As Giants turn to Ryan Vogelsong in Game 4, Giants fans turn to burgers
SAN FRANCISCO — After the Giants’ lost Game 3 of the World Series and confirmed they’d be sending Ryan Vogelsong to the mound in Saturday’s Game 4, Sandra Young knew where she needed to go: Super Duper Burger.
This wasn’t an “eat your feelings” moment, it was Young keeping up a tradition that Giants fans have been indulging in since their last World Series run. They eat for Vogelsong. The Giants pitcher eats the same meal the night before his starts and fans copy him.
It used to be Rally Enchiladas. Then it was Rally Spaghetti for a short time. Now, it’s Rally Burgers, specifically from Super Duper Burger, a San Francisco-based chain that uses locally sourced ingredients and has seven locations in the Bay Area. Vogelsong told For The Win’s Ted Berg during the National League Championship Series that Super Duper Burger had become his new pre-start meal. Vogelsong later confirmed it to MLB Network too, further spreading the Super Duper Burger word around S.F.
“It was spaghetti for a while, but I ditched that, too,” Vogelsong told For The Win. “What’s on my Super Duper Burger? Jalapenos, grilled onions, and their sauce they put on there. That’s it.”
That sent Giants fan Young, her son Cal and his fiancée Amy to Super Duper Burger for the first time Friday night. Cal copied Vogelsong’s order exactly.
“Once we learned he was on to Super Duper Burgers, we made it a point to go last night after the game,” Young said.
They ate Rally Enchiladas in 2012, and even in this year’s divisional series before the world found out about Vogelsong’s shift to burgers. Does she think it works?
“When he wins, it helps,” she says with a laugh. “No, it’s just for fun. My son and I are so into Giants baseball, and his fiancée now too. It’s just another fun thing we can do together.”
They certainly aren’t the only ones — Giants fans are heading into Super Duper Burger in the hours before Game 4. Others are eating their own burgers and spreading the #RallyBurger/#RallyBurgers hashtag.
Super Duper Burger, meanwhile, is loving both the attention and “helping” the Giants.
“We are so excited to be Vogelsong’s go-to burger,” said Super Duper Burger owner Adriano Paganini. “As a local business, we’re all about supporting the home team and providing them with delicious burgers.”
Added operations manager Ed Onas: “We’re really starting to see this catch on. People are ordering Vogelsong’s pre-game RallyBurger in solidarity. Hope we don’t run out of jalapeños, grill onions and Super Sauce today.”
On the long list of superstitions sports fans use to help their teams win, eating burgers might just be the tastiest. You lucked out, Giants fans.
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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
