Peanuts and cracker jacks may be a part of Americana due to their inclusion in baseball’s national anthem, but truly, what is the “ideal” ballpark food. No sport is as synonymous with food as baseball, and while football fans (and Brewer fans) may have the tailgate party to latch onto, baseball is a sport designed with eating in mind and may be the reason my mother loves the sport. She is the type of person who samples everything at a carnival, and the sport of baseball is great for those people because it allows nine-innings of unabashed sampling.

However, on a recent trip to St. Paul to watch a minor league game, and watching a friend devour a $7 Gyro, I began to think…”What is THE ballpark food.” The selections have gone a long way in just a couple decades as ballparks offer more, and improve their quality beyond what was previously a slight improvement over rural Montana gas station hot dog quality.

I know what everyone is thinking…it’s the hot dog…but is it really. Think about it, yeah many people gravitate towards the dog, and some have their only wieners when at the park, but with all the other choices, and with people looking for something more filling at the concession stand, is the hot dog still the grand standard?

What about the burger, the hot dogs boisterous and lavish partner? It’s a meal at restaurants…but at the ballpark, burger quality is rarely good as a 16-year old hourly employee makes sure to burn everyone to the consistency of a keyboard so as not to even come remotely close to having any dry meat on the inside.

Brats/Sausages lose out because every region is different, from the “real” Italian sausages of the Northeast, to the bastardized hot dogs Wisconsinites have to settle for (aka: brats) there is too much difference as one of the keys has to be uniformity.

Chicken – same as burgers…usually the cooks ruin it

Beer/Soda – Nah…we all have that at home too often as is.

Then it hit me, could the true ballpark food actually be peanuts? Think about it, for despite Planters best efforts, rarely do any of us have peanuts except at the park and when we get there, we are perfectly happy with having to crack open the shell to get to the meat. It’s the only food product sold that we have to work to eat, and people are more than content doing it.

There is a reason ballparks are littered with shells after every game…peanuts are a great seller and something people feel just a little “naughty” about getting. Whereas the person who always gets the hot dogs feels they must get a dog, peanuts feel as though a “special” treat as its something we never eat at home.

End of discussion…peanuts are the true ballpark food.