BONDING OVER FOOD

I have a friend in professional baseball pitcher Clay Rapada. I'm friends with him because he's a really nice guy.  Hard working, dedicated to his craft and we share a common interest... we both like food.

By the way, this is now continuing the BYB's "Bonding over" series. This one's about food and Clay.  You can read the others here:

 BONDING OVER STRENGTH

 BONDING OVER A PINT

 BONDING OVER PASSION

 BONDING OVER BASEBALL

 BONDING OVER MUSIC

 BONDING OVER FAMILY

 Anyway, the food jokes between Clay and I have been going on for a while now:

@pada5something Grilled Salmon, Grilled Vegetables and Rice. Your move #BYB #RapadaFoodWars pic.twitter.com/zHFb8jubH4

— Robert Casey (@BleednYankeeBlu) December 5, 2014

@BleednYankeeBlu home made gumbo.. Italian sausage ... Meatballs and shrimp #RapadaFoodWars pic.twitter.com/79ppXYuY8A

— Clay Rapada (@pada5something) December 5, 2014

It's been a fun joke on Twitter. Clay and I tweeting our food to each other with the hashtag, #RAPADAFOODWARS.  I'm a foodie.  I try to eat healthy, but when we tweet each other sometimes the plates are just out of this world awesome. It's been a good give and take.

If you didn't know, I got to know Clay when he came to New York.  But I was a fan of Clay's before that with the Tigers and with Texas, so him being a lefty coming to New York in the Yankees pen was great for me personally. 

Having him interview with us here at Bleeding Yankee Blue was equally great, and I appreciate that we're able to talk from time to time about all kinds of stuff.  Case in point, Bleeding Yankee Blue was the site that broke the news about Clay when he signed a minor league deal with the San Francisco Giants this year.  That was reported incorrectly by MLB Trade Rumors, and then quickly fixed as their facts were wrong:

@MattEddyBA kudos to Eddy for getting the Rapada news out first according to @mlbtraderumors #rollseyes @BleednYankeeBlu had it first.

— Greedy Pinstripes (@GreedyStripes) February 14, 2015

@BleednYankeeBlu @GreedyStripes I had already updated the site, actually. We always research and give proper credit the best we can.

— Jeff Todd (@JA_Todd) February 14, 2015

Read GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE for more on that. Bottom line, Clay told us exclusively (Read CLAY RAPADA SIGNS WITH THE GIANTS!), and while Clay Rapada may not be a big deal in your world, the fact of the matter is BYB is built on friendships, family, kindness and that is why we got the story first, no matter how big or small it may seem.

Clay's one of the good ones, and we follow his career like we follow so many of the other great people and players we chat with here on BYB.  That is why we have this "Bonding over" Series, because in our eyes, it's important to point out who the good folks are.  Guys like Ty Hensley,  the Posadas, the Ankiels, Pete Caldera of the Bergen Record. Even my buddies Charles and Joey Moses and Shane and Lisa Varga.  And so, Clay, this ones for you!

Thanks for being one of the good ones.  Thanks for leading by example, working hard, playing hard and having a solid reputation as being a great dude and an even better teammate.

Keep working bro, and keep tweeting me food pictures, I'm hungry man!

Happy New Year everyone.

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