the bottom of the pot. He adds a little
honey, and takes a slow sip.
Forget Gatorade and protein shakes. In the Yankees' clubhouse, tea --
particularly antioxidant-rich green tea -- has become the beverage of choice
for more than a few players and coaches.
"My best friend is monkey oolong," says Villone, a native of Bergenfield.
That would be "Monkey Picked Oolong Oolong" tea, the origin of which the
37-year-old pitcher is happy to explain.
"Thousands of years ago, monkeys picked the tea leaves from the top of the
tree," he says as his morning cup steeps. "Monks taught them to do that. I
guess it's a lost art because they don't need the monkeys to do that any
longer."
The Yankees don't need help from monkeys to get their tea fix these days.
They have manager Joe Torre, who drinks pints of green tea each day and is a
spokesman for Bigelow Green Tea.
In his office at Legends Field in Tampa are three boxes of decaf lemon green
tea and the players' lounge is always stocked with green tea bags.
A clubhouse assistant brings him a steaming cup of tea every morning, which
he carries in hand as he wanders the field inspecting players.
"It's become more a part of our lifestyles," Torre says.
The Chinese have been drinking tea and proclaiming its benefits for more than
3,000 years. But only recently has modern medicine begun to look into the
advantages of a diet that includes plenty of tea and green tea in particular.
Researchers have claimed green tea helps everything from joint inflammation
to cardiovascular health.
All tea is made from the Camellia sinensis plant. Green tea leaves are
preserved to prevent them from oxidizing, while black and oolong tea are
exposed to the air to allow them to ferment.
The popularity of green tea, which typically contains less caffeine than
coffee, comes at a time when players are still getting used to a ban on
amphetamines that took effect last season.
While the effects on athletes aren't fully known, one study that appeared in
the online edition of the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory,
Integrative and Comparative Physiology found regular use of green tea extract
might improve endurance. The study was conducted by a Japanese maker of
health care products.
Torre started drinking tea for health reasons. After being diagnosed with
prostate cancer in 1999, Torre's nutritionist gave him a list of foods with
antioxidants -- chemicals that can reduce damage to cells that leads to
cancer.
At first, he didn't care much for the taste of green tea, but over time he's
gotten accustomed to it. The company has made flavors just for him, like
decaf blueberry.
Another reason for tea's prevalence in the Yankee clubhouse is due to the
presence of Asian players like Taiwan's Chien-Ming Wang and Japan's Hideki
Matsui.
"I drink it all the time," Matsui says. "Obviously it is good for you, but
it's the flavor. I've been drinking it since I was a child. It's part of the
culture."
When Matsui joined the Yankees in 2003, Jason Giambi went up to him and
quizzed his new teammate on the properties of green tea.
Giambi, who has visited Japan several times, was fascinated by what he
learned.
"He said, 'It gets the insides ready to go.' That's the big thing," Giambi
says. "Because, as an athlete, you get your insides going and then the
outside will follow. He's great. I love picking his brain about stuff. I go,
'You've probably got some old guy in Japan who's mixing (stuff) together on
top of some mountain.'"
Now, Giambi drinks green tea frequently.
"It's always been something to do instead of drinking Diet Coke or Diet
Pepsi," he says.
Wang usually waits until after he leaves the ballpark to go home and brew
some tea in a traditional Chinese teapot. But when he noticed Villone's
fascination with tea he offered to swap his Taiwanese leaves for some of
Villone's.
Of course, the clubhouse isn't the only place where the popularity of green
tea is increasing.
Americans consumed more than 50 billion servings of tea in 2005, more than
2.25 billion gallons, according to the Tea Association of the USA, an
industry trade group. About 12.5 percent was green tea.
"It just seems to be more prominent," Torre says. "When I'd go to
restaurants, I used to have to bring my own. I'd have to put a couple of tea
bags in my pocket all the time. Now it's easy to find it just about
everywhere."
His devotion to green tea is matched by Villone, who switched over because he
didn't much care for the taste of coffee.
"I got bored with it," Villone says. "Tea is a lot healthier for you."
The wisecracks from teammates not yet enlightened don't bother him a bit.
"It wouldn't be baseball if they weren't riding me a little bit about it," he
says. "I'd rather be picked on for my tea than for anything else.
"They're just jealous, is what I always tell them. They mock what they don't
understand."
Lisa Kennelly may be reached at lkennelly@starledger.com.
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