Conn. team to ban peanuts from ballpark
Isotopes execs to keep eyes open to see how this plays out
A minor league baseball team in Connecticut has banned one of baseball’s standby concessions from its ballpark.
The Hartford Yard Goats have eliminated peanuts and peanut products, including Cracker Jack, from Dunkin’ Donuts Park, with the hope that fans allergic to the nuts would be able to attend ballgames.
“Eliminating one item allows more kids to enjoy a baseball game,” team president Tim Restall said in a phone interview. “That’s what we’re focused on. We’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do.”
The Yard Goats (Double-A) and Albuquerque Isotopes (Triple-A) are both affiliates of the Colorado Rockies, but they are separately owned.
In a text on Thursday, Isotopes general manager John Traub told the Journal the club is monitoring the news in Hartford and “will be discussing it with our concessionaire, but the demand to create a peanut-free area at Isotopes Park has been almost non-existent. …”
The Isotopes’ concessionaire is Spectra Food
Services and Hospitality. Its president is Ken Young, who also is president of the Isotopes.
Senior vice president of Spectra Jay Satenspiel works with Isotopes Park and dozens of other venues nationwide. The Yard Goats’ action “took me by surprise,” he said. “… To be honest, we hear more about gluten allergies than peanut allergies..”
Hartford’s Restall said he met with two mothers of children with severe food allergies after the 2018 season concluded who wanted to learn more about the 200-some food items for sale at the stadium.
But their primary concern was peanuts. The Yard Goats, the Colorado Rockies’ Class Double-A affiliate, held two peanutfree games in 2018, before which the stadium was thoroughly cleaned in preparation for fans with allergies. The games drew tremendous feedback, said Restall, and the meetings led the team’s executives to contemplate getting rid of peanuts altogether.
“If our decision to eliminate peanuts allows kids with peanut allergies to watch a Yard Goats game like any other kid, then we’ve done our job,” he said.
Satenspiel said he worked a game in Oakland, where the A’s likewise sanitized an entire area in a suite to accommodate a child with a peanut allergy. That has not been done in Albuquerque. But that said, “We want to do the best we can with every fan at the game and be sensitive to anything they might be dealing with.”
While estimates vary, up to 2 percent of American children have peanut allergies, according to advocacy group Food Allergy Research and Education. Peanuts, along with milk, eggs, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish and shellfish, account for 90 percent of foodbased allergic reactions. Those responses can be triggered simply by touching a peanut product.
The Yard Goats have even gone so far as to purge “peanuts and Cracker Jack” from their rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” played during the seventh inning stretch. They’re holding a contest for fans to submit lyrics to replace those words.
Suggestions include, “hot dog and icecold brew,” “Dunkin’ and tasty snacks,” and “hits and home runs.”
To critics upset that the two concession’s in baseball’s anthem are being removed, Restall responds that neither of the writers of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” had attended a baseball game before penning the song.
“We’ve got people that we don’t want things taken away from them. They’re upset that we’re denying them the right to eat a peanut at a ballpark,” Restall said. “And we’d respond that you’re still going to be able to watch a baseball game. You can eat them at home. You can eat them in your car. You just can’t eat them at the ballpark.”
Peanuts and Cracker Jack were among two of the Yard Goats’ more popular snack items, but the team expects fans will simply purchase other snacks. The team might consider banning other foods, Restall said, if simply being in their proximity presented a serious health risk.