I'll be asking the questions here. How about a sprinkle?

Every new player coming into the organization gets the pleasure of sitting down with one of the interns and answering numerous questions. What is more fun than an interactive quiz on you? Over the past couple of weeks, Sam Miller and I, Heather Harrison, have been interviewing many of the new players coming in, asking what they do in the offseason, what their first car was, what their favorite foods and books are, and other basic questions.

My first day doing these interviews was a little overwhelming. The first three people I was asked to interview were all sitting at the same table in the Bees clubhouse playing cards, with a fourth player at the table eager to help out.

First up was pitcher Dan Denham. He took to the serious answers, but after a few questions he became concerned about being a bad interview. With a little positive reassurance from me, I asked for a little elaboration on some of the answers. Dan won the most improved award of the three.

Shortly after, an interviewee decided he wanted to be the interviewer. Infielder Freddy Sandoval was asking the questions now. 

Mind you I don't know the players that well yet, so I kind of looked at him with a puzzled expression not knowing how I should react, but then decided to roll with it and keep going. Thank goodness I was using a recorder so all I had to do now was make sure it was working properly. Disaster averted. 

Freddy might be able to do some public relations consulting on the side because he was great with the questions and started to make some up on the spot to dig even deeper. Well done my friend. Needless to say, I was trying to contain my laughter by the end of this. 

I took my questions back from Freddy and thanked him for his help and then moved to the next chair so I could interview pitcher Daniel Davidson. I found out several interesting things about him, including his pregame ritual is to get dressed from right to left. Right sock on first, right leg in pants first, right arm, etc. He also has a little daughter that he spends all of his offseason with. 

Continuing to move clockwise around the table I came to pitcher Mike MacDonald. The card game was evidently getting too intense to multitask playing and talking. It's almost comical how seriously these games are taken, but we are talking about professional athletes. Competitiveness is second nature. It was the tie-breaking game, so he politely asked me to wait. I would have loved to stay around as a spectator, but opening pitch was rapidly approaching, which meant time for me to start other work in the press box. So I had to come back another day when they returned from the road.

I finished my player interviews last week, or at least caught up on them. When I found Mike again, he was watching the NFL draft with some of his teammates, so getting his undivided attention took a little time. He eventually started toward some chairs and prepared himself to do the interview with a smile on his face.

I thought it would be the average run-of-the-mill Q&A session, but I caught myself laughing second question into it.

Question: What do you enjoy doing during the offseason?

Answer: I coach baseball clinics... and make sprinkles.

My reaction: Huh?

Maybe it is because I've grown up in Utah my entire life and we have our own unusual terminology for stuff, but I was honestly drawing a blank on what a sprinkle was. Simple enough, it turns out they are cupcakes with sprinkles on them. I also found out he enjoys making them a lot because he had brought a plate of them in that day and offered one to me. I didn't enjoy a sprinkle this time around, but I might be tempted the next time a batch of them are roaming around in the clubhouse.

Heather Harrison/Salt Lake Bees