{"id":680072,"date":"2026-04-21T00:12:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/680072\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T00:12:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:12:29","slug":"mobile-gaming-brings-baltimore-orioles-closer-in-surprise-team-building-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/680072\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobile Gaming Brings Baltimore Orioles Closer in Surprise Team-Building Activity"},"content":{"rendered":"

However you can build team chemistry, you lean into it.<\/p>\n

And if that means a few Clash Royale battles in the clubhouse, so be it.<\/p>\n

So far, the Baltimore Orioles have had a relatively up-and-down 2026 campaign. Head into a new week of play, the team is recovering following a 3-1 series loss to the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field. <\/p>\n

But while the team’s general struggles on the mound snagged some of the attention, a more niche story took the headlines.<\/p>\n

On Monday, April 20, Jacob Calvin Meyer released an article for the Baltimore Sun<\/a>, detailing the new obsession that is taking over the Orioles’ clubhouse: a mobile video game called Clash Royale. It’s a popular multiplayer mobile strategy game that has nearly 700 million downloads across its lifespan. Players can either battle one another, or work together in teams, to climb the different ranking systems in the game. <\/p>\n

While many might immediately raise the roof, arguing that the Orioles must start winning games and stop playing childish games, power-hitting 24-year-old Gunnar Henderson says it helps entertain him. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just something different,\u201d Henderson said in his interview with the Baltimore Sun.<\/a> \u201cYou spend all your time playing baseball, so just having something else to kind of bond over is good to have. It can only help the clubhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, little things like playing a game together can allow the team to bond, detox and reset their mental headspace.<\/p>\n

For a team like Baltimore, that is still going through the acclimation phase after bringing in a few youngsters and veterans this offseason, most notably first baseman Pete Alonso<\/a>, these types of practices allow them to spend time doing things other than playing baseball. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just another way that we can kind of mesh and spend time getting to know each other,\u201d starting pitcher Shane Baz said<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s just being competitive. All of us love to do that. We\u2019re all really competitive, and I think it just helps us stay in that mindset.<\/p>\n

“All of us just love to compete, whether it\u2019s literally anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when one guy starts playing, and then another joins him, it’s hard not to notice the commotion. According to Meyer’s article, Baz said that Baltimore’s clubhouse gets load quick, especially when the competitive juices start flowing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were playing each other and it was kind of getting loud in the clubhouse, so guys would ask what we were playing,\u201d Baz said. \u201cIt started quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Orioles start trending in the right direction and hop back over .500, it may be hard to tell the players to put down the phone. After all, you’d rather not hold the team back from reaching their full potential, even if it involves tossing a goblin barrel on another teammate’s tower.<\/p>\n

Credit for the quotes of this article go fully to the Baltimore Sun<\/a>\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However you can build team chemistry, you lean into it. And if that means a few Clash Royale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,2538,5,4,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-680072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimoreorioles","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-orioles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116439809127596022","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}