April 8, 2015

The 10 Grossest Foods You Can Buy at the Ballpark

Buy me some peanuts and…pulled-pork parfait?

<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-2071871/stock-photo-hot-dog-bread-with-a-sausage-and-sauce.html?src=Cjo8J6W9EQcMfsrtvOpW1A-2-32">Vinicius Tupinamba</a>/Shutterstock

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Five months ago, Jon Costa, a food safety manager for Aramark, told ESPN and local media outlets about the dire conditions in the kitchens at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium (home to baseball’s Royals) and Arrowhead Stadium (home to football’s Chiefs). He discovered roaches in the vending area, mouse feces near pizza dough, mold growth in ice machines, and employees eating where food was supposed to be prepared.

KSHB reported that the Kansas City Health Department found critical violations at 20 of Kauffman’s concession stands last November, after Costa came forward following the Royals’ World Series loss. In a letter to ESPN that month, an Aramark official refuted Costa’s allegations, which included expired pizza dough being served during Game 7 of the World Series, as “unsubstantiated claims raised by a disgruntled employee.” Still, Aramark enlisted an external inspector to conduct additional sweeps of concessions and increased training for its staff. (Costa, meanwhile, was fired in March.)

Of course, even the stadium food without bacteria might make you sick—especially those over-the-top pseudo-regional specialties (e.g., pulled pork mac ‘n’ jack sausage) that are often loaded with saturated fat and sugar.

It’s not just Kansas City: A 2010 investigation by ESPN’s Outside the Lines found that, in nearly 30 percent of MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL stadiums and arenas, more than half of the food venues had received citations for a “critical” or “major” health violation. And in the last two years, Arizona State University’s Cronkite News Service reported that health inspectors in Maricopa County, Arizona, discovered “at least one food-safety violation within eight of the nine ballparks that host Cactus League spring training games,” including finding a dead rodent with feces in a vendor’s kitchen at Scottsdale Stadium.

Of course, even the stadium food without bacteria might make you sick—especially those over-the-top pseudo-regional specialties (e.g., pulled pork mac ‘n’ jack sausage) that are often loaded with saturated fat and sugar. Now that baseball season is back in full swing, here are 10 of the most stomach-turning (or, depending on your tastes, delectable) dishes on ballpark menus this year:

Brunch Burger, PNC Park (Pittsburgh Pirates)

Totally Rossome Boomstick, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (Texas Rangers)

 Southwest Pork Mac & Cheese Waffle, Comerica Park (Detroit Tigers)

 Chicken Fried Bacon on a Stick, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (Rangers)

 Custard Donut Sandwich, Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers)

Rocky Mountain Oysters, Coors Field (Colorado Rockies)

Fried Nachos on a Stick, Miller Park (Brewers)

Churro Dog, Chase Field (Arizona Diamondbacks)

Pulled-Pork Parfait, Miller Park (Brewers)

Triple-Triple Wayback Burger, Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies)

And if you want a beer to wash down that grossness, it’ll cost you.

Courtesy Business Insider

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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