When I asked my wife if I could write this blog post, there were some very specific conditions. The first was that I had to clearly identify myself (with great shame) as being a non-vegetarian. The second was that I not advocate the ingestion of animal products. I will do my best. I love my wife very dearly, and I did manage to go meat free for a while several years ago, but I am a weak man. Perhaps someday there will be a 12 step program for people with a bacon dependency… until then, I yam what I yam.
The reason I wanted to post this is that I had a hard time finding consistent information on what I (gluten intolerant non vegetarian) could eat/drink at baseball games this summer at a few of the parks I got to visit. Here is my review:
Citizen’s Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies)
This park is famous not only for being home to the 2008 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies, but also for being the most vegetarian friendly park in all of MLB (according to PETA). Pretty much any ball park will serve you the standard GF fare of cracker jacks and peanuts. But ever since I found out I was gluten intolerant and had to give up the beer, going to ball games has been a little bit sour grapes for me. Well, those days are over! If you’re at a Phillies game in Citizen’s Bank Park, go find the Schmitter stand. You’ll know it when you find it beause, if you are vegetarian, the smell will make you physically recoil. If you are not vegetarian, but are GF, tears will slowly well up in your eyes. Fear not! There is goodness close at hand. The beer stand right next to the Schmitter stand sells Redbridge beer. (Which is gluten free). The line is pretty long, so I’d recommend picking up two.
A short ways down from there is the hotdog stand where they sell GF hotdogs. Now, even if you are a vegetarian, they’ve got GF hotdog buns. So if you were the type to smuggle in a few soy dogs, and forgot the buns, you could score them here. When I stopped by, I asked the kind, elderly woman at the counter for two GF dogs. She looked back and said, “Hon, it’s gowna take like 10 minutes!”. I replied, “Hon, I been waiting 10 years – go make my hotdogs.” She was a very nice woman, and we made small talk while I waited. Totally worth it. For more on the GF options at Citizen’s Bank Park, look here: http://www.mlb.com/phi/ballpark/concessions.jsp. The only catch is, if you bring your Dad, and he’s not GF, he may come back from a lengthy Yuengling run and say “You’ll never believe how incredibly long it took find beer with gluten in it.”
Citi Field (NY Mets)
I spent most of the summer working in NYC and my Dad was kind enough to make the trip up and take me to a few games. The Mets park is new and very well done. It has a great open feel to it. I saw notices about GF beer online, but that was about it. However, when we got off the subway, I sent an email from my phone to the info address on the park site, asking what I could eat. By the end of the 2nd inning, I had a reply. At the Field Level, near the beer garden, they have a stand that sells Redbridge. There was no line this time, but I figured there was probably a line somewhere, so I went with two again. Then, I got in line for Box Frites! Awesome! GF French Fries that come with dipping sauce, most of which were GF. It was great food, at a great park, and did I mention that there was beer?
For more on the Mets Ballpark, click here:
http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/ballpark/guide.jsp#guide_c
NY Yankees
Well, whaddaya gonna do. I haven’t been able to like the Yankees since Arod left the Rangers to join them. But, I’m in NYC and no matter what, they are an awesome thing to watch – plus, it was a chance to spend more time with my Dad watching baseball. So, knowing I was going to be at the game I got busy with the research. I poured over the sites about the new Yankees park. Eventually, I realized that there was literally nothing I could find to confirm whether or not I’d be able to eat. So, I emailed the contact link on the site. I explained to the Yankees that I was gluten free, and that I’d be at their park. I told them how I’d been through their whole site and begged them to tell me if there would be anything I could eat or drink there. A week went by… two weeks. Finally – the NY Yankees responded to my email. They recommended I look at their web site and pointed me to the page I used to contact them when I couldn’t find any info.
So, its cracker jacks if you are going to Yankees. But on the plus side, the do have Redbridge if you look around for it.
I can’t promise it will help, but here is the page on Yankees Stadium
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/nyy/ballpark/index.jsp
Trenton Thunder
Trenton Thunder are a AA ball team for the Yankees. The park is small, but fun. It is a good, relatively inexpensive way to see a game. However, don’t expect to eat or drink anything because even eough I asked about 10 people, none of them knew if they served anything that was GF.
Still, it was a pretty good game… even if it was in Trenton.
For more info, click here:
http://www.trentonthunder.com
