A few weeks ago, my wife and I took our children to a work-related event at our city’s minor-league baseball park. The company set up a spread of ballpark fare—hot dogs, hamburgers, potato chips—but we packed a lunch for our son, Graeme, who has severe food allergies.
This should have eliminated our worry, but we watched Graeme like a hawk lest he encounter that ballpark favorite: peanuts. After all, there’s nothing more American than peanuts and Cracker Jack at a ball game; those crunchy shells are always underfoot.
But some ballparks are breaking with tradition. This summer, our minor-league team, the Birmingham Barons, hosted its first ever peanut-free night, and other minor-league parks offered single games or special seating sections where peanuts were banned.
The major-league Minnesota Twins even swept all the peanuts out of their park at least three times this year and four times last season; they also occasionally offer a peanut-free skybox to kids with peanut allergies.
As peanut allergies become more prevalent—approximately three million Americans are allergic to peanuts or tree nuts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—the folks who run public places are taking notice. Minor-league baseball parks, known for their quirky promotions, may be at the forefront of this trend, but expect other places to follow. (Some restaurants already are.)
And it’s good marketing. It doesn’t take much effort to eliminate a dangerous allergen like peanuts for a night or two. Ballparks even earn the grateful patronage of parents like me.
In fact, as the Major League Baseball season winds to a close, we’ll be pulling for the Minnesota Twins to make the play-offs, even though we’re about a thousand miles away from the Metrodome. We may not be classic Twins fans, but we’ll cheer for any and all peanut-free events.
(PHOTO: FLICKR.COM)
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