While New York Mets third baseman Mark Vientos left Saturday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals early with an injury, it couldn’t take the Fox broadcast away from a conversation about a more important topic — food.
When the broadcast returned from commercial break for the top of the fifth inning, viewers saw a montage of food in New York City. After New York pitcher Kodai Senga threw his first pitch of the inning, the camera focused on the menu of one of Citi Field’s concession stands.
Play-by-play man Jason Benetti then quickly updated fans that Vientos was out of the game and was replaced by Brett Baty. But before he could elaborate any more on Vientos’ injury, the conversation returned to food.
“That’s a pretty expensive chicken tender and fry for Adam Wainwright’s dollar,” Benetti said.
“I missed it, what was it?” Wainwright replied.
“$16.39,” Benetti answered. “You’re not spending that.”
The conversation about the cost of chicken tenders and fries at Citi Field not only kept them from talking more about Vientos’ injury but also nearly made them completely miss a double from St. Louis’ Thomas Saggese.
While Benetti did eventually start to call the hit, the conversation quickly returned to food.
“Yeah, New York is great food but not the cheapest,” Wainwright said. “I had a $95 omelette for breakfast this morning.”
Admittedly, $16.39 for chicken tenders and fries and $95 for an omelette is pretty steep. But for several viewers, this was not well received.
After the game, both Vientos and Mets manager Carlos Mendoza indicated that the injury was not serious.
Even knowing that, it’s understandable that a lot of viewers would be annoyed by mentioning an injury without following up — just to talk about food.