Before Game 5, Joe Maddon had a pizza party with Mom, Terry Francona had a 3 a.m. ice cream feast
Eating meals is important. Not eating meals is inadvisable according to health professionals.
Healthy, normal dietary habits notwithstanding, being in the World Series is about as high-stress as things can get for a baseball manager. Sometimes, you just need to do some serious snacking.
After the Indians' 7-2 win over the Cubs in Game 4 on Saturday night, what do you imagine Cubs manager Joe Maddon did? Well, considering his mother, whom he refers to as "Beanie," made it from Pennsylvania to Wrigley Field for the game after a series of travel adventures, they enjoyed a postgame pizza party into the wee hours:
"Yeah, well, Beanie, we were up till 2:00 in the morning having a pizza party last night. And then she had to get up at 4:00 to catch her plane to go back to Pa., which she should be back in Hazleton by now."
So, did Beanie offer Joe some sage motherly advice about the task he and his Cubs face? Not really:
"No advice from Beanie. She was very happy. I guess all she could talk about with my sister is the car ride from the airport with the cops. That's all she's talking about right now. So I love the fact she's giving me a hard time last night that we haven't sent enough stuff back for our event in December, for the banquet. I'm getting a hard time. Not enough signed stuff being sent. That was the topic of conversation last night, Beanie, and I'm just trying to relax here a bit."
As far as his efforts to keep things simplified after a tough game like Game 3, Maddon likes to clear his head as best he can:
"But honestly, I was talking to somebody else, game over last night, I like to drop things. There's not a whole lot to overthink right now, I don't think. I prefer putting things down, and I believe if you do that, then the right thoughts will come to you sometimes. So I did that."
Meanwhile, Indians manager Terry Francona -- who enters Sunday night's Game 5 on the cusp of a potential World Series title (8 p.m. ET, FOX) -- had trouble sleeping in his hotel ... so he called up room service for some sugary assistance:
Francona had trouble sleeping last night, so at 3:30 am he called room service and ordered $44 worth of ice cream.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) October 30, 2016
$44 of ice cream. That's probably a pretty delicious late-night snack, and it's Francona's apparent method of choice in dealing with World Series insomnia.
Hey, whatever works -- and given Francona's penchant for late-night frozen treats, we know it works.
The Cubs ended up winning Game 5, 3-2, and will play on Tuesday in Cleveland in a Game 6 (7:30 p.m. ET air time, 8 ET game time on FOX). And also, yes, this means Pizza > Ice Cream.
