At Defector, we like weird sports eaters. The demands of elite performance encourage monomania, which is expressed by your various sports freaks as often inviolable, occasionally bizarre food restrictions. Even sports commentators and hot-takers get in on it: Skip Bayless famously eats nothing but sauceless chicken and broccoli, ordered in five-day batches; Jim Nantz religiously throws away the final bite of each halftime hot dog he's ordered as an NFL broadcaster; and Don Cherry took a midday boost from salmon-and-mayo sandwiches ritually aged to a consistency once described by Ron MacLean as "more like a pudding." A true grinder will do profoundly gut-busting things in order to survive and thrive at the upper echelons of North American sports.
For pitcher Ryan Lambert, who is presently working his way up the Mets farm system, this means eating like a champion. A champion mongoose. A mongoose who has discovered a nest full of plover eggs—several, in fact. A mongoose who raids half a dozen nests full of eggs every waking day of their life. Per a report from Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, Lambert "came across an internet video" two years ago, and took from it the message that he should consume 30 raw eggs per day.
"Day 1, it was an adjustment for sure. But I’m not a chicken," Lambert told DiComo, presumably by way of heading off any accusations of cannibalism. "I like a little adversity and challenge. It kind of gets me going." Lambert's commitment to dietary excellence means eating a grilled steak and sweet potato dinner "most days." In a ritual that I am sure makes him extremely popular with his colleagues, Lambert will reportedly sometimes wander the clubhouse dining room "to examine his teammates' plates for nutritional value," poking at them for succumbing to temptation. According to DiComo, last year Lambert ordered "a bowl of chicken hearts" while eating with a teammate in a restaurant.
Our guy is confident that behaving in this way will aid him as a pitcher. His goal, per DiComo, is to top 101 mph on his fastball, and then to pursue 102. For this he apparently needs huge rippling muscles, the regenerative powers of Wolverine, and bowel movements that wobble Richter scales across the continent.
The organization loves this. Per DiComo, Mets director of player development Andrew Christie described Lambert as "the best." They'd like for more of their relievers to order things in restaurants that cause the kitchen staff to make the sign of the cross. "I feel like that is the exact attitude needed to be a high-leverage reliever in the Major Leagues," Christie said. "Exactly."
Having diversified his diet with grilled meat, potatoes, and bowls of professionally prepared fowl viscera, Lambert has reduced his daily egg consumption to a much more moderate "10 or so." Not everyone is cut out to eat thousands of grams of eggs at a time, whatever the potential performance gains. Grapefruit League results will suggest whether this relaxing of Lambert's eggmaxxing leads to a corresponding decline in velocity. In his first appearance, Lambert struck out three hitters and allowed one hit.
Internet videos are not great sources of reliable information. I saw one recently where Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski appeared to knock an apple off a teammate's head with a fastball. It was cleverly faked by a professional video team, important context that will reach maybe a tenth of the people who watched and shared it. Don't do things just because you see them in internet videos! Lambert, who walked more than seven batters per nine innings in his college career, and for whom control remains an issue, must not be allowed to watch the apple video under any circumstances.
[MLB.com]
