Yankees Take a Break to Brush Up on Their Comedic Skills TAMPA, Fla. - The Yankees went through their annual off-field team-bonding exercise Thursday, an annual spring rite that Manager Joe Girardi plans for his players to increase team camaraderie. In this instance, the players and coaches loaded onto buses and went to a comic improvisation theater in nearby Ybor City for an afternoon of role-playing and comedy. Don't laugh. Girardi kept the details of the event secret from the players until they arrived there. "We have different games we're going to play," Girardi said. What they don't realize is, they are the entertainment. The club was open only for the Yankees, so there was no audience other than themselves. Girardi laid out his strategy: the players would be separated into teams and would do skits organized by improv professionals, and the coaches would keep score. I think it's good to get them all together and just see how they interact together, and see the young guys with the veteran guys. Girardi said. I love it. Hours later, the reviews started coming in. "I saw Tex today in a way that I could have never imagined," said pitcher Ivan Nova of first baseman Mark Teixeira. You should have seen him. I couldn't stop smiling. It made me think about how we come from so many different places to become teammates and friends. "I got one quote for you: Mark Teixeira, M.V.P.," said the normally boisterous Nick Swisher. That's all, Swisher said, he would reveal. "I think all of us went in there with an open mind," Swisher continued. To have a great time, and it was just a great team-building exercise. I think that there's a buzz in the locker room that we haven't had in a couple years, and we feel like we've got a pretty good squad. "It's like an old school field trip," he said of Thursday's adventure. We get on the bus, we go somewhere, and the only thing now is that we don't have to sign permission slips. But it's great, skip does such a great job with this. It's something so out of the norm, and I'm a major fan of it.