Twins Ban Hoverboards in Clubhouse Areas for 2016

Twins catchers and pitchers going over opposing hitters? Sure. Minnesota batters working on their swing? You bet. Players careening around the clubhouse on hoverboards? Not so fast.

That's right, as the Minnesota Twins get set to play their first Spring Training game against the Red Sox on Wednesday, bigger news broke from Fort Meyers, Fla. on Tuesday: Hoverboards have been banned from the Twins clubhouse area this year.

An increasing fad, hoverboards don't actually hover -- they're more a sort of hopped-up skateboard. But their use has led to several high-profile wipe outs and mishaps -- the kind of things the Twins don't want to see happen to any of their players this year. So, the hoverboards are gone.

"They're out," Twins manager Paul Molitor said in this Pioneer-Press story from Minnesota's spring training facility down in Florida. The story says the boards starting making an appearance in the Twins clubhouse late last year. Players would challenge each other to see who could stay on the hoverboard the longest without falling off -- and without suffering an injury.

That's the kind of injury the Twins say they hope to avoid by instituting the ban on the boards this year. "Thankfully nothing happened (last year). It got a little carried away, riding them down to the batting cages and the tunnels underneath. I just eliminated the risk,” Molitor said in the story.

The story also noted that last year's clubhouse ban on smart phones, tablets and other "similar technology" will also remain in place again this year, as well.