Spend enough time around Major League Baseball and you see the same faces at the game’s major events. The national media and baseball executives form a fraternity where everybody seems to know everybody on a first-name basis.

That doesn’t mean just at the ballpark. You see this in airports, in hotels and in restaurants.

While it is a privilege and pleasure to be at these events, life on the road isn’t easy. Most journalists arrive at the park around four hours before game time and work until early hours of the morning. This plays havoc with eating habits. Most grab a good lunch before heading to the ballpark, then grab a snack after finishing work.

This is not good for the waistline, this eating right before going to bed, as we all know. So a good many sleep a little late, then head to the fitness center in the hotel by mid-morning, or go for a long walk or jog.

So imagine this sight Thursday morning at a downtown St. Louis hotel. It’s about 10:30 a.m. Central time when your MLB.com correspondent walks into the fitness room. There are three others already there in various states of sweat. One is Peter Gammons of ESPN. Another is Steve Lyons, the FOX TV analyst. The third is former Major League umpire Jim McKean, who’s now an umpire supervisor for MLB.

Needless to say, the old baseball stories were flying around the room. After all, that’s what a fraternity is all about. — Paul Bodi / MLB.com