"ballpark" news and stories

The New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys are teaming up to improve your ballpark experience with better food!

The two teams have become partners in a new company: Legends Concessions. According to the chairman, Mike Rawlings (a former Pizza Hut president), baseball fans want quality products more than they want low prices. So get out your credit card.

Still, according to the New York Times:
"'It's the nonsuite holders where we hope to see the biggest jump in satisfaction,' said Mike Rawlings, the Legends chairman, and a former Pizza Hut president, who cited research saying only 31 percent of fans are satisfied with ballpark customer service. He promised faster service, shorter lines and hot food that will stay hot."

Legends Concessions is going to bring us beer, hot dogs, and margaritas, and we have a feeling that it's going to be really, really good. I can't wait to try it at the new Yankees' Stadium!

Oh, and Mike Rawlings? Prepare for a heckuva rant if the food's not worth it. Your friend, Annie

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This week, the Times is a little less pretentious and a little more...well, all-American.

Check out the interactive map of baseball stadiums across the country, and click on those featured for what to order and what to avoid at each.

The map is fun, as are the color photos of dishes at each stadium. But the quality of stadium food is highly debatable, especially if the food carries with it an air of nostalgia and tradition (ie: cheesesteaks in Philly or pizza in Chicago) or, y'know, if you've imbibed a bit too much (because let's be honest: after four beers, you won't care if the nachos are a little stale).

Although, I'll give it to the Times: the Philly cheesesteak shown in the photo was not a home run. Although I'll bet that somewhere out there, there's a diehard Phillies cheesesteak fan.

Perhaps with an eye towards ballpark munchies and the upcoming grilling season, someone asked Yahoo! how hot dogs got their name. They directed the questioner over to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council which has come up with a (semi) definitive answer, since no one really seems to know the exact origin. One thing is clear: it's an American name, even if the sausages themselves were German.

Apparently, the name originated in the 1800s, when a large number of German immigrants began to move to the US. With them, they brought lots of sausages, but they also brought long, thin, dachshund dogs. The similarity in  shape between the two is what probably prompted someone to dub the sausages "hot dogs" and the name stuck. No one person can be attributed to this, but the name was so popular that for many years, when someone said they wanted a "dog," they were inevitably referring to the frankfurter and not to a puppy.

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