The Red Sox Play A Lot Of Fortnite, Have To Remind Themselves To Eat

Like pretty much everyone else on the planet right now, members of Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox play a lot of Fortnite. A new piece from Jen McCaffrey at The Athletic shines a light on just how popular the game is among the team.

Red Sox pitcher David Price gave an example of how committed the team is to Fortnite. "Let's say we get back at 11 PM from a game, we'll play until 1 AM, 1:30 AM, 2 AM depending on what time our game is the next day," Price, who signed a seven-year, $217 million contract with the Sox in 2015, said in the piece (which is behind a paywall), according to NESN.

Price added that he and other teammates are so wrapped up in Fortnite that they have to remind themselves to eat. "We have to make sure, 'All right we've got to eat. Let's take 30 minutes, eat some lunch, and see you back in 30.' But you can lose track of time whenever you're playing it."

According to McCaffrey, a good number of Red Sox players enjoy Fortnite. In addition to Price, Heath Hembree, Craig Kimbrel, Chris Sale, Eduardo Rodriguez, Xander Bogaerts, Matt Barnes, Joe Kelly, J.D. Martinez, and Carson Smith all play the unthinkably popular battle royale game.

According to Hembree, Carson Smith is the strongest Fortnite player. The teammates often play Squads, and Smith leads the way. "We play teams of four so we just try to make sure Carson’s on our team and we just follow his lead and he’ll win us battles," Hembree explained. "Carson kind of takes over every game."

Another interesting element to this story is that Price, one of the Red Sox's best pitchers, missed his start against the New York Yankees this week due to minor carpal tunnel syndrome. Some are suggesting his gaming might be to blame, but Red Sox manager Alex Cora doesn't think so.

If the Red Sox were struggling, stories about their gaming habits might not go over so well. But the team has a record of 25-10, which is good for a share of the best record in baseball as of May 9.

In other Fortnite news, Avengers: Infinity War bad guy Thanos is now in the game as part of a limited-time mode. For more, check out GameSpot's video above that shows off how and where to get Thanos' super-powerful gauntlet.