Some athletes go to extreme lengths to make it in professional sports, like Ryan Lambert, who ate 900 raw eggs in one month in order to improve his baseball skills.
Clearly, training hard and wanting it more than anyone else is not enough to get ahead in sport. Sometimes, you need a little dietary support, even if it makes for a pretty disgusting source of nutrition.
For Ryan Lambert, it was all worth it, though, as he went from being cut from his college team to being drafted by the Mets.
Ryan Lambert’s unusual diet helped him get drafted by the Mets
Just two years ago, Lambert was deemed not good enough for his college baseball team at Missouri State. But, after being cut from the side, he made some radical changes to give himself an advantage over his peers.
MLB reporter Anthony DiComo has followed this story closely, revealing that Lambert decided to consume 30 raw eggs each day, amounting to 900 per month, in an attempt to increase his pitch speed. Incredibly, it worked.
Lambert managed to get his pitch to around 99mph while practising and uploaded the clip to Twitter/X, which caught the attention of the Oklahoma Sooners. By the time the next MLB draft came around, Lambert was given the opportunity to sign for the Mets, and he’s continued to take his game to the next level since.
He’s now hit a new high of 100.9mph, and while his general pitching stats could be better, he’s still regarded as one of the most promising relief pitchers in the league. Lambert now thinks he can get as fast as 102mph if he keeps working on his throw.
Discussing his bold choice to chug eggs, Lambert said: “Day one, it was an adjustment for sure. But I’m not a chicken. I like a little adversity and challenge. It kind of gets me going.”
Speaking of poultry, Lambert’s extreme diet also included eating a bowl of chicken hearts. However, he has at least reduced his egg intake now to around 10 per day.
Aroldis Chapman’s record pitch is still intact after 15 years
Incredibly, that 100.9mph pitch is still not enough to challenge the greats of the game. Aroldis Chapman, the former Boston Red Sox pitcher, absolutely dominates the charts when it comes to ball speed.
He holds the top two spots, recording a 105.8mph throw back in 2010, and another at 105.7mph in 2016. Ben Joyce, of the Los Angeles Angels is the most recent player to get close to that, with a 105.5mph pitch in 2024.
The rest of the top ten is all Chapman, with multiple pitches at 105.1 and 105 on the dot. Sounds like Ryan Lambert is going to have to bump up that egg quota if he’s going to reach the top of his game.
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