POWER OF THE PENNE.(how food made by one Italian restaurant affects New York Mets baseball players)(Brief Article)

Gino's, in Yorkville, is one of those modest Italian restaurants, more pizzeria than trattoria, that are rarely frequented by people outside the neighborhood. A couple of weeks ago, its co-owner Phil Mangiafridda got a takeout order from one of his newer regulars, the Mets pitcher Shawn Estes, who was preparing for the biggest start of his major-league career--a game the next day at Shea against the Yankees and, more important, against Roger Clemens, whose notorious beaning of Mike Piazza two years ago had Mets fans demanding vengeance. To fortify himself, Estes wanted the usual: penne vodka with grilled chicken.

Estes had the penne that night, and the game of his life the next afternoon--five hits, no runs, eleven strikeouts--in an 8-0 drubbing of the Yanks. While Estes did not, as Mets fans had urged, throw the ball at Clemens (he threw it behind him), he did manage to club a home run, the first ever off Clemens by a fellow-pitcher. It was but the latest manifestation of the peculiar abilities conferred on certain ballplayers by the penne at Gino's.

"About two months ago, this guy comes in and he orders the penne vodka with grilled chicken," Vinny Mangiafridda, Phil's brother, said the other day. "I tell him it's too early and the kitchen isn't open yet--we're just doing pizza and sandwiches. So he says, 'But Al sent me. I'm Shawn Estes. Al said to order what he eats.' "

Al was Al Leiter, the ace of the Mets' pitching staff. "Al comes in before every night start," Vinny said. "And he always gets the penne vodka with grilled chicken. Every time. Al's the best. Him, his wife, and even his kids." Leiter is thirty-six years old and has been in the majors for sixteen years, but he remains one of the better pitchers in the National League. Last week, he gave up just one run--and got two big hits--in a win over the Twins at Shea. ("IT'S ALL LEIT NOW," the Post declared.) "Penne vodka's my dish," he said in the clubhouse the next day. "It's worked. It's had good games. When Shawn got here, he asked me, 'Where's a good place to get pasta?' I said, ...