Photo credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Photo credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Mike Vorkunov of NJ.com details a dubious record set by the Mets during their last trip to Philadelphia (before this weekend), on April 30, when their game against the Phils was rained out. They ate 103 cheesesteaks that day:

This April, on the last day, as they sat marooned in that clubhouse, awaiting rain to pass to see if they could play that night, and then waiting to leave after the game was rained out, the Mets decided to set their aim for the team record for most cheesesteaks eaten in a day.

Cheesesteaks are Philadelphia’s delicacy — a greasy stuffing of beef and lining of cheese inside a sub. Visiting teams are welcome to eat as many as they want or can, with the meal made for them at the ballpark, and a scoreboard tracks their feats. There are individual and team records for a single day or series.

On April 30, over some ten hours, the Mets ate 103, they say, setting the new single-day team record. Though baseball may be a sequence of individualized events, this was the work of a collective. It was planned two cheesesteaks per person, or more for those that were willing to help out where other teammates could not eat their share.

Wait, wait, wait. There’s an ongoing competition in the visiting clubhouse to see which team can eat the most greasy, fatty, artery-clogging sandwiches… and the Phillies are still seven games under .500 at home? HOW IS THIS HAPPENING?! How… is this even a thing? I mean, I love the attempt by CBP staffers to try to KILL opposing teams, but how have I never heard about this? What, WHAT IS THIS?

Anyway, 103 cheesesteaks spread across 25 players plus coaches, trainers and others in the traveling party is impressive, but it’s only 2-3 per person. It isn’t that many. Still, it’s gross.

Not surprisingly, it’s reckless Mets bullpen catcher Eric Langill – who was arrested for DUI in 2012 after he crashed his car into a fountain – who holds the individual record:

Though impressive, perhaps it should not have been surprising. When it comes to eating cheesesteaks, the Mets are the 1961 Yankees, and their bullpen catchers, Dave Racaniello and Eric Langill, are the Mantle and Maris.

Last season, from April 8-10, Langill set the three-game series record by eating 17 cheesesteaks. He broke Racaniello’s record of 14 — which had stood for years.

The cheesesteak eating competition is not without rules and calls for prior planning. To viably set a record, cheesesteaks can only be eaten after getting to the ballpark until batting practice, from the end of batting practice until the game begins, and for an hour window after the game has concluded. There are moratoriums during batting practice and the game, likely, so that players and coaches can proceed with their day jobs.

And so that Bartolo Colon doesn’t cause a red meat shortage in the Western Hemisphere.

via Philebrity