Tuesday, May 5, 2009

PB&J with a Side of Crackers please


With the schedule of playing a game basically every single day and from having to be at the ball park normally around 6 hours before the game even starts, the question might be asked, 'what does a player do for food?' The answer my friends is what we have grown fondly to call ' the spread.' This is what they lay out for us to eat around 5 o'clock after we hit batting practice during our hour or so break before we have to go back out for the game. At home, our clubbie conjures up a hot entree' for us normally in the likes of mac n' cheese, sloppy joes, chicken sandwiches or taco salad. This is a set menu that is repeated every home stand on a 4 game rotation. On the road we aren't so lucky; given there are no ovens or microwaves in the visiting locker rooms, we are thrust into the world of PB& J, raisins, cheese crackers, pretzels, granola bars, apples, and oranges. But unlike the home games where this meal changes every day, for the road games we get the same 'spread' for every single game, every single night, throughout the entire season. Now I don't know about you, but after awhile you learn to just eat because you need to as opposed to liking it. Throughout the seasons I have learned to try and mix it up as much as I can. One day I might mix the grapes with the pretzels, and another the crackers with the raisins, and at times I might even hold my head high in view of my 'Chef Boyardee' abilities to keep such a stale meal fresh, but the one thing that I can't escape...the PB&J. It's the no questions asked, main dish of our meal on the road. 70 days of 'the spread' does wonders to your taste buds (and also your waste line), but in the end it's just another part of what makes this what it is and I'm grateful for the free meal. But for some reason I just hear my mom in the back of my mind asking me if I want rectangles or triangles in my lunch box that day....

1 comment:

Us said...

Parker, Ipromise we won't serve you pb&j when you come visit!!