Jason Hammel says 'potato chip prescription' worked wonders
Chicago Cubs hurler Jason Hammel credits a bizarre dietary change -- ordered by a team doctor -- with helping him win on Saturday.
Hammel left his last start on July 7 with cramping in his right hand, a recurring ailment, and afterward he says he got a call from a team doctor with a suggestion to try over the All-Sar break.
"For my cramps, if it's a chronic thing, [the doctor] said, 'Potato chips,' because they have a lot of potassium and obviously the sea salt helps retain water. So I focused on that over the break and ate a lot of potato chips, and I think it turned out pretty well. Potato chip prescription ... PCP ... that's what I'm going to try to go with."
Hammel says he ate them over the break and also munched them between innings in the dugout in Saturday's 3-1 win over the Texas Rangers.
Hammel held the Rangers to one run on three hits over six innings.
The Cubs, who struggled in the weeks before the break after spending much of the first half opening a dominating lead, surely hope Hammel has found an elixir in the salty snacks. They'll need all the help they can get as they seek to end a century-plus of title-less misery.
