Does this count as a quasi bizarre baseball injury, because if so this is a gem.
Reds formidable closer Aroldis Chapman blew a save on Sunday vs the Phillies. The Reds entered the 9th inning leading 2-1 until Erik Kratz and Freddy Galvis both hit solo homers off Chapman and won 3-2 in walkoff fashion.
During the Spanish language broadcast of the game Phillies announcer Rickie Ricardo hinted that Cuban pastries (yes) were to blame for Chapman’s poor outing.
“Aroldis Chapman, since he arrived in the U.S. and on a major league team, he has become a friend of mine, and as I do for many Cuban players they always ask me—there is a little Cuban bakery up near where I live in the Cuban strong hold of Union City, New Jersey,” Ricardo told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Monday. “They cook this little Cuban pastry, which is a flaky-crust pasty with cream cheese and guava and it’s baked, and it’s absolutely delicious. Now, if you eat more than two of these you’re clogging up your arteries—you’re a stroke waiting to happen! Well, Chapman asked me on Friday night after the game to stop by the bakery and pick up a box of 50. For example, Livan Hernandez, guys like that—even Chooch, guys on our team, they’ll put 10-15 of these things away with a couple of glasses of milk. It’s equivalent of the Krispy Kreme donuts when they come right out of the oven, it’s that kind of a thing.”
“Could you imagine cream cheese and guava on a baked pastry? Well Chapman asked me for a box of 100, two boxes of 50. When I saw him on Sunday morning before the game, he was in the club house, he had just eaten about 18 of them. He couldn’t breathe! I looked at my partner, I said, ‘he’s ripe for the taking today.”
It’s hard to argue how eating 18 of anything wouldn’t affect an athlete before a game, so I think we should go on ahead and issue Aroldis a slight pass.
Sounds like the standard baseball diet to me…Babe Ruth would approve.
H/T: The Outside Corner