WooSox Photo/Ashley Green / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Rookie Boston Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony recently made the mistake of talking about coffee with pitcher Walker Buehler at Spring Training. Because that innocent conversation turned into a logistical nightmare for him and rookie shortstop Marcelo Mayer when, the next day, they had to take, buy, and deliver 76 different orders of coffee for the entire Red Sox organization.
“I thought it was a joke,” Anthony told Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic, “until it wasn’t.”
It was not. Walker Buehler made sure the prospects got coffee for everyone from the coaches to the clubhouse staffers. There were so many orders that Anthony solicited help from his roommate, another top Boston prospect, Marcelo Mayer.
“He’s like, ‘We have to get coffee for every single person in the org,’” Mayer said. “And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He shows me a list. There were 40 coffee orders already.”
Making matters worse was the fact that everyone had their own twist on how they wanted their coffee made.
Luckily for the Starbucks they chose, the rookies drove there the night before and gave them a heads up.
“I’m like, ‘You better bring your A squad tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. because we’re ordering 76 coffees,’” Mayer said. “They weren’t just all black coffees, everyone had a separate order.”
The Starbucks staff came through, as Anthony and Mayer got up at 4:30 a.m. to place the 76 different orders. “They did a very good job of pumping them out,” Anthony said. “It was crazy.
“You’d think they did that every morning,” Mayer said. “They were really good.”
The only snag was that Anthony had to read off each individual order and pay for them one at a time so that each cup would have a person’s name on it. Naturally, when placing 76 different orders en masse at a Starbucks at the crack of dawn got the attention of Anthony’s credit card company. After about 20 orders, his credit card was declined, forcing Mayer to pay for the rest.
Unfortunately, after finishing the more than $600 order, Mayer realized that he should have used the Starbucks app to pay for it all. “I would have had free coffee for a month,” Mayer said.
Transporting 19 trays of coffee also wasn’t easy. “We were literally driving to the field with our hazard lights on, going like 15 mph because we had 76 coffees in the back. It was honestly pretty funny,” Mayer said.
On the plus side, at least they didn’t have to dress up like penguins.
🐧 If you wanna be penguin, a penguin you shall be! Happy Rookie Dress Up Day 😁 pic.twitter.com/wu6oI735h8
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 23, 2024