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.
“Not great news for the Mets right now. Mark Vientos is out of the game, as (Brett) Baty is in. That’s a pretty expensive chicken tender and fry… $16.39.” – Jason Benetti on the Cardinals-Mets Fox broadcast at Citi Field⚾️🎙️ #MLB pic.twitter.com/OQFoMqeEGy
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 19, 2025
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.
Just a heads up to the Fox broadcasters. You can’t just say “bad news, Mark Vientos is out and Baty is in” and then instead of telling us why, you start commenting on the price of chicken tenders.
Why is he out?
— Annie (@mentalmommy_) April 19, 2025
“Mark Vientos is out of the game, my omelette this morning was $95” wild commentary from the FOX Booth. https://t.co/NbtZELCKve
— The 7 Line (@The7Line) April 19, 2025
this broadcast is unlistenable oh my lord. how are you going to mention that mark vientos just unexpectedly left the game, interrupt yourselves to joke about chicken tenders, and then never return to the vientos story
— stephen (@alsostephenking) April 19, 2025
“The Hindenburg is on fire and it’s crashing! This is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world! Oh, the huma… would you look at the price of those chicken tenders!”
— TonyD3942 (@Td7653) April 20, 2025
Horrible. One sentence for a player being swapped out early, to talking about food and missing calling a double until it drops in, then straight back to food for another whole inning. @MLBONFOX is an embarrassment
— Jesse Pratti (@Jesse_pratti) April 19, 2025
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.
