Dunkin’ Donuts Park, a minor league baseball stadium in Hartford, Connecticut, has completely banned peanuts, a move the organization claims makes it the first to do so in the United States. It’s the latest instance in a growing trend of eliminating peanuts from public spaces. Insert your own “and Cracker Jack” joke here.
USA Today reports that Dunkin’ Donuts Park, home to the Hartford Yard Goats (that name!), will “be the one of the first professional sports venue to go completely—and permanently—peanut-free,” a decision which was made after conversations with local parents. Yard Goats President Tim Restall was affected by stories parents told of kids sitting separately from the other students at school, trick-or-treating with gloves on, and other instances of isolation Restall:
“They can still eat peanuts at home... We want this ballpark to be everyone’s ballpark. ... If we can make their experience at the ballpark normal, but eliminate one food item, it’s the right thing to do.”
A peanut topping for ice cream was eliminated from the stadium’s list of more than 200 food and drink items available for sale, along with the obvious peanuts and Cracker Jack. Management checked to ensure that none of the foods remaining contain peanuts, and bag searches for fans entering the stadium will now include checks for the potentially deadly food. As a result, parents will no longer need to root, root root through their bags to find an Epipen at the stadium.
According to USA Today, the ballpark sold “10,432 bags of peanuts at $4 each and 2,262 boxes of Cracker Jack for $3.75 a pop” in 2018, a total that amounts to “more than $50,000 in snacks.”
And hey, if you live in or near Hartford, you can win some Yard Goats (!) season tickets by rewriting the lyrics to “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.”
Workshop your version in the comments.