By Michael Marcantonini We’re currently in an era in which Major League Baseball teams are spending more time and money than ever before in a variety of areas to improve their respective organizations. That means investing in advanced scouting and data, weight training and fitness, marketing and promotional efforts, and more. That “more” category could go on forever, as individual organizations all have certain areas of improvement they’re prioritizing to build championship contenders. For the Pittsburgh Pirates, that “more” category includes health and nutrition, and not just at the Major League level, but all levels of the minor leagues as well. Even the casual baseball fan understands that life in the minors is largely different from a Major League lifestyle, and one of the biggest separators is food. The Pirates are at the forefront of baseball’s nutrition revolution; They’re quickly re-writing the standards for minor league ball players when it comes to consistent access to substantial, healthy meals throughout a long season. Every Pirates minor league affiliate has its own nutrition assistant responsible for carrying out this mission. Jesus Raya, a native of El Paso, Texas who earned a Bachelor’s degree in culinary nutrition from Johnson and Wales University in Denver, Colorado, spent the 2019 season working with the Pirates as the sports nutrition assistant with the Double-A Altoona Curve in the Eastern League. “I’m in charge of getting the guys fueled up throughout the day,” Raya said in an interview toward the end of the 2019 season. That meant planning out multiple meals a day for every homestand, shopping for the entire team essentially every morning before a home game, cooking a pre and postgame meal for every home game, and overseeing the overall health and nutrition of the team throughout the 140-game season. For Raya, planning a week-long homestand menu took about two to three days while a shorter homestand of three of four games required a couple hours of brainstorming. After gathering all the food he needed for the day, Raya would then prepare a light pre-game meal for the team followed by a heartier, high-protein, high-carbs postgame meal. Keep in mind, that’s one man cooking two meals a day--and also providing in-between-meal snacks--for more than 30 guys at a time when you count at least 25 players, four coaches, a trainer, a strength coach, a video coordinator, a baseball operations assistant and roving organization instructors. “You almost can’t put it into words what he’s done,” said Curve outfielder, Jared Oliva. “Just the preparation he’s done, in terms of coming up with the menu for the week, making all the runs to the grocery store, getting what he thinks is necessary but also what we want, and kind of collaborating and making it fun during the year.” Oliva mentioned how Raya kept the daily meals new and fresh and made food combinations more appetizing to get guys to buy in. “The biggest thing that I’ve been dealing with is just picky eaters, honestly,” Raya said. “Just trying to make foods that are familiar to them but doing like a little healthy twist is always something good and it’s always a challenge for me, but it’s fun.” The Pirates minor league nutrition assistants kept a group chat during the season so they could help each other with food planning and preparation ideas. They also worked closely with Allison Maurer, director of sports nutrition for the Pirates, and Tomas Membreño, executive chef at the Pirate City complex in Bradenton, Florida, to improve nutrition around the organization. “It’s non-stop. They’re always getting better, they’re always getting more insight from players, they’re working on offseason manuals for people who like to meal prep,” said Oliva, a seventh-round pick in 2017, the year the Pirates started their current organizational nutrition plan. Spreading the blueprint for a healthy life hits close to home for Raya, who became interested in a career in nutrition because he’s lost multiple family members to health complications. “I wanted to take the next step in showing people that food is medicine, and I want to show them that eating the proper foods can help you throughout your day and you don’t have to rely on McDonald’s and fast food to satisfy you,” Raya said. He’s done just that as the man in charge of feeding and fueling the Pirates’ Double-A affiliate, even if it hasn’t been an easy task. “Learning everything, even with these guys at a high caliber, learning their niches and what they like to eat is very intriguing. It’s actually been challenging for me but also something really motivating to do, and do some more research and getting them to the next level." Raya, who is of Mexican descent and grew up in southern Texas, says Mexican food and barbecue are two of his favorites to cook. As for crowd favorites in the Altoona clubhouse, quesadillas, ribs and salmon were always big hits. Raya asked for suggestions from the team throughout the season to help with his homestand meal planning, which had a strong influence on the day-to-day menu. On certain days, it was clear there wouldn’t be many leftovers, if any. For example, pitching coach Joel Hanrahan enjoyed barbecue days, especially when there were ribs or brisket. “He’s always the first one in line,” Raya said. And Oliva made sure to mention one pregame meal right away when asked what he and his teammates liked the most. “Everyone loves quesadilla day” he said. Oliva then rattled off a list of some meals and snacks Raya prepared for the Curve during the season.
“He made steaks postgame, fish, he made some lamb, which not many guys knew of,” Oliva said. “Everything he’s done from just putting out fresh fruit, making really good yogurt...the menu items just go on and on: pasta, salads, just constantly evolving what he’s done.” “I’m proud to say that they’ve liked everything that I’ve cooked, so they’re always expecting something good out of me, which is cool [because] I can set a high bar for myself, which is great,” Raya said. A handful of Curve players spoke with Raya toward the end of the 2019 season about future eating plans. Whether they were looking for tips on intermediate fasting, watching their carbohydrate intake, how to fuel for the offseason or just healthy snacking for a cross-country drive home, Raya was there to help. Some of his advice based on the players’ questions? Go for water instead of sugary drinks, get a side salad or fruit with a burger instead of fries, pack snacks for between meals. The advice sounds simple, but not everyone can offer those tips; hearing it from a trained professional is invaluable. “The [players] who have approached me are really liking the results that they’ve had throughout the season and they want to maintain that because they know it helps them play better, and it’s been seen on the field,” Raya said. Like a professional in any industry, Raya has invested so much time into building his passion into a career. Six-hour labs, four days a week in college learning about nutrition, recipe development and how to feed athletes, led to his opportunity with the Pirates. “[There were] so many different types of things that I did to prepare myself for this and I’m glad I got to do this because it’s opening the door for me in all aspects,” Raya said. “Not just in nutrition, but food as well.” Ask any player, coach or team personnel member who came through Altoona this season about the high-quality food they were provided and had access to in the clubhouse and they’ll certainly give you a positive review. Oliva, who spent the entire 2019 season with the Curve, knows as well as anyone: “It’s like fine dining every night for us.” When was the last time you heard a minor leaguer refer to a clubhouse spread as “fine dining” without sarcasm? Probably never. That’s because the Pirates put an emphasis on fueling their ball players at all levels, putting them in a position to reach their potential on the field because of what they eat off the field. With all the work the Pirates sports nutrition team puts in throughout the grind of a season, there has to be some burnout, right? “Surprisingly, no,” Raya said. “I love what I do, I love cooking and yeah, there are some days where you feel tired, you feel exhausted...but just the faces of the players and the coaches when they eat my food and they tell me how good everything is and how delicious it is, that I’m cooking Big-League food for a Double-A team, that keeps me motivated and that keeps me going.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
My WritingI use this page to post any feature stories and columns I write in my free time that aren't affiliated with another publication. Archives
March 2020
|