Chipotle chicken burritos are delicious, and Minor League Baseball players know it. They also know they can buy one with a drink for about $8.25.
As a result, young pitchers and catchers around the country eat at Chipotle and often—after workouts, during downtime, and sometimes even before they’re about to pitch.
“Nothing better than chipotle after leaving the field!” Wil Myers (@WilMyers) tweeted in February.
New York City sportswriter and self-proclaimed “Burrito enthusiast” Ted Berg noticed this trend in February when he started Minor Leaguers Tweeting About Chipotle, a Tumblr page that documents every time a minor league baseball player mentions the burrito in some capacity.
Berg explained the page last month on his personal site, tedquarters.net:
“The best part about being in the Minor Leagues is that they pay you money to play baseball. The worst part is just about everything else: The constant travel, the brutal schedule, and trying to keep yourself fed on a small per diem.
I imagine this is why all the Minor Leaguers on Twitter seem to spend so much time Tweeting about Chipotle. The restaurants are everywhere, they’re consistent, and they provide a hell of a lot of food for a reasonable price. Plus, it’s probably better than most of the fast and cheap options available on the road, and the burritos are packed with protein for the hungry young athlete.”
That would explain why shortstop Myke Jones gets so transfixed on rushing to a Chipotle the moment he gets out of the dentist chair or outfielder Steve McQuail ate Chipotle five times in a single week.
Only in its fifth week of operation, Minor Leaguers Tweeting About Chipotle still has a pretty small reach—only second baseman Matt Antonelli’s tweet about eschewing “all these restaurants around town” in favor of three straight days at Chipotle has racked up more than four notes.
But if Berg keeps at it, this Tumblr could one day hit the big leagues.
Photo from JBTaylor