By Joe Noga - cleveland.com

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Cal Quantrill is known for his clubhouse card playing skills.

CLEVELAND — Nine Guardians home games prior to the All-Star break were postponed by rain or nasty weather. That’s a lot of waiting around in the clubhouse on days when there’s not much to do besides strike up a spirited game of table tennis, or watch José Ramírez slay the competition in Mario Kart.

Unless you play cards. In that case, the young Guardians are more than willing to offer you a seat at the table and a chance to take your money.

“We abuse the card table with this team,” said reliever Eli Morgan. “It’s more fun time to chill with each other. We don’t mind it.”

A seat at the card table gives players a chance to stay sharp mentally during what could be hours of delays, or between games of a doubleheader, and naturally the competitive juices start flowing once the game is afoot.

“When you’ve got this many sub-30-year-olds in one locker room, it’s kind of just how we work,” said right-hander Cal Quantrill. “Everything’s a competition. Catch play is a competition, fielding is a competition. I’m sure they feel the same way in the batting cage. So this just follows naturally.”

Cleveland’s competitiveness has certainly shown this season as evidenced by the club’s 19 come-from-behind wins, including four walk-offs and a couple of dramatic late-inning rallies against teams like the White Sox and Twins.

The competitive fire for some of those comebacks, though, is reflected at the clubhouse tables where cutthroat card games take place on a daily basis. And nobody loves dealing a good hand — and talking smack about it — more than Quantrill.

“We have had too many rain delays, and I am winning at cards in the clubhouse,” Quantrill said in a matter-of-fact tone before chuckling to himself. “It makes me feel like a little bit of a degenerate.”

More than any other player on the roster, Quantrill’s skill (and success) at the card table makes him the target of his teammates, particularly Morgan.

“I like beating people at the thing they like doing the most,” Quantrill said. “Eli loves playing cards. So beating Eli at cards is the most rewarding thing that can happen for me during a rain delay.”

Morgan, who pitched at Gonzaga, is far less brash than his Stanford-educated counterpart, but quietly says he appreciates the budding rivalry. He’ll also tell you that he’s a much better card player than Quantrill.

“Winning Cal’s money is the sweetest victory,” Morgan said with a confident grin.

When the storm clouds gather, all sorts of games are on the table. The Guardians play poker, thirteen and euchre the most. Non-standard deck games such as Monopoly Deal are also popular, and allow a chance for other players to flex their skills.

“The two Canadians (Quantrill, Josh Naylor) are really good at Monopoly Deal,” said Austin Hedges, who can frequently be found holding court pregame at the card table. “Cal and Naylor are really good, and that keeps you pretty sharp. Once we get on the bird (team flight), Bryan Shaw and Luke Maile are quite the card sharks, I’ll give ‘em that.”

Maile and Quantrill became such adept euchre partners that they had to split up at one point because they were so skilled at reading each other’s signs. Not surprising for a catcher and his pitcher.

Manager Terry Francona said he’s not surprised that Maile employed the slow play at the start of the season.

“He really knows how to play,” Francona said. “He kind of sandbagged a little bit when he first came in. He acted like he didn’t know how. But he knows what he’s doing.”

Francona, meanwhile, has a cribbage board always ready on his desk, and the door to his manager’s office is always open. Quantrill said he recently learned how to play Francona’s favorite game, but was not yet ready to challenge his skipper.

“I’m scared to go into his office,” Quantrill said. “I don’t want to get beat by my manager. That’d hurt the pride.”

Francona is not oblivious to all of the card chatter that goes on in the clubhouse before each game. He knows Quantrill’s reputation and his penchant for talking trash. The manager is more than willing to add another cribbage convert to a list that has included Shaw and Josh Tomlin in the past.

“I said ‘I will teach you, just go get your wallet,’” Francona said. “That slowed him down a little bit.”

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