Tasty pastry glazes over Reds closer
Since he became the Cincinnati Reds’ full-time closer in 2012, Aroldis Chapman has been unflappable.
But on Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia, the Cuban lefthander blew his second save of the season in a 3-2 Phillies victory.
After Cliff Lee (Benton, Arkansas Razorbacks) was picked off first base while pinch-running for Delmon Young, Chapman gave up back-to-back home runs to Erik Kratz and Freddy Galvis in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Phillies Spanish-language broadcaster Rickie Ricardo had a theory on why Chapman was not his typical All-Star self Sunday.
“There is a little Cuban bakery up near where I live in the Cuban stronghold of Union City, New Jersey,” Ricardo told Angelo Cataldi of WIP-AM in Philadelphia on Monday. “They cook this little Cuban pastry, which is a flakycrust pastry with cream cheeseand 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 [Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz], guyson 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.
“When I saw him [Chapman] on Sunday morning before the game, he was in the clubhouse, he had just eaten about 18 of them. He couldn’t breathe! I looked at mypartner, I said, ‘He’s ripe for the taking today.’”
“So there you have it,” wrote Zach Stoloff of NESN.com. “Even Superman has his kryptonite and Chapman’s appears to be pastries of his homeland.” Not so Super Jet
When asked to address running back Mike Goodson’s arrest last week on drug and gun charges in New Jersey, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson told NFL.com the team was on a “fact-finding mission” about Goodson.
“The Jets are about truth, justice and the American way,” Johnson said. “We live by it, we really do. We have a strong credo, very proud people, very intelligent people that work in our building.
We want to avoid the avoidable and I think we do a good job.”
Even Superman can’t save the New York Jets.
He said it
From Miami Herald columnist Greg Cote:
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Sports, Pages 20 on 05/21/2013