CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ Among the fans waiting outside the player entrance to BB&T Ballpark or the Charlotte Knights' bus on the road, a couple of shrewd autograph seekers have started bringing an item to barter for one White Sox prospect's signature.
As reliever Zack Burdi recounted it, Yoan Moncada will make the transaction every time.
"If there's no Twinkies, sometimes he'll be like, 'I don't want to sign today,' " Burdi said. "But if there's a Twinkie there, he'll go straight for it."
Phenoms sometimes come with legends, and before he has played 10 games in the major leagues, Moncada, a 21-year-old Cuban infielder, already has a tall tale tied to an iconic American snack cake.
The story goes that Moncada, navigating life in the U.S. for the first time a couple of years ago, consumed an obscene number of Twinkies upon falling in love at first taste. Eighty-five in one week, one magazine story said. Two hundred, another article reported.
White Sox director of conditioning Allen Thomas, who worked this spring with Moncada after he arrived from the Red Sox in the Chris Sale trade, scoffs when he hears the outrageous numbers. Moncada's chiseled 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame makes it hard to believe he consumes much junk food.
Moncada admits he did, at one time, overindulge in the spongy cakes. He is unable to confirm a number eaten, except to say, "I know it was a lot."
"It was something I tried for the first time, and you start enjoying it, you keep on trying it," he said through an interpreter. "But I'm not so much into it as I was before."
The Charlotte fans might not have much longer to make the Twinkie trades anyway. It could be soon that Moncada leaves minor-league ballparks for the last time.
