Shortly after 7 a.m. in a darkened photo studio at Pirate City, A.J. Burnett was half-dressed. He wore a yellow Pirates jersey, the top button undone, but shorts instead of baseball pants.

On his wrist, almost blending in with the myriad tattoos on his forearms, he wore a purple band that read, in white lettering, "Be Unstoppable."

"My wife got me going to boot camp this winter," he said, and it was there, at the hour-long fitness classes, that he found the band. "This is perfect. After every day in boot camp, they huddle up and say, 'Unstoppable.' That should be our motto, too. Unstoppable."